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Reader DWW made me a generous offer of a discount if I ordered from the company he works for.
An offer I was going to accept when...
Two of the tires which were on the car showed serious signs of fall-apart.
The previous owner, while a friend, is not known for his willingness to spend money fixing things. I'm always suspicious of brands I've never seen before on a car.
The three year old Sentury UHP tires appeared to be ready to shed their tread when I took The Beast in for a precautionary balance to crutch me along until I could get past my natural procrastination and get with DWW for new tires.
Tire Kingdom was having a sale of Sumitomo HTR A/S P03, buy three get the fourth free! I've had good luck with Sumitomo, so I went ahead and got tires without contacting DWW.
I hope I don't regret this!
Sadly, the reason I thought I needed to balance the tires did not go away with new tires on a fresh balance.
Looks like it's the strut mounts. They're just $63 each from Rock Auto, but you need to compress the springs to replace them and that gives me the heebie jeebies. I've heard too many stories of injuries.
Then, since the work to get the mounts off is almost the same as changing the struts... I am thinking of getting the $100 each struts at the same time.
The big question is, "Should I buy the compressor tool and DIY, or let an expert do it?"
Have you considered,are they available buying loaded strut assy's? Complete units.Then it would be an R+R,not bad.Curious what vibration symptom you have? Rotation related or road surface condition related? Allan
ReplyDeleteI have not seen any loaded strut units, but I'll go looking!
DeleteOver at newcaprice.com forum navylifer has put up an interchangeability chart that may be helpful. Allan
ReplyDeleteCan you link me? The search function at NewCaprice bites.
DeleteI went back and couldn't find the page either. There seems to be a lot of relevant PPV info on that site though.I looked for loaded struts for that car and came up empty. Looks like you have to piece it together.If you pay for someone to do it ask them not to use an impact wrench to tighten the strut lock nut. I've seen countless techs spin that shaft at 500 rpm tightening that nut, can't imagine what that does to the inner seals. Allan
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going to try doing it myself. The Aussies have lots of VE and WM vids up and they show it well.
DeleteI think I've done harder things.
One guy even unbolted the stem from the strut and showed how far it would fly. Not very. He quipped that he'd never get it back together without a compressor, but it was a good demo that if you're careful about where it's pointed, you're not gonna get hurt even if the compressor fails.
Angus - I have been wrenching since around 1972 and have never had issues with good quality (Sears back in the day) hook type compressor rods, you need 2 to do one spring. There are some more modern and expensive ones that are safer but cost was an issue back when doing these. Going slow, tightening each side a small bit at a time until spring is loose enough to remove safely. Note that you want it compressed a bit more than the minimum as new bushings might tighten up the space. Setting it down on soft place like grassy ground and bot dropping on concrete is good practice, it can be done. Have done struts on Jetta and Passat but they are lighter cars than yours. Still, don't think it is that big a risk. Easier to replace whole assembly if prices are reasonable, by time you buy or rent a tool plus labor time, might be cheaper to do whole assembly in the driveway. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteYou made the right call buying the tires when you did, and the Sumi’s will be some good tires.
ReplyDeleteMy standard advice to anyone who asks is to buy one of the name brands from a tire store rather than a big box. At similar price points,They’re all about the same, really. This holds true as long as they were manufactured in the first world. NEVER buy Chinese tires.
Can’t help you on the strut question, I’ve only ever replaced them as unitized assemblies… that makes it a pretty easy job.
It doesn't appear that anyone makes a unitized front strut for my car that's available in the US.
DeleteBut, as I am reading, it's a simple job if you have a spring compressor and 2/3 of a brain.
When I had to replace springs in my van I asked my local parts place about buying the tool. They asked why when they had the loaner tool there of I wanted to use it.
ReplyDeleteI returned it with a couple of extra bushings I made for the tool.
Try asking your local parts store if they have loaner tools