Front shock absorber replacement.

mr nurburgring · Post by **mr nurburgring** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 1:37 am

Guys, I have a broken spring on the front.
This evening I have removed the shock absorber and stripped it down.
The top coil of the spring was missing so came off pretty easily without the need for spring compressors.

My question is will a new spring need much compressing? Can it be done easily with diy ones or is it best taking it a garage to get them to fit the spring into the strut?

I couldn’t drive the car as the spring had snapped and slid over the top hat onto the body.

Cheers.

Steve.

patriot66 · Post by **patriot66** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:17 am

Why not pop down to Halfords and buy your own spring compressors ? Then you'll already have them for when your rear springs break !

mr nurburgring · Post by **mr nurburgring** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:39 am

Lol. Already done the rears

Chris1981 · Post by **Chris1981** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 11:02 am

Yeah I'd say you need spring compressors... Unless you have a heavy mate that can push down on the spring while you tighten it up!

I've got a set of the Halfords ones Patriot mentioned, did the job for me so you shouldn't have any issues with something similar! My only advice would be to take care when removing the bottom pinch bolt that secures the shock to the HUB as they like to snap

mr nurburgring · Post by **mr nurburgring** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 7:31 pm

All done! No way I was going to use spring compressors on that one lol.

Massive thanks to forum member Andy fanshaw and his hydraulic spring compressor.

Pinch bolt was a bastard but I was steady with it and it came out ok. New ones from Bmw ready to go in.

G600 · Post by **G600** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 10:20 pm

patriot66 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:17 am Why not pop down to Halfords and buy your own spring compressors ? Then you'll already have them for when your rear springs break !

You don't need them for the rears, undo the shock bolt and push down on the hub, gives you enough room to swap the springs over.

patriot66 · Post by **patriot66** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 11:00 pm

G600 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 16, 2018 10:20 pm
patriot66 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:17 am Why not pop down to Halfords and buy your own spring compressors ? Then you'll already have them for when your rear springs break !
You don't need them for the rears, undo the shock bolt and push down on the hub, gives you enough room to swap the springs over.

Good point ! It slipped my mind...and I'm fitting 4 x Bilstein B4s next week

Scooba_Steve · Post by **Scooba_Steve** » Sat Mar 17, 2018 12:15 am

Don't forget the Loctite on the rear lower bolts

williamdefender · Post by **williamdefender** » Sat Mar 17, 2018 2:36 pm

I had to use two sets of spring compressors when replacing the shocks last year . Risky old job and might be best to bring the strut to a local garage . Cant see them charging much just for a five min job in their spring compressor tool thingy

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