Replacing Shocks

[MitchB]

I will be replacing the front & rear shocks. I have ordered replacement hardware - nuts, bolts, for everything that has to come apart. I'll also R&R the front shock upper mount. For anyone who has already done this job, do you have any tips? I'm using all OEM stuff.

Mitch

[Fourth Horseman]

I will be replacing the front & rear shocks. I have ordered replacement hardware - nuts, bolts, for everything that has to come apart. I'll also R&R the front shock upper mount. For anyone who has already done this job, do you have any tips? I'm using all OEM stuff.

Mitch

The rears are a piece of cake. The fronts take longer because you have to unhook suspension stuff to get the coil-over assembly out and then use spring compressors to take them apart. None of it is hard, just takes some time.

[liquid]

I would maybe replace the rubber pucks that attach to the top mount, but why replace the mount?

Make sure you have the lower bushing correctly oriented to the upper mount when you put the module back together. This can be accomplished with a paint mark on the OEM mount... and if you're really set on replacing the mount, just transfer the paint mark to the OES mount.

[Green96]

Unless you have a bagillion miles there should not be anything wrong with the upper mounts. They do not have bearings for rotation like stuts on FWD cars, so nothing to really go wrong.

[Black_Noise]

how many miles do you have mitch?

[MitchB]

~50K miles, but mostly city driving on crap roads. The main question I have for those who have done this is this: was force required to separate the upper control arm from the knuckle - was a balljoint separator needed or did this come apart by hand?

Mitch

[Green96]

I did the rears myself (easy), but had a local shop take care of the fronts. The balljoint issues, and the lack of a good spring compressor scared me out of trying it.