cliff notes below...

i bought the tokico hp struts and springs off eBay and was going to install them myself. i was really looking forward to it. i had pretty much everything i needed at my disposal (my neighbor use to have his own garage) except a spring compressor and air tools.

so i went to a couple places looking to rent spring compressors. unfortunately nobody had one to rent, just purchase. they wanted $30. i finally found an Autozone about 45 minutes from my house. i called them up and asked if they had one available to rent. he says yes and i hop in the car and drive over there. well i get there and he says oh i just rented that out a couple minutes ago to somebody else. so i said the hell with it. i wanna get this done this weekend so i just spent the $30 on a set of spring compressors.

i go home and start ripping into the back of the car and pulling all the trim pieces off so i wouldn't have to deal with it the next day. 45 minutes later i finally had everything out.

next morning i go out all ready to work on the car. i grab the wrench and start breaking the rear lugs loose then i move to the front... i spent 15 minutes or so trying to break these things loose and finally got one. i was pooped so i went and knocked on my neighbor's door and asked him if he could give me a hand. now he's a big guy... benches about 400 lbs. he gives it a try and nothing. now, he's got his face planted on my hood, his *** hanging out of his pants, and he's literally almost picking the front end of the car up and these things still don't budge. i'm about ready to say f**k it but we decide to both try it. finally about a half hour later we get them all loose and i jacked the front of the car up.

i figure smooth sailing from here. i get the wheel off, remove the brake line, take the two bolts off the bottom, and the four off the top. i forgot the nut for the endlink so i put the bolts back and start on the endlinks.

well a bunch of wd-40, wrenches, sockets, hammers, 3 guys, and an hour later this nut is stripped to hell. well at this point there's not much more i can do seeing as i need to drive my car to wrk the next day so i put everything back on the car (including the interior that took me 45 minutes to take out) and i consider my options. i can take it to a shop and have them do it or i can cut the endlinks off and get new ones.

now this would be the second time now that i've tried to do something to one of my cars and it hasn't worked out. at this point i'm so pissed off and discouraged that i'm thinking about just forgetting about it completely and leaving the car stock. i don't even want to take it to a shop and get it done. i think i'm done trying to work on cars and i'll just stick to architecture


cliff notes

installing struts and springs on my car
endlinks suck
tired of sh*t not working out
car staying stock


sorry for the long rant

 

yeah the endlink are a bitch, i tried soaking it in wd-40 overnight before i got started. i know i stripped one, but i used the air cutoff tool and cut it enough so that i had thread remaining to put in back it, so that worked well. i might end up replaceing all 3, they are $38/piece at the stealership.

sad part is that ive finally decided to get into this next weekend or so.. i'm installing the HP's as well.

 

if you're going to replace them i woudln't bother with the oem ones because you're most likely going to have the same problem again.

 

I feel your pain. I just got done with this job myself, plus I installed Mazdaspeed front and rear sway bars at the same time. I had just bought an air compressor from Sears and got an impact wrench too. Let me say that made all the difference. As you said, some of those nuts were on there (I had to put the air pressure to the wrench up to 120 psi). I was afraid of those endlinks after all I have read on here, but I guess I got lucky. Hit them with some WD and then used the impact. They came right off. I made sure to use some assembly lube on everything as I put it back together to make life easier if there is a next time.

By the way, I love my HP suspension kit. The handling is awesome now, once I get new tires I will be loving life!

 

good point, but i will (hopefully) probably never change the suspension again after this mod. ..

chiefmg:.. how the heck did you manage to use the impact wrench to take the endlink off, wouldn't it rotate on its own axis.??.

 

It's the same as taking loose the upper nut on the struts. Using a regular socket or wrench on these nuts just results in the shaft spinning and the nut staying tight. Using an impact wrench, you are putting some torque on the nut and while the shaft may still spin, the torque can overcome the tightness of the fastener and it should come off. It may also have something to do with the operation of an impact wrench and how it transmits force (series of blows rather than one steady pull).

When I did it, I did not hold down the trigger but rather gave a series of pulls so I wasn't putting continuous pressure on the nut. I am overly cautious when I do something for the first time because I hate doing things over, or having to fix something else.

 

Endlinks suck.

 

See my VERY SIMILAR rant when i did my springs.... Sigh. Thanks mazda - a mostly good design!

 

Hence the reason I will either:
1-Do the car at the Auto-Hobby shop on base with all the tools I need including impact and spring compress..woohoo! Endlinks are no biggie. Get a buddy to use a locking wrench, grip, lock & hold while using the impact to loosen. then while on the compress, finish the job...voila.
2-Get the Alabama crew to help my *** out.
Either way, it's easy as pie.

-Phil

 

out of curiousity, anybody ever think to try and turn the hex in the center and just "hold" the outside bolt to avoid stripping ??? That's what I did...Worked like a charm

 

Now, we are referring to the bolt that keeps the spring cmpressed around the strut right?
If so...see above....worked fine for me too. Did that on my Eclipse(s) and my ex's Civic....also an Accord and 240sx.
-Phil

 

I just install Tokico struts on my car and noticed a few things. I had a racing beat rear bar and stock p5 end links prior to the Tokico strut / Eibach spring install. After installing the new struts I noticed that the bar ends were pointing up because of lowering the car. It is best to have the bar level by the way. The P5 and the Sedan (sport suspension model) share the same short end links. I just got back 10min ago from buying the end links from a 2002 sedan with the standard suspension. They are a little over an inch longer and will lower the sway bar ends. Another option is to get aftermarket ones but thay would cost around $120cdn.To ensure that you can always remove any nut or bolt from under the car always use something like anti-seize compound. You will never need WD40 again.

 

umm no...the endlink bolts

 

Oh...now I know which ones....damn...

 

yeah.
You can cut the end link in half and then twist it off. This exposes the 'ball' inside the link (that is bolted to the car). You can hold the ball with a vise grip and try air wrench on the nut - should work.

It assumes you have not aready stripped the nut...

Buy nuts before you start - you will want to replace them. I bought four new endlinks and have an extra end link now - i was able to get the last one off with out the cut/destroy/burn/pillage method!