Changing suspension (with pics)

[colm_mcm]

Last weekend I decided to change over my suspension, I had a set of Apex springs taking up space, so I thought I may as well fit them, I was taking off a set of DCuatro lowering springs, which I will miss for their comfort, although the Apex aren't bad.

Firstly, I'll go through what tools I needed:
Vice Grip
Selection of sockets and spanners, mainly 21mm, 17mm and 14mm.
Axle stand
Jack
Allen keys.
Hammer
WD40

The first job was to remove the strut brace, I removed the centre bar first, using a 17mm spanner and allen key


Next, I loosened the centre nut in both of the front suspensions (17mm again)

Loosened the wheel nuts a little while the wheels were still on the ground.

Jacked up the front of the car and sat it on axle stands.

Removed the front wheel

Sprayed the droplink and bolts on bottom of the suspension strut with WD40

Removing the droplinks

Type 1, allen key & spanner

once WD40 has soaked in, hold the threaded section still with the allen key, and turn the nut counter-clockwise to remove the droplink. supporting and adjusting the wishbone with a jack will make your life easier.

Type 2, 2 spanners

Using as thick a spanner as possible, hold the threaded section in place using a 14mm spanner near the joint, use another 14mm spanner to remove the nut and then the droplink.


Removing the suspension unit

With the wishbone supported underneath by the jack, I then removed the 2 nuts and bolts that attach the suspension and hub assemblies. straightforward enough.

detached the 2 assemblies taking care not to damage the brake hoses.

Then it was a matter of unbolting the 3 nuts under the bonnet and dropping the unit out.

[colm_mcm]

As I had already loosened the centre nut slightly when the car was on the ground, this would make things easy enough.
Obviously if I opened the centre nut, the force from the spring would cause an accident

That's where spring compressors come in.

These hook around the spring and by turning the nut on the threaded bar, it pulls the spring together. it is then safe to remove the centre nut at the top of the stock/spring.


I marked the position of the top half of the spring unit in relation to the bottom half, to speed up re-assembly.
once the spring is compressed, the top nut is removed, and the new spring can be fitted.



When re-assembling the new spring assembly, I lined up the top and bottom halves using the marks I had made on the unit earlier. there are also drilled holes that help with this.


Refitting the unit was easy enough. I bolted the top 3 bolts first, then re-attached the droplink, using the jack to support the wishbone and adjust up/down. next the 2 nuts/bolts at the bottom of the shock unit, re-attach the wheel, take car off axle stands, tighten wheel nuts and you're done.

[colm_mcm]

Next it was time to do the rear suspension. I thought this would be far easier than the front. I was right

As before, I loosened wheelnuts, put car on axle stands, and removed rear wheel.

Next, I sprayed WD40 on the bolts that hold the bottom of the shock absorber to the suspension arm. these were pretty rusted and I had to use an impact gun to loosen them.

Next job was to get the spring/shock unit down. because space is tight, I had to compress the springs while the units were on the car, to aid removal.


Once the spring was sufficently compressed, I loosened the top 2 nuts from inside the boot but didn't remove them, this allows the strut to move around a little without falling down.

I applied downward pressure on the rear hub and popped the shock arm out from the suspension arm and removed the spring unit.

Same craic again, remove centre bolt, swap springs, re-assemble suspension unit and re-attach centre bolt.

I left the spring compressors on the spring, I then fed the bottom end of the shock through the suspension arm, re-attached the 2 top bolts from inside the boot. then putting downward pressure on the hub, re-attached the shock absorber bolt on the suspension arm, and Bob's your uncle, you're done!

[Sebastian]

knowledge forum worthy

I'm surprised you manage it by yourself

[998cc-keith]

he didn't he stood there with camara while someone else changed

[colm_mcm]

trust me, I did it all by my self, and have the grazed knuckles to prove it!

[Sebastian]

he didn't he stood there with camara while someone else changed

oh i get it now.

how much did you pay yer man colm to do the job?

[gary d]

Good detailed guide Clom, I'm gonna be changing my springs next week, so should come in handy.
I have the swapped the springs on a few of my cars before, that drop of 40 or 50mm can make all the difference to the look and feel of a car. Are you pleased with the looks and handling the apex springs give, as these are the ones I will be fitting?

[CJ]

Great guide Colm, off to the KB.

CJ

[Dragonheart]

Excellent guide Colm, was always wondering how hard it was to go about changing springs. Good job.

[jayod12b]

Nice job colm well done!

Going at this myself in the next while,
Have you any pictures of before and after with the springs in the car?

[colm_mcm]

springs not settled properly, but the front is lower. will get pics up soon.

[gary d]

Any sign of those pics yet, bustin to see what she looks like. hope to get my own fitted on monday if I can find the time.

[colm_mcm]

They should be settled by now, here's one I took earlier. I've also changed the tyre size to 215/45 from 215/40, so they fill the arches a lot better.
BEFORE

AFTER



BEFORE



AFTER

[gary d]

looks tight

[colm_mcm]

To be fair, it's hard to tell the difference in the pics. looks great in the flesh though!

[TopCat]

Its hard to tell from the first pics, but the second two show it better. Looked a bit before like there was something heavy in the boot if you ask me. Looks spot on now though, nicely balanced.

[colm_mcm]

Those DCuatro springs are supposed to look like that, The upside of them is that they were more comfortable than the Apex springs. the bigger tyres has helped this a bit.

[gary d]

If it's comfort your after Colm buy a Volvo. lol. I reckon the Apex give the car a better stance. I take it the Dcutaro springs lowered the car equally front to rear asopposed to the Apex 45mm front 25mm rear. standard Fto looks lower at rear than front which is exaggerated by spacious arches, never quite understood why Mitsubishi didn't fit 17's as standard more than ample room in the arches.

[CJ]

Colm - did you cut the bumpstops prior to fitting the lowering springs? Many aftermarket spring manufacturers recommend cutting about an inch off the front and rear bumpstops to avoid bottoming out on rough roads and dips. I had to do this with the Teins on the RX-8. Theres Expelir springs on the GX and I find them harsh with a tendency to bottom out. I've a feeling the bump stops weren't cut accordingly (Espelir recommend replacing the bumpstops with shorter ones - cutting the stock ones will achieve the same result).

CJ

[colm_mcm]

Mine already had lowering springs on it. I didn't cut the bumpstops. I have a sub and amp in the boot and never had any issues with bottoming out.
I haven't heard of anyone having problems like this.

[Muad_dib77]

Can I just add that one shouldn't under estimate how long it can take to loosen stuck bolts!

Also a tip..the front shocks are both attached at the bottom with two nut-boltey things. These are Size 17..When stuck it's difficult to get proper leverage to get them off...but if you have one of those cross wheel-keys at hand one of the end should be a 17..so stick a fixed socket key on the boltend pointing towards the back of the car... seat the cross ket good and proper..hold on to the top of the +key..place a foot on the bottom..push and pull at the same time..

worked for me..

started at 11.30ish..finished 2nd front unit at 6.40... am fecked. Oh I did replace my brake hoses while I was there anyways, but that's a doodle at 10mins per side..

[paul2508]

must say ,great guide, im just curious , is this similar to fitting coilovers ,would it be roughly the same guide??

[Muad_dib77]

must say ,great guide, im just curious , is this similar to fitting coilovers ,would it be roughly the same guide??

Kinda-sorta yes..but then no..

As the springs are already mounted on the shock unit fitting coilovers should be even less hassle..