Guide on how to remove and refit front suspension
PLEASE NOTE
Don’t start this job without coil spring compressors
It’s also pretty handy to have a torque wrench
And it is also advisable to use new strut to hub bolts and a new strut top nut
Should be available from Vauxhall dealers.
First off jack up your car support it on axel stands under a solid part of the car.
Obviously remove the wheel!
You will need two spanners to loosen the two big strut to hub bolts.
Take note of how the bolts come out as they have to go back in the same way
Since these are done up really tight it’s advisable to use new ones after removing.
If it hasn’t come apart on its own already separate the hub from the base of the strut, all that holds the strut on now are 2 small nuts at the top, although its worth checking that nothing else is attached to the strut some models have a brake hose clipped to it, just unclip it.
Now under the bonnet, loosen the two strut top mounting nuts, on some corsa they have a black plastic wire box blocking access to these nuts, so remove the 2 plastic nuts holding the wires on and move it out of the way.
Now before removing the top two strut mounting nuts, reach under the wing and grab hold of the strut or it will just hit the floor!
Take out the strut and now its ready to be worked on.
For the next part you MUST use coil spring compressors, or serious medical attention will be required!The spring is under tension even off the car so it will make a mess of you if it isn’t compressed properly.
You should have 2 spring clamps each with two hooks which hook around the spring coils if your cant get them around the top and bottom coils use the next one down
(If you find the clamps keep sliding off the coils use insulating tape to wrap around the coils to they don’t slip)
Then tighten up the spring clamps…. Make sure you do this evenly one turn at a time on ether side or the unclamped side might fly off so be careful.
Compress the spring until the tension is off the top of the spring seat. Now undo the nut holding the piston rod, you will need two spanners for this one to hold the centre of the rod and one to loosen the nut,
After a lot of shouting and struggling the nut should come loose and the top of the strut should come apart.
The top of the strut should now fall in to five pieces, try to remember which order they go back on as you will need to do this later, label them or lay them out in order, or it will get confusing trying to re-assemble it.
Now slide the spring up and off the strut and remove the spring clamps job done!
Now depending what you’re doing next depends on what you need to do next.
If you’re just using lowering springs then all you need to do now is compress the new springs so they can go back on your strut.
So simply compress the spring as before and slide on to the strut and re-assemble the strut top.
Take care to compress the spring properly as it will make it A LOT harder to get the strut top back on with the constant pressure of the spring trying to push it off.
Refit the strut top (in the correct order) and make sure it’s nice and tight.
Then to refit the strut simply follows these directions in reverse.
Bur remember to use a new top nut on each strut
Now if you’re fitting full springs and dampers. Its pretty much the same just fit the new spring to the new strut same way you removed the old spring from the old strut, just remember to compress the spring properly or you will have a nightmare trying to refit.
Then refit the strut same way you removed it.
Now if you have coil over’s, follow the intrusions that should (hopefully) have come with it, or if you have some other sort of fancy suspension that has adjustable height or stiffness make sure you set all this up before trying to refit to the car. But it should be pretty straight forward to fit.