Guys,
I am planning to replace the front and rear suspension on a Lancer 2002 ES (about the same setup for OZ, LS), would it be useful to take pictures and make a quick guide ?
Cheers,
Loïc

 

Who says nothing gives his consent ...

Start jacking up and securing the car with stands


Locate the two 17 mm nut/bolt holding the bottom of the strut and connecitng the lower arm to the trailing arm. Brushing the thread and spraying PB blaster will help


Once nuts are loosened, remove the bolts. If not rusted, the bolts come off easy. If rusted try hammering. If heavily rusted you might be screwed... (it happened on the rear right which I wasn't able to change it yet...). Well not completely screwed as I read, but you will need a torch or very good impact tool. I tried with a 25" breaker bar, the bolt moved only a little back and forth. With dewalt corded impact tool (dw292) I could make it spin a little but I am not sure if the bolt alone spins or if the sleeve from the strut moves with it (they seem stuck together...).

Anyway, here is the next step unfastening the top mount bolts located in your trunk and loosen the 14 mm nuts


Then simply push the lower arm down and take the assembly out. Voilà ! - admirable rust... ohio ohio ...


Here is the assembly


Compress the spring with spring compressor tools loaned at most auto parts shop. This is essential for the front struts, not completely necessary for the rear but I did it anyway


Once the spring is compressed, take the 17 mm top nut off. I loosened it with the impact tool then remove it using a 60 degree open wrench and a plier to hold the piston in place. Here are the parts laid down in order, useful to print in your mind when you put back the new parts with the spring and top mount. Don't forget to reuse the strut rubber seat (visible on the strut base)


Finally put the parts back together, tighten the top nut and remove the spring compressors


Finally put the assembly back on, 14mm top nuts first, bolt holding the strut bottom to the lower arm, and bolt connecting the lower and trailing arms. Do not tighten to the torque while the car is lifted, final torquing has to be done on the ground !

FYI, if you break at bolt/nut, these are M12 x 1.25, 80 mm long.

Front struts to follow when I receive the bearings next week...! Given I changed the front bearings on this car, the front struts will come off easy, piece of cake !!

 

Thats a nice write up thanks

 

Thanks

 

Guys,

The bolt connecting the lower arm and the trailing arm is stuck, the bolt connecting the strut and the lower arm is also stuck (fused to the sleeve).

The bolt connecting the upper arm to the trailing arm can be removed. I could probably remove the bolt attaching the control arm and trailing arms.

If I cut the lower bolt of the strut, detach the top two nuts of the strut assembly, do you think there would be enough room if I disconnect the upper and control arms and apply pressure downward to get the whole strut unit out?

Schematics here:

 

yeah that happened to me. Even the torch didn't help. Had to cut them off with a saw. I even bent the control arm a little bit. Not fun at all.

 

Hi man,
I am 'glad' to read that I am not the only one
The bolt spins with the metallic sleeve inside the rubber of the strut so an impact is useless. I thought about a bolt extraction tool, something like an outer tie rod end extraction tool... Will try to find one.
Yesterday I disconnected the upper arm, that gives a little more freedom. I tried to disconnect the control link from the trailing arm but the sucker would not move (breaker bar of 25", lots of weight on it... is supposed to be 90 N.m....)

Pushing down the whole thing the strut comes off quite a bit from the top. If I cut the lower bolt holding the strut I will gain more but will it be enough... that's a one time try and if that fails, you are screwed... I plan to use a steel tube to lever down the lower arm down. My other fear is to break a bushing in some other place (control link, lower arm or trailing arm bushing at chassis connection), and then the cure would become worse than the disease...

Could you explain me a bit more specifically which bolt you cut and how you proceeded?

Cheers,
Loïc

PS: Here are the stuck bolts, the nuts can be removed but the bolts won't come off, fused to the sleeves...

 

Slacken but do not remove the nut and try to hammer the bolts out. Failing that get new bolts, use a cut off wheel or similar to remove the bolt head and the exposed thread part where the nut goes on and work from there.

I am looking to change my shocks next year and dreading issues like this.

Good luck man and let us know how it works out for you.

 

I just hit the ends of the bolts with a mallet or sledge after I removed the nut.

 

thats a nice write up bro. sawulkn showed me how to change out the struts/shocks before he moved back to the east coast. def bookmarkin this.. that is alot of rust lol. mine was no where as rusted as urs....

the rears i shot with pblaster and hit it with a reg house happer to pop the bolt off, worked just fine..

 

Thanks for the suggestions

i tried pb blaster (lots of, in several occasions...), I hit both bolts with a hammer pretty hard, the end is flattened and much wider now, still the bolts won' t move.
I tried something friday: disconnect upper arm, disconnect strut mount top bolts, then apply a 72" tube on the lower arm, held under the chassis. with this I am left with about 5 cm (2" ) on the top to get ride of befor ethe strut can come out.

So my plan is to compress the spring on the car (I checked, both compressor can fit), cut the bolt (need to borrow at tool), push down with the long tube, and the strut should come out. If not enough I will unmount the top nut of the strut piston (with spring compressor on) to gain a few cm by removing mount pate, rubber, and pushing the piston down. I plan to make pictures for people who had problems like me

The car drove in Ohio for 8 years, was rarely washed during winter, the thing is quite rusted, especially the right side... (front caliper bracket was rusted you wouldn' t believed, had to grind/file it on two occasions to have the pads move freely...). Damned women never washing their cars...

 

all you need to do is disconnect the rear sway bar endlink from the lower control arm, and the bolt that connects the lower control arm to the trailing arm, and you can pull it down enough to remove the strut assembly with ease...once it's out, you don't even need spring compressors...the front is even easier, you just need to take out all the top mount nuts, and the lower strut bolts and unclip the brake line/ABS sensor wire (if equipped), i just help a friend replace all 4 springs yesterday, and made this video because there seems to be some controversy over the whole spring compressor thing...

http://youtu.be/RpG9cYlr3hY

 

Thanks.
Well I know all these steps and indeed the spring compressors are not necessary for the rear but I loaned them for the front (you need them for the front ) so I just put them on in case.
My problem is that the bolt connecting the lower and trailing arms will not move out (the nut can be removed, the bolt is stuck in place). The bolt holding the bottom of the strut is also stuck in place...
I will make few pictures tomorrow for people in my situation, which are stuck, to have a workaround

 

you don't need compressors for the front either, i just used the rear as an example...the front strut assembly has a little bit more pop to it, but it's not any different than the rear.

you need an air hammer, but a regular hammer should work for the lower control arm/trailing arm bolt...the lower strut bolt, what's happening is the bolt is seized to the metal sleeve inside the bushing, so even if you put an impact to it, the rubber absorbes the force of the impact action, what i had to do was get the rear end as high as possible, and put a breaker bar on the bolt and turn it beyond where the bushing is capable of rotating, and it should break loose...good luck

 

well it all depends how rusted/fused are the bolts to the sleeves, and if the sleeve is still attached to the rubber...
my hammer is 7 lbs and I hit rather hard. the sleeve turns with the bolt for the lower strut, and both turn inside the bushing when you try to unfasten the bolt... (I have tried to upper the car, put a breaker bar).

I tried to loosen the control link with a 25" breaker bar, put a lot of weight on it (I am light weight for you american fellows but I still do 200 lbs...), it didn 't move... so rust can kill you when you drive in salty roads of ohio and never wash your car...

as for the front strut without spring compressors, well, no matter which car I work on, I will use these for safety.


This situation you describe happens to the bolt connecting lower and trailing arms (the rubber spins it back, but I don 't want to get the sleeve to rotate inside the rubber too much, that may create some damage to the rubber:
"what i had to do was get the rear end as high as possible, and put a breaker bar on the bolt and turn it beyond where the bushing is capable of rotating, and it should break loose" - so my plan is to leave that one as is and work around. pictures to follow soon