Afternoon all,

Hopefully a quick one...

I have taken the opportunity today to do some of the work in preparation for fitting my new springs when then they arrive next week.

I was hoping to remove the struts today, ready for fitting the new spings and installing but at the moment I do not have a spring compressor.

Am I correct in thinking that the springs must be compressed in situ and then once compressed, undo the top mount bolt (just the one bolt) and manoeuvre out?

It's just I cannot see exactly how the top mount unbolts...unless it is just that one bolt that is visible under the cap in the engine bay?...and I am guessing the spring should be compressed before touching that.

I have ran a search on this but and still a tad uncertain, so any help is very much appreciated.

Thanks all...hope you are enjoying the nice weather today.

Stef

The top bolt 21mm, is there to attach the strut to the chassis, so will need to be removed. You will need a cranked 21mm spanner (I struggled to find one in the end, but found one in a tool hire place covered in years of dust!) You do not need to compress the spring the whilst in the car as a second hidden nut holds the top mount and bearing in place aong with the spring...only if you are changing the top mount ONLY and do not want to take the shock out. You will need a tool to prise apart the shock from the pinch on the hub (after removing the pinch bolt of course!). Use a hydraulic jack to slowly lower the shock out of position, it makes it much easier and gives you two hands to remove it. The shock will then come straight out where you can work on it from there. don't forget to remove the wiring for abs sensor and brake pad wear indicator before you start removal and a squirt of WD40 on the hub pinch bolt and area will help too.

You will need a tool to prise apart the shock from the pinch on the hub (after removing the pinch bolt of course!).

I found some socket drive allen-keys worked well here.

The top bolt 21mm, is there to attach the strut to the chassis, so will need to be removed. You will need a cranked 21mm spanner (I struggled to find one in the end, but found one in a tool hire place covered in years of dust!) You do not need to compress the spring the whilst in the car as a second hidden nut holds the top mount and bearing in place aong with the spring...only if you are changing the top mount ONLY and do not want to take the shock out. You will need a tool to prise apart the shock from the pinch on the hub (after removing the pinch bolt of course!). Use a hydraulic jack to slowly lower the shock out of position, it makes it much easier and gives you two hands to remove it. The shock will then come straight out where you can work on it from there. don't forget to remove the wiring for abs sensor and brake pad wear indicator before you start removal and a squirt of WD40 on the hub pinch bolt and area will help too.

Thank you very much for your help. The front suspension has now been removed...I was convinced that the bolt at the top would release the tension on the spring and was really worried about that, so thanks for putting me right.

Just knackered now after getting the struts away from the hubs :(

I found some socket drive allen-keys worked well here.

Yep, that's pretty much exactly what I used too

Just knackered now after getting the struts away from the hubs :(

I had fun on games on a Felicia doing this job..... Took me 2 days to get one side off, and broke one of my titanium drill bits :'( Fortunately doing the Octy was much easier