I drive a 4th gen but I just picked up a 5th gen for my wife she is really into modding this thing and I am trying to drop her car but I ran into a problem, the rears are really hard to get to and I don’t see how to get all the blots out of the black housing around the bolts I can get the innermost nut off but the other one is kicking my but I have tried many uber set ups with my sockets but I am starting to lose faith ,what can you tell me about getting the back shocks off the outer bolts are really long and I don’t know if my deep drive sockets are deep enough any help here would be really great.

 

I can help if need be; I work in Dallas.

 

Get an 11" ratchet extension for the rear upper strut mounts, then just stick it down through the opening at the top of the black housing surrounding the strut mounts and loosen them that way.

 

Naw. Take off the black metal bracket period. You take off the plastic trim behind the rear seats and start unbolting. The whole POS comes out. After that, you have easy access to all the bolts.

 

so just take out the back seat and i can unbolt it ?

 

yea take out the backseat then you have the metal bracket that connects the backseat to the frame of the car once the metal bracket is out its easy as pie

 

I've done suspension on 3 of these cars and have never had to take off the metal shroud. Even Housecor's write-up does it without doing that, but I think he uses a universal joint instead of an extension.

Just takes one of these:



I just don't understand why taking off the metal shroud is easier....

 

Do you guys do the same thing when you need to adjust your rear strut settings too?

 

+1 for extension. i have had to take it apart 3 times in the last year, and the first time we loosened the bracket. got smarter the second and third times and used a 10" extension. way easier. you may want to use a magnetic socket, or a small magnet to hold the nut when taking it off/on. its a pita to find if it drops down in those crevises.

 

+1...
To the Puppetmaster listen you shall, young jedi.

 

Yea I jammed myself in the trunk and used an extender and then had one of those extendable magnet tools to pick up the bolts I dropped. I still wasn't getting a good grip on the nuts and they kept on dropping so I put a piece of paper towel in the socket and undid the bolt and the bolt stayed in the socket.

 

ye its a pain but very doable, infact after the 3rd time i barely cut my hands on that stupid metal plate. extension is a must

 

I took off my rears this weekend so I thought I'd provide a pic for you doubters... I believe that was an 8" extension that I used with a 14mm deep socket.

 

Been there, done that. The metal bracket is a PITA. Use an extension.

Oh, and I'll be installing D2's this weekend... using the extension method, of course!

 

Once you get the nut off, wrap it in a piece of electrical tape, it will fit very snug in the socket and make it a lot easier to put back in.