I Decided To Change My Springs And Shocks At Home

[Abo Bob]

Well I've had these Bilsteins sitting around for ages so since my car has no engine I thought I'd have a go at putting them in.

First get the car off the ground.

Take the wheels off. This is probably not essential but I think makes it easier.

Undo the bolt holding the brake line to the strut and the nut holding the bottom eye of the shockie as circled.

[Abo Bob]

Undo the bolts on top of the strut.

[Abo Bob]

A bit of gentle levering gets the bottom eye of the stud/bolt thingie that it's on and the whole thing drops out easy as a slightly wet poo.

To fit the new one, make sure you have the right one because they only go on one side and make sure you get it facing the right way because they only go in one direction. There is a little arrow on the top of the strut.

Slip it up and put the top nuts on loosly just to hold it there.

[Abo Bob]

Then you can either lever the shock up onto the stud like in the pic. or put some weight on the brake assembly to push it down. It's a bit hard to put the weight on an manouvre the strut by yourself so that's why I used a lever.

Anyway, after that you redo the bolt holding the brake line onto the shock and the nut holding the shock on and the two on the top of the strut.

[predator]

shouldn't this be in the tutorials / FAQ section?

[wrxhoon]

The rear ones will test you Adam ( you will have to remove the rear seat and ) but i'm sure you can do them , give me a buz if you get stuck . Is the donk finished yet ?

[MANWHOR3]

It's not too bad mate. Even i've done em. Yeah, you have to take the wheel off, otherwise it just makes it a pain.

Make sure that you do the bolts up tight enough (mainly the bottom one). One of my friend's had the shock come off. Not much fun.

[Abo Bob]

I'll do the rears next weekend and add them to the thread. Maybe then it could be moved to the tutorials section.

The engine is halfway built Mr Hoon

I wanted to post a pic of the old shockie to ask people about it. The bit that slides in and out is normally shiny chrome like but this one is black. The other one was normal looking.

Why is that?

[Beer Baron]

most probably it has done a seal and the piston has been coated in the shock oil. does the shock still seem ok? does the black stuff wipe off? if it doesn't then you've got me stumped.

[MANWHOR3]

yes, the bit that moves in and out is called the shaft. It is normally chromed. If it's black, that means the shaft is scored.

most likely caused by the shock having died and all the oil leaked out

[MANWHOR3]

hahaha, Beeer Barron posted while I was posting. Yeah, if it comes off, then it is shock oil (the oil is black)

or if the chrome looks like it's been sanded off, it's scored. besides, the stockos aren't worth anything anyways, so don't worry about it

Edited November 28, 2005 by MANWHOR3

[JAS-25T]

it could be a black finished steel used for the rod.....

thats if the other two above mentioned options dont exist

[Abo Bob]

Nah the other one is chrome like. It doesn't wipe off either. I do know that that is the side that hits the bump stop on the track sometimes. Never the other side. Also there is evidence of it leaking.

Oh well, 95000 and bilsteins going in so who cares really. I was just curious.

[Abo Bob]

Well I've done the rears now (pics to follow as I've left them in the camera) and I'm a little worried.

They were almost as easy to do. You have to remove the back seat and rear parcel tray to get to the top mounting bolts. Also I needed a second person to put some weight on the disc/hub so as to get the bottom part of the shock off and clear.

The bit that worries me is the height. The car was already off the ground when I started so I couldn't measure height.

With the front strust assembly when I took off the top cap bit the spring expanded a few inches past where it was compressed to but the new springs that came with the bilsteins the spring's uncompressed height was the same as when the cap was bolted on. Overall both the bilsteins with new springs (which I would have assumed to be lower than stock and matched to the bilsteins) and the stock shock and springs were the same height when out of the car side by side. The bilsteins may have been up to a cm shorter as I didn't measure them properly.

On the rears I put the bilsteins with springs and the stockers put side by side on the ground and the bilsteins are at least an inch shorter.

Now either the fact that the bilsteins came from a 2 door and my car is a 4 door has just come in to play or this is normal or something else.

Please advise me peoples.

[Duncan]

Dunno.

But i do know putting the lower shock bolt back in is heaps easier if you put a jack under the brake disc to get it to the right height.

[Sydneykid]

Well I've done the rears now (pics to follow as I've left them in the camera) and I'm a little worried.

They were almost as easy to do.  You have to remove the back seat and rear parcel tray to get to the top mounting bolts.  Also I needed a second person to put some weight on the disc/hub so as to get the bottom part of the shock off and clear.

The bit that worries me is the height.  The car was already off the ground when I started so I couldn't measure height.

With the front strust assembly when I took off the top cap bit the spring expanded a few inches past where it was compressed to but the new springs that came with the bilsteins the spring's uncompressed height was the same as when the cap was bolted on.  Overall both the bilsteins with new springs (which I would have assumed to be lower than stock and matched to the bilsteins) and the stock shock and springs were the same height when out of the car side by side.  The bilsteins may have been up to a cm shorter as I didn't measure them properly.

On the rears I put the bilsteins with springs and the stockers put side by side on the ground and the bilsteins are at least an inch shorter.

Now either the fact that the bilsteins came from a 2 door and my car is a 4 door has just come in to play or this is normal or something else.

Please advise me peoples.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Free height is not an indicator of installed height.

There is no difference between 2 door and 4 door springs.

Lowered rear springs usually have progressive windings which collapse (sit on top of one another) as soon as the weight of the car is placed on them. That is how they remain trapped at full droop (legal requirement), but still result in a lower ride height.

Post up some pictures of the rear springs and I can most likely tell you how much progression there is from the free height coil gaps.

cheers

[Neil]

But i do know putting the lower shock bolt back in is heaps easier if you put a jack under the brake disc to get it to the right height.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Duncan,,,If I ever catch you with a jack under a brake disc your gonna look pretty funny walking around with your torque wrench up ya bum.

Neil.

[Abo Bob]

Well I actually had to push the brakes etc down rather than up to get it to fit.

Here are some pics of the top of the strut with the seat out as well as the bottom. It's not a stud arrangement on the bottom, you take the bolt out from through the eyes. I had to use a breaker bar to get the nuts of as they were bloody hard to move.

[Abo Bob]

As you can see from the first pic here I broke a bit off the parcel tray.

When you pull it out you need to push down a little in the corners near the glass so you don't break the little bit like I did. It doesn't really make any difference now as you can't tell I broke it but still.

Sydneykid - the second pic is of the 2 struts side by side. As you can see the bilstein has the spring mounted lower on the shock body than the stock one but that's not where all of the difference in height is coming from.

[Sydneykid]

This is a picture of a Whiteline rear spring installed in an R34GTT. Bit hard to tell from the angle but the top 2 coils are closer together than the other 5 coils. This ensure that the spring is trapped at full droop (as in the picture). Once the weight of the car is applied those 2 top coils collapse, sit on top of each other and the suspension movement (eg; compression over bumps) is then taken up by the remaining coils.

I will be very interested in how you find the handling and ride with your design of rear coil spring.

Cheers

Edited December 6, 2005 by Sydneykid