Swapping Stock Suspension To Coilovers

[dan.1337]

Just wondering how easy or difficult it is to change the suspension from stock to coilovers at home.

Is it safe? Would I need any special tools?

Obviously I'll need a realignment afterwards.

[sh@un]

it's much easier with a hoist

but you could do it at home with normal tools/jack stands

[salad]

Rear is 2x 12mm nuts for the strut top and 1x 17mm nut on the upright, front is 2x 14mm nuts on the strut top and 1x 19mm nut on the upright (per strut of course). The nuts on the uprights are quite tight, so a breaker bar is handy, strut top nuts can just be done with a ratchet or normal spanner. So nothing special.

If the stud on the hub doesn't want to line up with eye of the new coilover, jack the LCA up till it does line up.

Just make sure you use jackstands and everything is safe

Edited July 10, 2007 by salad

[Ronin 09]

if you can't line up the new mount, you can jack it like salad has mentioned, or it could be because you've only jacked one side of the car up an the swaybar is pushing the side you're working on down...

it's easiest to jack from the front crossmember or rear diff and work on both sides at the same time so the swaybar is in a neutral 'hang' position

[dan.1337]

Awesome. It doesn't sound or look too hard, but is there anything i should look out for? Like springs shooting out at me and carving a hole thru my stomach. Or maybe that was another story i read...

[Ronin 09]

get some good jack stands and spring compressors if you're changing strut tops as well.

and allow a lot of time if you're doing it for the first time!

[salad]

If you're just taking the stock suspension out and putting coilovers in, you shouldn't have to pull struts apart and then wont have to worry about wayward springs

[Equinox]

Did it on an R32 with a mate the other day, only took about an hour to do all four sides.

Just get a good breaker bar.