Hello, I am having problems taking my front strut out. I followed the diy (lower strut bolt is off, as well the two 14mm a arm bolts). Do I also need to take out the sway bar bolt which is connected to the LCA?
thanks in advance

 

what about the top 3 obvious strut bolts in the engine bay? it is either too obvious that you did not mention it in your post....

my shop mentioned that sometimes you need to pry the front struts out... if you take your LCA bolts off.. pls remember to do an alignment after....

Andre

 

I does sound like you missed the 3 strut bolts up top, but that is too obvious for you to miss. Try slowly maneuver the strut around and see if you can not get it down. If not, try pushing down on the top of the brakes to see if you can get more room to get the struts out

 

Sorry yes the 3 top strut nuts are also off... I used a crowbar looking thing to get some leverage, but still can't get any movement. If I take the sway bar bolt off will I get some more wiggle room? Also, does the sway bar have any tension, which would cause problems to put back on?
thanks for the reply...

 

you must be doing something wrong. When i installed my coilovers all i removed was the 3 nuts up top the one bolt below and the sway bar endlink from the front LCA.

 

Hey, thanks for the reply... I guess I was doing something wrong, diy didn't say to remove swaybar endlink from the LCA. I'll try that once i get home from work.
Again I appreciate the help...

 

Yes.

You'll need to jack up the LCA to take the stress out of the sway bar first, unless you've put the entire front end of the car on jack stands.

 

Hey, so I'll put one side on jackstand and lift the same sides LCA with a jack. Should that be fine with releasing the stress.
thanks

 

Here you go buddy..

It looks like your almost there..I removed the two bolts under the lower ball joint and worked like a charm..

 

if all the bolts are off and you still can't get it out, it may be abit rusted and seized at the bottom of the shock. i had the very same problem. i used a spray similar to wd-40 and then left it while i worked on the other corners. if its still like that, try tapping on area's where its stuck with a rubber mallet. keep trying that and try wiggling it and hopefully you can get it. i had the same problem....

 

Hey, just finished the front... took off the sway bar bolt connected to the LCA and the shock came right off... Did I read it wrong or the DIY on the forum skips that part? Well I guess its common sense. I wish I had that F sport install PDF when I started the install, would have been very easy. Anyways thanks to everyone that helped out, couldn't have done it without the help.

 

yeah when i installed mine, i had bolts in the LCA completely frozen. had to take it to a shop to have the bolt loosened as much as possible and then cut off. apparantly the bolt going through the strut was so rusted that it prevented it from coming out. once it was cut, it was smooth sailing (though we had to take a drill and smooth out the bushing in order to fit the bolt through as the rusting had permanently *merged* with the bushing). Fun eh?

 

the F-sport pdf doesnt help either. I had the same problem as you did when i installed my springs. after trying to pry it out for a half hour and reading/re reading the f-sport install guide many times, i realized i needed to have both the front passanger and driver side on jackstands to take the tension off the swaybar, shock then came right out. this way you will not have to remove the swaybar bolt.

 

i've done many coilover R&R's on the IS along with a few air installations,
(sorry if i don't use correct of fancy terms when describing things)


I know you already finished it, but for next time you have to tackle this....

Did you only have one side of the car lifted up on jacks(i.e. passenger side only) when trying to pry the lower control arm down w/ the sway bar still connected?

if so thats the reason why it wouldn't budge. Sway bars are meant to keep the car balanced left and right during turns. If you only had one side lifted(i.e. only the passenger side and not the driver side) the suspension on one side is loaded while the otherside is free from load, this puts alot of tension on the sway bar since its trying to balance out both sides, so it was pushing up on your lower control arm on the unloaded side since it was trying to match the loaded side.

the easiest way to work on suspension is of course on a full lift, but if you don't have access then always lift up either both fronts or both rears to make it easier on yourself and so your not fighting the suspension as much.

edit: oh i highly recommend always taking off the sway bar when removing the shock assemblys, it makes life so much easier. but it makes it hard to remove the sway bar and line it back up if you only have one side of the car lifted up

 

Yeah I can see how that makes sense... I'll keep that in mind next time.
thanks