[spshultz]

1999 2.5RS

OK, got the old strut combo off and assembled the new strut combo. Old = KYB AGX and Tein S-Techs. New = SPT and KYB GR-2's.

I jacked up the front left side of the car only and was able to get the old assembly out. It was a pain though. Took 2 hours! I've assembled the new set (got spring compressor) but now can't get the large 19mm bolt holes on the strut to line up with the holes on the steering knuckle. The strut bottom is about 2" below the holes of the steering knuckle and with every muscle I had I cannot compress the strut assy to align it with the bolt holes.

I don't get it. Why is this so hard? Everybody else can do it in 4 - 6 hours and it's going to take me atleast 12 if not until tomorrow.

How do you put the struts back on the car?


Shawn

 

[TMRRALLY]

You have to get the whole front (or back ) of the car up in the air. If you only jack one side up, the sway bar is trying to push the other side up (or down). The best way to do it is to take both front struts out together and reinstall them at the same time . this way it the old struts are a different length than the new ones you are not fighting them to reinstall them.




BTW I can do all 4 in about 45 min.

 

[Storm]

Was there a problem with the AGX's that made you decide to downgrade to the GR-2? That's the same thing as a sensa-track, tuned for comfort over performance.

 

[spshultz]

Thanks for the replies. After I posted I decided to try lifting the entire front end of the car and it worked perfectly!

But, who ever torqued them 19mm bolts last torqued them down way way way to hard. I had a breaker bar on them and I was jumping up and down on it. It took 12 hours to do them because of this little problem. The back ones were the worst. And this was with "liquid wrench" and "WD-40" soaked in.

I torqued them all down to 140ft. lbs. and hope they don't loosen up.

I will say though that I like this setup better than the Tein/AGX combo. Current setup is KYB GR-2's, Group N strut tops and SPT springs. Makes for a better ride during long highway trips. I drive 90 miles round trip to work and this won't make it so tiring.
Got them from Mike Shields. I will be better able to test the car out on Friday when I go to work. There are these two curves and the Tein/AGX's were really leaning. I suspect the new setup will do just a good as the Tein/AGX's when they were new on a 3/6 setting.

The Tein/AGX were getting very bouncy. The AGX's just don't seem to handle the reduced height of the Tein springs. I had 3 struts that I could compress with little effort. And this was on 3 front 6 back.

Next setup will be the top of the line strut/spring combo from Mike Shields.

 

[Section 8]

People have found the GR2's to be the same as stock. They are a good replacement for the stock struts. Kayaba makes the stock struts. Kayaba = KYB I would guess that they are identical to the stock RS struts. THey would be a performance upgrade to an L (with the springs).


cheeRS,

Greg

 

[Bohanan]

"Next setup will be the top of the line strut/spring combo from Mike Shields."

Which combo would that be? V5 struts & springs? Prodrive Bilstein/Eibach? Prodrive P1 set up?

Just curious as I'm looking at the Prodrive Bilstein set up myself. I want something that will be smoother than the KYB/stock spring set up now. These things get bouncy on some of the freeways around here. And, I run them on 2/4 most of the time!