Spring swap walkthrough - Tein H-Tech's

^ That's what I did. No issues.

Yeah. Just place the stands where you would to change the oil in the front and where you would to change a tire on the rear. We had all four corners up off the ground when we did mine with the stands on the notched part of the frame rail with no issues. And we had to do some serious pulling to get some of those bolts loose.

Ok awesome. Thats simple enough and will be much less nerve racking worrying that I'm going to jack it up on the wrong spot and damage something. Thanks alot guys!

How'd you guys get the rear bottom bolt back in? Got it to pop out, but seems like it's going to be tricky if it doesn't just slide right in. The obvious step seems to be get under the car and pound it in from the other side, but seems dangerous as well.

Use the spare tire jack and slowly crank it back up until the holes line up and you can slide the bolt in. Make sure the round part of the strut is nestled into the grooved part of the spare tire jack. You'll know what I'm talking about when you look at it.

I'll admit my newb-ness. I am 4 hours in, and haven't even gotten the first strut back together. I have this terrible spring compressor a friend let me borrow and it took forever just to get the stock spring out. I can't quite get the nut on by trying to compress the Eibach so I'll have to use the spring compressor again. Without ratcheting wrenches it makes for a very long process.

 

Two quick questions

a)The top part of the strut has some groove pattern notched in it from the stock spring. Unlike the bottom, it doesnt matter where the top part sits, correct? As long as the top bolts are parallel with the bottom hole, of course.

b) Because the spring doesn't sit perfectly straight up on the bottom, the center threaded bolt of the strut doesn't line up with the center of the top cap. Thats normal, right?

 

1,000 more questions to come. Thanks for having patience with me everyone.

a) The studs should be perpendicular to the bolt hole in the rear struts.

b) Yeah.. the spring will sit cockeyed until you get the top hat bolted on.

a) The studs should be perpendicular to the bolt hole in the rear struts.

b) Yeah.. the spring will sit cockeyed until you get the top hat bolted on.

 

Ok, ya I was thinking the line they are on is parallel to the face, but if referencing the hole then you're right I should have said perpendicular.

 

Thanks for the write up, I never would have attempted this without it.

I've got a problem with my latest spring install - there's a knocking sound from one of the fronts, so I have a question:

 

When installing the front spring (Pinks/SpecB Bils in my case) should you just use some man power to compress the spring enough to start the top nut, or is it better to use spring compressors so that you can tighten up the top nut freely. Another way to put it - should you tighten the top nut (to 41 ft-lbs) against the spring's tension, or should you torque it up and then release the spring from the compressor? Does it matter? I did it the latter way this time, and I think that might be the problem...

The instructions in the pdf that is circulating the forums say to loosen the spring after torquing the nut.

Problem solved! Just needed to tighten up the top nut while it was installed on the car. Guess I didn't double check to see if they were still tight after the install, and they weren't...

Just wondering what's the next model upgrade from h-techs ? Would it be worth the extra cash ? Yes im a newb, lol.

 

Getting some rims next week and right now im looking at getting h-techs. I don't have a GT so I'm just getting these for looks.

quick question. do you need a spring compressor to take the stock setup out of a lgt. not to disassemble just remove from the car

No you only need to compress the springs if you change the springs. If you're doing coilovers there's no need for a spring compressor.

fwiw I dont use compressors to change springs anyways

^ what he said.

 

The springs aren't under that much compression. Keep it close to a corner so the nuts and washers don't fly all over the place and stand back a little bit. The pieces only went a few feet when I swapped mine. And most aftermarket spring are going to allow plenty of room to just use a little weight to compress it enough to get a top hat back on.

Subscribed for an install...I just realized tonight that I need to lower my car at least an inch! might as well buy some new struts while I'm at it and get those outta the way as well!

 

Thanks for a great write-up!

Awesome write up!!!

 

This is applicable to the 5th gen as well. The rear shock through bolts are still a bitch. Took me 6 hours to do this, by myself, no air tools. I'm happy

 

Thanks man!!!

I have a slightly lower rear than I would like on my '05 wagon with Bilstiens and Pinks. In order to install shims, can I jack up the rear, loosen the top mounting bolts, drop the strut still attached at the lower end, put on 3/8 shims and studs without removing the strut ?

Been reading about all the difficulties with the lower strut bolt...

Thanks in advance...

Put H&R springs on today, took well over 8 hours. Probably only 2 or 3 with a impact drill. The Lower bolt gave me no trouble.

 

Learned a lot from today. Pass Through sockets are hard to come by. So just use an Impact drill.

Impact drill or impact wrench/gun?

Impact Gun. Air powered.

The manual mentions using new flange nuts & self-locking nuts. I haven't seen anyone mention this. Does everyone just use the existing hardware? Is this something new just for the 5th gens?

I think that's new for 5th gens. IIRC the 4th gens don't have any special locking nuts. you just torque the heck out of them and hope they don't come loose.

me and my friend we broke 3 ratchets... tried the jack method no work ... tried the hamer no work... tried the air impact gun NO ****** WORK..... tried the pb wd liquid wrench guess again NO DAMN WORK... i hate this ****** car design never had issue with 5 other cars i owned lowering them and 1 was a 10 year old ass car smh........ now the front is low the rear is up in the ait im going to a shop tomorrow to get these bolts cut off