changing out the struts on my car tomorrow. I already have the old struts off and am ready to go back with the new. Im my manual it says to put the load on the suspension before fully tightening the lower bolts. Do I have to do this? I cant see where it makes a difference since the adjustment is in the top cap. It would be a while before I could load the suspension anyways the motor is out of the car. What I would like to do is tighten the lower bolts and slowly let the front of the car down while a couple of people guide the struts into the upper mounts


Also I have seen numerous torque specs for the lower bolts when I search on thirdgen. 195 lbs? I used a 1/2 inch gun on the lowest setting at 120 psi to take the bolts loose. They didnt seem that tight. These were the original struts from the factory

 

i hardly see how u could get to the bolts with the front arms loaded all the way... i tighten my down as hard as i could with no load on the front arms at all. seemed to work fine for me.

 

Thanks for the reply

did you torque the bolts or just zap them with a gun. I noticed the bolts go through the back side so a torque wrench cannot be used unless the hub is pulled off. Im sure torque is not the same if I turn the bolt and hold the nut?

 

hands tools, no air tools over here....

AHAIC= as hard as i could

 

You can't really load the suspension to tighten those bolts anyway. Just install the struts and tighten them down. the spec I know of is 203 ft-lbs on those, but @ 200# is enough. The only bolts you need to tighten when the car is loaded are the bolts for the control arms, front and rear.


Ed

 

If your jack stands are under the A arms wouldn't that be considered loaded? or as close as you could get.

 

they say that because you need the weight of the car on the a arm so the spring doesnt fly out and kill you.

you NEED to support the a arm while doing this, or have a spring compressor on.... unless you have aftermarket coil overs