Stuff We Use: Suspension Repair

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we use and may have purchased with our own meagre income. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.

This instalment of Stuff We Use is slightly different in that we are choosing to focus on a particular type of repair in general rather than a product or service. Our intent is to provide a skiff of encouragement (and maybe even a couple of tips) to new gearheads attempting a fix slightly more complex than what they’ve attempted in the past.

Finding a set of strut assemblies is a lot easier than it used to be, with  places like eBay Motors serving up a space in which businesses can sling new parts just like other online retailers. Their guarantee assures the right fit, provided you’ve supplied the correct information about yer car, meaning there shouldn’t be any swearing after plucking the thing from its shipping box. Most of us here have suffered the grief of buying parts only to find whoever was behind the counter (or shipping from a warehouse) grabbed the wrong product in a rush to fulfil the order.

This writer prefers to replace parts like this in pairs, for obvious reasons. When it comes to front end suspension pieces, experience teaches us it is a lot easier to simply hammer in an entire new strut assembly instead of trying to mess with coil springs and the like individually. Both of those views are accompanied by financial considerations, of course; if one must replace them on different schedules, try to do so as closely together on the calendar as possible.

Most strut assemblies on commuter-grade cars of an age needing this type of repair will be held in place by not much more than five or six fasteners. This is definitely the sort of work which can be generally considered time consuming by not blindingly difficult. Always make sure to practice good safety when lifting a vehicle using a hydraulic floor jack, and use metal jack stands to support the car’s weight once it is in the air at the height on which it will be wrenched.

The car on which we were working was a 12-year-old Hyundai Elantra, arguably the generation in which this model found its first serious success and started keeping Honda and Toyota awake at night. As a result, there’s no shortage of these things in the nation’s recycling yards. A quick survey of yer author’s favorite haunt confirmed that most people removing strut assemblies from this model choose to zip off the attendant front sway bar link with a cutting tool rather than mess with rusted and frozen bolts. This suggests the backyard mechanic (that’s you) may run into similar headaches whilst working on their own rig.

That’s why  smart sellers on eBay Motors include a set of those links with the purchase of each strut assembly. In the instance of this Hyundai, there will still be one end of the old link you’ll need to wrestle off the car but at least that’s 50 percent less annoyance than if one had to deal with both. The top half can simply remain on old strut assembly for recycling. Besides, if the struts are worn to the point of needing replacement, the sway bar links won’t be far behind. It's never a bad idea to replace components associated to the main repair, anyway. Get it done “while you’re at it” instead of having to haul the wheel off again in a couple of months, and all that. Remember, work will go much more smoothly if the wheel hub is lifted to ride height during installation.

Some newbie wrench turners might be intimidated by this repair, even if they’ve successfully tackled the likes of brakes or exhaust items in the past. But on a scale of raw difficulty, this truly ranks only somewhere in the middle. Basic hand tools and safe lifting equipment are all that’s really required. Take yer time,  watch some YouTube tutorials, and you’ll be fine.