teonguyen

iTrader: (4)

The front is PITA . I tried to loosen the bolts this morning with electric impact gun mentioned earlier and they won't even budge. After of couple hours trying to take them off, I eventually gave up..now I soaked everything with BP blast n will give it one more try tmr. Hope this time works. Btw my car is 2012 n only 12k miles on it but all the bolts are incredibly tight..

Gio37

iTrader: (1)

I feel your pain....when I installed my springs I had air tools available but for most of the nuts & bolts it took me a breaker bar with a cheater pipe on top of that

teonguyen

iTrader: (4)

If it doesn't work I ll probably end up going to get one 24" breaker bar.

blnewt

iTrader: (13)

Harbor Freight has them for like 10 bucks, should have no trouble after that, especially since you PB Blasted them.

blnewt

iTrader: (13)

You need to back up that big 19mm bolt at the nut behind it, forgot the size of open end wrench needed but once I backed it up it broke free w/out issue.

teonguyen

iTrader: (4)

I finally had the spring installed I bought PD at Walmart last night and sought all over the area then let it stayed overnight. I regret not to use PD in the first place because WD40 is useless. So I woke up this morning and BAMMMM !!! PD worked like magic. When the biggest bolt started to bugle, i feel like i just won lottery.

I have worked on the car since yesterday putting the whole Tanabe catback and the spring, so I decided to bring the strut to Pep boys and paid them $40 to save time as well as avoid the risk of injury. I bought spring compressor from Harbor Freight but there is no way that thing can work with tiny gaps on Eibach. I marked on the top plates of the struts to make sure when pep boys put the Eibach springs on. It will be correct (without reading this thread I probably have no idea and Pep boys would not be able to do the job cause they was trying to figure out how to put back the top plates in correct position.)

Not a best pic but here you go, 2 hours after drop and car wash. I am in love and can't even tell the difference in handling feel great and even better than stock. (H&R spacers 20mm F and 15mm R)



Thanks,

blnewt

iTrader: (13)

Looking nice and congrats on getting that bolt loosened

Glad you didn't attempt to use that Harbor Freight Spring compressor, those things are potentially deadly. It's been mentioned a few times in this thread about how those could break under pressure and really cause serious harm. Just looking at them scares me
VVVVVVV



The ones you rent from Autozone or O'Reillys are much better, and they're free if you return them within 24 hours.
VVV

teonguyen

iTrader: (4)

You are right though some members report those compressors bend when they compress the spring. I did bring the Springs with me to O'Reilly couple days prior the installation and they gave me the tool in the pic, but they also told me I may have hard time to get that hooked to the spring because the gaps are so narrow. Btw do you think Firestones or Sears can do the alignment ? I had a quote from a local shop for $150. That shop is usually working on mod car, but their price is doubled ..

Gio37

iTrader: (1)

I used a compressor similar to this one from autozone and I had to slide the nut part into the narrow gap of the spring to get to compress enough for installation.

I had Firestone do the lifetime alignment for $169.

g/l

quakerroatmeal

iTrader: (3)

If I had to do it again I'd just take the fronts to a shop with a wall mounted spring compressor and pay them 20-30 bucks. Saves a ton of time as well. I didn't have any problems using the manual spring compressor but they are a pita to use.

Rickincali

Just got done installing Eibachs on mine. The rear were easy. I took the fronts to Pep Boys to do for me. They asked $40 bucks. I dropped them off and never received a call. I had went out of town and checked in with them about 6 hours later. I was told they were just about to start on them as one guy didn't want to install them so another tech would do them. I went in to the store 2 hours later and was told they couldn't install them. Not a single call in 8 hours. If I wouldn't have gone in I might not have even got them back the same day. I was so pissed. I borrowed the tool and did them myself.


Edit: Here is an after pic.

g37man29

iTrader: (1)

I just installed my megan springs last night, and my biggest issue was the top hats not lining up. Pain in the butt, but my car looks really good after all the hard work.

ratherunique85

Couldn't loosen the three 14mm bolts off for the life of me so I gave up. Will go look for pd and a breaker bar.. I'm also afraid of stripping those bolts.. Any suggestions?

vqsmile

For difficult bolts:

1) Always use a 6-point socket!!
2) Impact is far better than a breaker bar (but breaker bar is still better than regular length ratchet of course)
3) Presoak with a good penetrating mix** well before you intend to start working on the bolts
4) heat with a torch as a last resort


**The very best mix, by far, is a 50/50 mix of ATF and acetone. Next best is sort of a toss up between Kroil and Liquid Wrench, but Kroil is more expensive and harder to find, so I'd say Liquid Wrench. Well down on the most effective list is where you find your PB and WD-40.

.02

ratherunique85

Pb and wd 40 did not work at all.. ill have to try liquid wrench. so i went to a couple of shops and one said $85 per hour labor and another said $220 flat rate which an alignment is included. My question is, is the $220 a decent deal?