Im in the process of changing the front struts...but not having very good luck. I have the jack under the spring perch in the lower control arm....I also have a big concrete block under the Aarm near the ball joint, but not touching. I cant seem to get the top piston nut loose....I sprayed some WD40 on it..and its been soaking, but no luck still. Also, it says on the instructions that I dont need to compress the spring. Is this correct??? And how hard is it to get the bottom bolts loose? Do I need to remove the caliper/rotor/shield???? The struts have been replaced before(big Monroe Sensatrac sticker on them), but I cant figure them out. I know after I get the piston nut loose, I can see if there is a load on it by taking a screwdriver and prying up slightly, right? It says in the directions to do this, and see if the rod moves "easily" about 1/8in. Any other tricks to making this easier???? Any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance

 

well first i jacked the car by the center of the k-member then i just left it their holding the car up, after that i put a jackstands under the front subframe where the tranny crossmember hooks up to (around that area). i already had both wheels off.

i took off the calipers, then took off the rotor and then the heat shield, after that you can get to the two bottom bolts real easy.

they should be 24mm for the nuts and bolts. the top nut i think was 21mm and i used a pair of vice grips to hold the shaft from moving.. i used pb blaster to lossen up the nuts alittle.

i also had another smaller jack keeping just alittle pressure on the a-arm, this is before i started touching the bolts on the sturts.

 

I just replaced my struts last Saturday. Keep in mind that I also replaced my strut mounts, so that made it a bit easier to remove and install the struts. If you're going to get your front-end re-aligned anyway, it might be worth it to loosen the mounts if it would save some time and trouble. Some tips:

-I did not find it necessary to take off the rotor or caliper, I used a stubby wrench for the bottom two nuts and turned the steering so that I could get a 1/2" ratchet and extension on the bolt heads. It might be a good idea to put a bottle jack or equivalent under the rotor to hold it in place, but it's not necessary (I didn't).

-I put a jack under the spring to make sure it didn't cause any trouble, I'm not sure if it made much difference (but I didn't want to find out the hard way).

-Make sure you keep the piston still while you turn the nut on top as mentioned above.

-I didn't have any problem pulling the strut out with the rotor attached to the control arm and the strut uncompressed (strut mounts removed).

-If your new struts have something on them to keep them compressed while shipping, don't remove it unless you have to until you get the bottom two bolts on. It's a real PITA trying to compress the strut and line up the bolt holes.

That's all I can think of. Hope this helps.

 

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