i was wondering what it takes to install springs and struts yourself..i looked through housecor's write up and it seems pretty simple, but at the same time i talked to my cousin and he said that its really difficult to compress the front springs without a special machine.

i'm not sure if im going to install it myself yet, but just for reference about how much would it run me to get it professionaly done?

any tips or suggestions would be great about the whole process

 

DIY, get a spring compressor... you can borrow it at an auto parts store for refundable deposit...

 

Werd. The spring compressor is real easy to use. Save the money and buy something else for your car.

 

hmm i might just do that, do they rent out jacks too?

 

I sat and watched a guy do mine and realized what a waste of money it was. Man it is easy, go to autosone and rent the spring compressor and it shouldnt be too hard. The only tricky parts are if the bolts are rusted(happened to me and gave the guy a little problem) and if the struts arent designed for your applicattion

 

yea im going to do it myself, and i just found a coil spring compressor laying around in the garage..but its an internal coil spring compressor..so i dont know if thats the right one, it looks like this

 

The compressor in your picture is used to compress springs with an external shock. Here is the spring compressor that you can borrow from Autozone.

 

why do you need to compress the stock springs for if you're going to replace the springs and struts anyway?

thanks

 

if you dont know anything about it, go to a shop and have them install them. a lot safer and quicker. the clam shell compressors i hear are dangerous, every mechanic I talked to said that they would NEVER use one.

trust me it is well worth it to have someone who knows what they are doing install them.

 

they are under pressure and if you release them with out having them held by the compressor they can be quite dangerous.

 

I agree... but don't let em fool ya into thinking this is a tough job. With the proper equipment, they should be able to do it in no more than 2 hours for all 4 struts. Any quote over $150-$200 is too high, IMO. If ya can't find a reasonable place to do it, just post a help thread in your local .Org forums and get some people together to help ya. We do it around here sometimes... in fact, we're having a "lowering day" in less than 2 weeks for this exact purpose. Maybe you should drive down for that.

 

i couldnt rent one since my town is ghetto. but i found a cheap one from ebay,
you can use it to take them off afterwards, or let your friends use it, but i bought it since the spring install is pretty easy to do. and didnt feel like paying some one.
heres one.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=43998
ive used these kind of compressor before, it helps alot of you have air tools, but these should work with no problem. and if you do DIY, have some one help you, it will be alot faster. just follow the directions, if you know how to build car models, you can def do this with some time and patience. i remember my first time doing springs, it took me about 2 days. (4 hr a day) by myself. good luck man!

 

they are actually very dangerous.

BUT, in saying that, if you're buying new struts and springs, it is easier to assemble them beforehand (you would need new strut hats and bumpstops too), and using a spring compressor of course, so you can just swap out the entire assembly w/o taking the stock struts/springs apart.

 

I've done it before but I didn't feel like doing it on the 02. I got some shop to do it for $120. All 4 springs and struts. I had absolutely no qualms about that price. And it was a mostly Honda shop!

 

That's a great deal... about what I paid to get mine done.

 

thanks guys..ill be installing everything myself this wednesday..hopefully all goes well..ill post pics later next week

 

hey if u do it urself make sure u get the front struts in "phase" otherwise every time u turn u will hear a scrapping noise--its not hard though it took me about 1.5 hours to do all 4 of mine

depends on where you go--depending on how much they cahrge an hour(i think the job pays like 4 hours for all 4) where I work they charge 105 an hour
(420) we dont have a special machine just a bigger spring compressor(one piece machine) than the one in the pics in this post

 

Good point. If he's replacing everything, he won't even need to worry about taking the old set apart, but he will need to compress the springs when assembling the new parts.

 

Man i wish i can get some people to lower my car in boston. Ill even pay them a good amount of money.

Also i have a question, can we put aftermarket springs (maxspeeds, H-techs, h&rs) into stock struts and just run it like that? Is it dangerous or can you do it?

 

I need to replace the strut mount on my right front strut, because one of the bolts is stripped,
What was the site for the rightup to remove the strut properly.

What else should I replace while I take it apart? the stock boot has about 58000 miles on it and looks like its got no holes.

 

Also anyone know what I should use to grind of a bolt because its stripped and the nut is frozen and it just spings topside when trying to loosen.

 

Bought Mine $12.00 Harbor Freight Worked Fine The Whole Job Took Me Me About 2.5 Hours

 

They will work, but how long the struts last will depend on the condition that the struts were in. Lowering springs with subtle drops, like the Maxspeeds and H&Rs seem to be okay with stock struts, people have done it (heck, Polak has S-techs on stock struts and he's still fine), but ya will be putting much more wear on the struts.

 

There are 3 write-ups in the How-To thread, in the Stickies...

 

Use a Dremel to cut it off...

 

thanks puppet, i knew i can count on you to answer my questions now.

 

You may want to get someone to help you out. I was lucky enough and was able to use my Dad's air tools. The DIY is alot more fun and satisfying than taking it to a shop to get done. Just follow all the steps that Cory spells out on the housecor site and you will be just fine. Good luck and don't forget to take pics for the after.

 

Anything else I should replace because it might be worn down when I replace the strut mount. I looking for parts and waiting for my mounts to come in, so might as well order everthing and do it 1 time.

 

all i have to say is make sure you get the springs on correctly cuz if not the bearing in the shock will get jacked...personal experience and it sucked. i had to bolt cut off my strut because the nut wouldn't come loose

 

How do you know if its in the right place? is there any manuals?