[Mk2] [Turbo] Advice and Tips *DIY Spring Fitting*

[CritCare]

Ive next week off and i have a box of s-tech springs, new droplinks, braided lines, disks, pads, new lights, oil filter and oil.

Im gonna do the springs first. Any input for the DIY mech?

[Martin F]

Ive next week off and i have a box of s-tech springs, new droplinks, braided lines, disks, pads, new lights, oil filter and oil.

Im gonna do the springs first. Any input for the DIY mech?

Just make sure you have semi decent spring compressors

[toxo]

Yeah, be careful with the compressors Dependant on the state of your existing droplinks you may have to get busy with a hacksaw but they're pretty weak so you don't need to give it too much elbow grease.

Read the brakes section of the workshop manual before you start

[Si_Crewe]

Haven't done the fronts yet but I didn't need spring compressors to do the back springs.

I couldn't see any straightforward way of releasing the nut off the top of the damper in order to remove the spring.
My BMW has a hex end on the top of the damper so you can put a ring spanner on the nut then use a socket to stop the damper turning.
The MR2 struts don't seem to have anything like that.
I ended up bodging it by wrapping a thin load-binder around the damper rod a couple of times and then around the spring.
Ratchet it up nice and tight and it should stop the damper rod from turning while you undo the nut.
Incidentally, if you try this and the rod still spins it's probably cos you've wrapped the strap the wrong way around the rod. Take it off and wrap it the opposite way around and it'll work.

You need to remove the brake flexi's when you remove the strut.
Technically, I suppose it might be possible to leave the hose attached and ease the top end of the strut out (after removing the bolts from the bottom end as well, obviously), replace the spring and then replace it but that's gonna be mega-fiddly.

If you decide to remove the strut to replace the springs then you MUST check that the bleed nipples on your calipers are free before starting any other work.
If they're seized you won't be able to bleed your brakes after you re-fit the flexi's.

Again, related to brake hoses, find yourself some rubber bungs to shove into the open ends of the brake hose fittings to save losing all your brake fluid.
A decent erasor can be suitably modified with a knife for this purpose.

All the bolts on my drop links were seized.
In the end I just chopped the drop-links in half before removing the strut and then sawed through the nuts to remove each end in turn.
I thought it was going to be a nightmare removing the gash ends from the ARBs but they were pretty easy to get to.

Fit the new drop link to the strut before fitting the strut to the car.
There isn't enough room behind the struts to get the drop links into place once the struts are fitted onto the car.

To reitterate though, your very first task in all this is to take each wheel off and check that the caliper bleed nipples are free.
If they're seized then you'll need to revise your work schedule to include removing the calipers and taking them to a workshop to have the sheared (cos if they're seized you'll probably shear them while trying to free them) bleed nipples drilled out.

[RST]

If you're replacing the droplinks -the easiest way* to remove the old ones is to roast the nuts with a small taymar blow torch before undoing them. Take a wire brush to them first and clean as much crud off as you can first. With new ones on I coat everything with loads of copper slip and make sure the hex head hole is filled so it doesn't rust up as much.

*quickest without a grinder

I can't remember if there are any ball joints to split on the MR2 -I've had the suspension on and off a few times on my GT4 and use a lump hammer to split ball joints rather than a pronged splitter. The trick is to hit the side of the metal the ball joint taper side slips into and just shock it loose. Takes a few brave hard smacks but usually potentially does less damage to the ball joint rubber boot than a pronged spliter.

If you need to split brake lines then there's specific spanners for this (think brake lines are 10mm? -think mine has a 10mm one end and an 11mm at the other). They're not expensive -they're ring spanners with a slit cut in them so you can slip them over the brake line and onto the nut and get more support on the nut than with normal open ended spanners -saves rounding the nuts. If they're really stuck you can get away with the Taymer blow torch on them first -but you have to make sure that one end of the line is open and you need to do a full flush through with new brake fluid afterwards.

[toxo]

Oh yeah, forgot about the brake hose / strut thing. Most people cut a small channel out of the flange on the strut so that once the C and U clips are released from the brake line you can slide it out of the strut. Either that or just make a thin cut through it and then bend the flange away but this results in it not being flat and you not being able to get the C and U clips back in again

[CritCare]

thanks very much for the input. hopefully everything goes well.

im gonna photo-log it all anyway and place the pics up for future attemptees

[Wingers]

The above info all seems good to me.
I def wouldn't bother with opening the brake lines, just cut a slot in the plate and then leave the lines still connected.
The only other thing i'd mention is to loosen off the damper nuts before you even jack the car up. That way the damper rod doesn't turn and you'll save a lot of effort later on

I'm sure there are some tips on here already somewhere. I think they're in the knowledge base so have a browse through before you start.

It's actually not a bad job to do.

Wingers

[CritCare]

Got the front s-techs and droplinks done. The nuts and bolts were nice and easy to remove. To be honest the first side took 3 hours to do due to me being careful...prob too careful. the opp side took 30mins lol!

One thing I didnt expect was the weight you have to put on the hub to get tit to slot back into the strut.. also as was mentioned in a previous post, the brake line holder already had a cut in them so i just bent one side up and the other down to get the line out..simples

rears tomorrow.

Still to do:

Disks
Pads
Goodridges
Wheels
Lights
Oil

[Si_Crewe]

The slots in the struts seem a bit redundant if you're planning on fitting braided hoses anyway.
I mean, you're gonna have to take the flexi's off sooner or later.

Did you check that the caliper bleed nipples aren't seized?

[JohnnyC]

Change the brake lines at the same time as changing the springs.

I couldn't see any straightforward way of releasing the nut off the top of the damper in order to remove the spring.

Loosen (not remove) this nut whilst the car is on the ground

[CritCare]

cant get the pass rear disk off!!! grrrrr

[toxo]

It should have 2 smaller holes on the part that sits on the hub that you can screw a bolt into to push it off.

[CritCare]

ultimate brute force sorted it.

just to bleed brakes now