Spent a whole afternoon on the front corner and it still aint done, EVERYTHING rusted and a pain to undo and spring compressers slipping....ARGH! frickin dampers so tight to get out of the hub. I could rant all night. Im fitting koni dampers and eibach springs....hope its worth the bloody knuckles for 25mm. Any helpfull tips before i head out to get oilly again?! Cheers in advance!

Are you taking the old struts out you mean from the clamps?

I did a coilover install last week and it was a mare but can offer tips/pointers?

Yup. The old struts are heavily corroded into the clamps. Got the clamp bolt un-done but such a nightmare to get the strut out of the clamp. Had to compress the springs over and over to get the strut off which it eventually did. Putting the new damper back together wasn't as painful as removal but still such a PITA compared to coilovers. And now having to replace the track rod end too - nightmare. So frustrating.

I took me 10 hours but had not done it before, i agree it was a ****** of a job.

The nuts will likely rust on the track rods end so get them off best you can and cut them off and just pop the bottom out.

Use plenty of WD40 and make sure the strut bottoms on sit almost flush with the bottom clamps ie line them up.

Its a bugger of a job i fitted coilovers tough.

Yea the anglegrinders had an outing today. Lucky iv got eurocar parts 5 mins away for two new trackrod ends! Also GT85 has been my best friend......smells nicer than WD40! haha!

I think there is two ways to do this job…i had massive problems when changing my dampers…tryed the compress the spring with damper still on the car method and found i didnt have compressors that compressed enough….in the end realised that the easiest way to do the job was to undo the driveshaft nut and take the whole hub assembly and damper off together and split them off the car… also makes it a lot easier to remove the damper if you have a spreading tool for damper clamp, they can be bought online but its obviously too late for that if your planning on doing it tomoro….if you try the removing with hub method try and hit a chisel between the gap behind the damper and it should come out easier

How did you get on in the end Pete?

You need a hub spreader. It's in the suspension guide iirc and most certainly in the tool list.

Put the spreader in the back of the hub, turn 90 degrees and damper pulls out the hub.

Half sorted. Passenger side much easier than drivers due to the driveshaft being able to drop down lower. Decent spring compressers are a must. Iv got the rears to do during the week but they look nice and easy. Front looks much better slighty lower ill be interested to see how it drives! Thanks for advice guys.my hub spreader was a 1" stone chistle tapped in from the underneath:) im a tight yorkshireman!

It's the little tools that will kill your workflow in the long run, hub spreader tool would definitely have been a wise investment.

I did as someone has already mentioned, unscrewed the drive shaft but and removed the whole assembly. Much easier this way as you do all the tricky bits off the car.

Took about 3 hours for two of us to do coilovers all round, and front pairs of bushes

Its all done now, well happy with the ride and handling. Not bumpy like i was worried about. I wouldnt mind being a touch lower but on the whole im impressed. Rarb next....

You need a hub spreader. It's in the suspension guide iirc and most certainly in the tool list.

Put the spreader in the back of the hub, turn 90 degrees and damper pulls out the hub.

Some lube and a hammer does the trick, Only took me 2 hours to fit coilovers front and rear

Its all done now, well happy with the ride and handling. Not bumpy like i was worried about. I wouldnt mind being a touch lower but on the whole im impressed. Rarb next....

As I said Pete It was a very good setup, its just a shame it didn't make the car low enough.

Deffo get the rarb and maybe strut brace up front?

Took me 7 hours on ma tod at side of road, because i didnt have a hub spreader! and after 200k of original suspension being on it wasnt happy about being disturbed. Still a day off cost me nothing but putting it to a garage certainly would have