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spray a TON of WD40 spray and let it sit for 10 minutes....then grab a socket wrench and use all the power u have.

 
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This DIY was amazing. Although it took me 4 hours to do the fronts and hour and half to do the rears. This was by myself and my OEM jack. Also, this was the first major thing that i did to my car myself so i took my time and followed it to a T.

 
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hi,

i got one loose, but the left one is stuck like hell sprayed a hole can on it let it sit for about 15 minutes and i pulled it like a maniac but it's still not loose
someone with ideas that can help me get this bastard loose?

 
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Just what i was looking for, just got my new rims in, once i get my struts, rotors, and maybe new lowering springs, i'll be using this thread, no point in puttin on my struts then takin it all apart again when i get my new springs in. just gonna wait for all the parts so i can drop it on new springs, struts, rotors, rims, and tires, great job man! definitely will be a HUGE help! installed coilovers on a friends cobalt so i have some idea of whats goin on.

 
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this seems liek a bitch to do

 
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it is! its easy but time consuming. this is a great DIY tho. easy to follow.

 
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sucks i got my tein stechs but i dont have the right tools...hopefully il get a day off soon and get some jack stands and a few others.. shops by my house charge from 4-5 hundred for install wtf!

 
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This was great. put on my h&r springs last night and threw on some 15" fat fives

 
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wonder who will be the first to loose his teeth when disassembling front struts

 
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I have the same problem only on the left side what could it be,
-my spring is seated correctly and perfectly indexed
-my endlinks and strut mounts bearings are brand new
-my ball joint, tie rod end, sway bar bushings and compliance bushing are ok

My next step is the top mount, if its not that i really dont know what it is?????

Thanks

 
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Tib_05, it sounds like your top mount. When I installed my springs, everything was tightened down correctly but after a few minutes of driving I heard some knocking in the front while going over bumps in the road. Turns out the springs had settled and the top mount needed to be tightened.

 
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Mex, you are my hero. This DIY helped out a ton, I took my time and got done in 7-8 hours. I hammered the tie rod ends about 5 times, on the strut, and then just used the tie rod separator to pry it out a bit, not boot tearing. As far as indexing goes, all the marks were still on there, even after 8 years from the factory. Again, amazing DIY. Lowered 1.5" on Tein S.Techs, no camber kits finding out how bad the alignment is in a few weeks, waitin on it all to settle.

 
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wow, i learn something new every time i come here. Great DIY!

 
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This DIY is awesome... printing this one out!!

WELL DONE and THANKS!

 
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thanks mex this helped me a wholeee lot, i lowered my 02 civic yest with TEIN springs and everythings came out MINT thanks to you, and i didnt snip any bump stops and the car rides very very smooth and stiff, way better then the stock springs, but one question, if i did cut the bump stops, would it lower more or would it be the same? other then that im loving it !!

 
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Another question about the bump stop...
i just finished putting on new struts/springs in the front(gonna do the rears some other time, i had to use my friends air tools in his garage to get the top bolt off because it wouldnt even budge even with the hex key... in fact i broke off top of the strut doing that andh ad to dremel the tip off)

but we didn't trim the bump stops when we were working on them, in fact i have no idea now what the bump stops are, can anyone show a picture of them or further explain what they are? hoping i don't have to take my struts off again to do it, but whatever :P

 
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it's that little rubber bit on the piston part of the strut.. it makes it so in the case you hit a hard bump, the rubber part hits instead of a metal-to-metal contact, hence, bump stop. I'm pretty sure it's the orange bit on the last picture of the original post.

I never but mine when I put my tein s-techs on and had no problems.

 
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thanks! i'm also using s-techs on my tokico blues so i guess i'll just leave it then

 
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so I'm pretty much almost done doing this, but thought i'd share something that may or may not help other people... me and my buddy were working on it and the whole process was relatively easy using his air tools, we got 3 sides done and were just about to finish up the last side and literally couldn't get the bottom strut bolt to come out, we ran the compressor at crazy pressure, and even used one of my socket wrenches with a big extension and used a ton of torque, the socket just broke.

we took it to my friend's performance garage and they said it's actually a pretty common problem with hondas, not exactly sure what happened, but from what i understand a bushing went bad and the bolt fused into it or something... really don't remember exactly what it was, but i'm sure he's not just trying to get money out of me since he's only charging me an extra $20 for a bushing, and the other garages said the same thing.

Pretty much if you're having big problems with your rear struts, that's most likely the problem, i had a little bit trouble with my other rear but it came out relatively easy with air tools

 
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Just curious, if anyone here has had problems with snapping bolts like a lot of the guys with older Hondas? Planning on doing this soon, but I'm nervous about breaking bolts.

 
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pretty much goes hand in hand with rust lol. i snapped both my exhaust bolts off the first time. and when the shop installed my struts (i knew what was waiting for me), they snapped off several bolts as well.

 
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Very nice DIY!!!
But I hv a question...
Im putting the OEM unit back on, the suspension hangs lower than where it needs to bolt on, How can I get the suspension to line up with the bottom bolt ?

 
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If you tighten the spring retainer nut more then you will be able to shorten the strut assembly making it easier to line everything up.

 
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Thanks man,
I will try to tighten nut more.
Is it necessary to have someone step on the drum brake to make it more space?
Will it cost damage to the brake?

 
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Im in the middle of replacing the stock rear struts with tokico blues and i cant for the life of me get those 17mm bolts off. Ive tried soaking them in wd40, extended handle socket wrench for the increased torque, heating it up, and and air gun. been working on removing it for a few hours and even almost snapped off the square connector that connects the handle to the 17mm socket.

does anyone have any advice or anything else I can try? I really dont want to pay alot of $$$ to get a shop to install it if i can avoid it.

update: on one side i can get the bolt to rotate very slightly (maybe 45 degrees) but as soon as i let go it turns back, like the rubber is catching and rotating it back

 
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Very common problem.

The bolt is seized to the metal collar inside the bushing, that allows it to rotate slightly, but you'll never be able to remove it. Take a reciprocating saw and cut the bolt on either side of the trailing arm, pull the shock out and then use vice grips to remove the bolts.

 
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I had to ghetto-rig a 2-3 foot breaker bar the first time I broke that bolt loose.. After that, took a thread die to it and coated it in some anti-seize.. haven't had a problem since.

 
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thanks i ended up having to cut the bolts...shoulda put anti-sieze on the first time i had these off. too bad it didn't fix my problem that had me replace the struts in the first place

 
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Yeah i work on forklifts that around here almost are all operated at fishplants in the salt water, anti-seize is your best friend

 
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Anti-seize or straight up marine grease if you live in a harsh environment, works wonders and prevents future problems. I swear, my next car, I'm disassembling the entire suspension the day it comes home and coating everything with grease to prevent future headaches.