Hey Guys,

My 94 Accord EX is strictly stock. No mods whatever. I need to change the struts all the way around. What I need to know is what is the degree of difficulty for doing this job on my own?

PogiGreg

 

i would give it a 3/10, its not that hard and can be done with a floor jack, jackstands, and simple hand tools....although the process can be made easier with airtools. although if you need to retain you stock springs, and place them on replacement shocks the difficulty would go up due to the need of a spring compressor...they can be difficult to use sometimes, depending on what style you are using...espesially when trying to put stock springs back on....

 

I plan on renting the spring compressor when I do the job. Is that very difficult to do?

 

if it is the style like most autoparts stores rent out then possibly....you will most definatley need an impact gun (airtools) because it is very difficult to run the spring compresser nut down against the tension of the spring. from my experience doing it, as i have pulled numerous shock/spring assemblys apart but never reinstalled a stock spring...especially by the tension on the front springs i would not wish reinstalling stock springs upon anyone....

 

Make sure to have WD-40 or something similar and allen wrench (metric) on hand. The nuts on top of the struts are usually hard to open with hand tools.

 

yeah the most difficut part will be compressing the springs to replace the struts. You can do it yourself.... it will take you alot longer, but I'm sure you'll get it. Another option might be remove the strut spring assemblies, and take them and the new struts to your local shop, and see how much they will charge to swap the parts over. You will still save money over having the whole job done, and you won't have to mess with the spring compresser or anything. Just a thought.

 

That sounds like a good idea. So the springs somehow are attached to the struts? They can be pre-installed so all I have to do is just install them?

 

IMO if you could get the struts out of the car, you could install the springs. It is not that hard, but it will take time.

 

they are held compressed by the perch(what the spring sits in) and a tophat, bolted to the shockpiston which runs directly down the center of the spring into the shock valvebody...look at a chiltons or something for a better idea...
but if your not sure how a spring is placed on your car it might be a better idea just to take the struts to a shop and have them change out the springs as there are a few vital pieces that are in place in the shock assembly that could cause serious damage if not all replaced correctly...

 

Since I'm changing the struts, would it be benificial for me to go ahead and change the springs as well? Or are the factory springs still ok, 11 years later.

 

i would say they are fine to be reused...

 

Reuse the springs. The only real reason for changing springs is if they rust and break, which does happen. Otherwise, springs that are 11 yrs old will probably be a little softer than new ones, which is ok. The car is 11 yrs old, and the difference is so minimal it's not worth replacing them.

 

spring compressor isnt absolutely neccesary..we changed my friends 91 accords suspension(struts and springs) and we were able to compress it with our weight(3 guys, one fat one...haha)..but a spring compressor wud certainly make it alot easier

and they were H&R sport springs, so they were stiffer then stock, if its stock it wud probably be easier to compress, maybe a single fat dude cud do it..haha

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by goowakjai &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">and they were H&R sport springs, so they were stiffer then stock, if its stock it wud probably be easier to compress, maybe a single fat dude cud do it..haha</TD></TR></TABLE>

the H&R's are shorter springs though. either way you'd want the sping compressor around, it's free so why not (you buy it then return/refund it, that's how autozone does it). it would suck to have all your stuff laying around and realize you're gonna need it.

also look for a howto in this forum, i used one when i replaced my struts and it came in pretty helpful.

 

No way you will change stock springs without a compressor. And they may have to be turned to a certain degree before releaseing the compressor. I would get a shop to swap the springs over from strut to strut. The struts should come with instructions on the degree to turn the top studs.