Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!
What's up, guys. Here we have a new strut from TRQ. We sell this at 1AAuto.com. It's a strut spring assembly that comes all together like this with a strut mount at the top. We're going to be installing it in our 2009 Honda XR-V. It's not showing any signs of leaking on the struts, but it is a little bit bouncy in the front end, so we're going to go ahead and replace the struts. Whenever you're replacing any front end components, or even removing and reinstalling suspension components, you're going to want to go to a local shop and have your alignment performed, or at least checked, because you don't want to have premature tire wear because your alignments off after you did this repair.
We have a 19mm socket and extension and a breaker bar. We're going to crack the lug nuts free. Now we're going to raise and support the vehicle with a two post lift, and you can use a jack and jack stands. Now with the vehicle raised up, we're going to take the lug nuts off. Now we'll pull the tire off.
This sway bar link is a little bit rusty, so we're going to spray some rust penetrant on it. We'll spray some rust penetrant right here and right here as well. Now we're going to take this nut off. We're going to use a 17mm wrench, get on there, but when we loosen it up. This stud is going to start spinning. So what we want to do, there's a little Allen in there, a little spot for an Allen, so we're going to use a 6mm Allen and I'm just going to hammer it in because this one's a little rusty. Take my ratchet and I'll put it on the tightening setting. Then I'll loosen this up.
This nut is on there pretty hard, so what I'm going to use is a hammer and I'm just going to tap on my wrench to get it started. Just like that. Then with my ratchet, I'll hold the stud, and you can actually go like this to an extent. So this is pretty rusty. I'm going to just use a wire brush to try to get some of this rust off of the stud. Maybe that'll help.
All right, so this nut's giving us some trouble. So the next step, what you could do or we could do, would be cutting this stud off in the back. We could use like a reciprocating saw or a whizzer and get this stud cut. Before we do that, I am going to attempt to use an impact gun. What I'll use is some locking pliers on the back here first. Just lock it onto the stud. I'm just going to work the nut back and forth.
First, I'm going to tighten it. And I'll just go back and forth. And this last time should take it off. And there we go. Got it off. I'll pull the locking pliers off. All right, we're going to remove this wire from the strut. This is for your wheel speed sensor. I should be able to just grab this wire and pull it up out of that retainer. And then over here, just going to use a trim tool. Get behind here and gently pry it up just like that.
Pull that out of your way. I am going to release it over here just to get a little more slack. That'll just give a little more slack for when this falls forward. Now, we're going to remove this bolt that holds the hose for the brake caliper. It's a 12mm, so we use a 12mm socket and a ratchet. Loosen it up. This is a little rusty as well, so we'll spray a little penetrant on there. Spray a little bit of rust penetrant on here on the back side. Let that soak for a little bit. I'll try this again to take this bolt out. It's coming out a little bit easier now. Pull that out. I'm going to take this nut off.
We're going to use a 22mm socket, and I'm going to use a 19mm wrench on this side. We'll break this free. Before I get a ratchet, I'm going to take the 22 and I'm going to use a little extension because the brake caliper is in my way. And I'll take this bottom nut and break it free. All right, now I'll use my ratchet and use a 22mm socket. Take this nut off. Take that nut off. All right, now we're going to use a hammer to take these bolts out. Try to get that brake hose out of your way.
I'm just going to put the nut on here so I don't damage the threads while I'm hitting it. So its a little bit rusty. We can take this nut off now. Should be able to work that bolt out. All right. So I'm going to use a punch and a hammer. Just punch that bolt through. There we go. This I guess going to separate right here. So just keep in mind, when you separate the two, the lower control arm's going to drop down a little bit. It might be a good idea if you're doing this on the ground to have something under here to support that a little bit, and you don't want to take this knuckle and pull it out any further than it is, because that may damage your CV joint if it pulls out too far, but we'll just keep ours like that and we should be good. There's a cover over here over the strut.
The first thing we're going to do is we're going to pull this weatherstripping away. Just pull it up like that. Take a straight blade screwdriver, go in right here, right here, and right here. Just pry up, and then that'll come up. There's the clips right there. There's clips all around. There's nuts for the upper strut mount. There's going to be five up here. We're going to use a 14mm socket and extension to loosen these up. Pull those nuts out. Might help if you have a little magnet to grab them. Do the same with all of these. I'm starting from the further one away, and I'm going to end with the one closest to me. When I take the one closest to me off I'm going to have to support the strut. Once I take the nut out, I can grab the strut and pull it down just like that.
This is our old strut and spring assembly. This is our new strut and spring assembly from 1AAuto.com. It comes with a new springs, comes with the strut, the boot, and the upper strut mount. So get yours from 1AAuto.com and you'll be ready to rock and roll.
So this new strut assembly has new nuts for the strut mount, so I already took the other nuts off. We'll take this off. And you want to keep in mind, there is a warning on here. We'll peel this off. This is just to keep in mind do not take that nut off because then the spring can go flying and it is dangerous. Put that cap back on there. When we install the new one, we're going to want to line these holes up with the holes up there. Just slide it up here. Once you get that out, take one of the nuts, reach over, and get that nut started.
Once that's started, you can let it hand a little bit then you can get the other one started. To get these back two nuts on, I'm just going to put a little grease on the nuts, and then that way that it will stick into my socket so I can flip my socket upside down and it doesn't fall out. Make it a little bit easier installing it.
All right, we're going to snug these down, and then we're going to torque them. All right, now we're going to torque these nuts to 33 foot-pounds. Now we'll put this cover back on, just line them up with the clips. Push it down. Put this weatherstrip right across the top. All right, so we put a screw jack underneath here so that we can line this up, line the knuckle up with the strut like that. Then we can jack it up to where it's supposed to be so the holes line up. We can shake it back and forth a little bit.
Take an upper bolt and install that. Then we can take a screwdriver just to line the hole up on the bottom and take the bolt and slide it in. Just like that. Push it all the way through. Then we can take our nuts and install the nuts. It's recommended by Honda that you replace this hardware when you're installing these. We're going to reuse ours.
Put my 19mm wrench on the bolt side, and I'm going to tighten up the nut side. Just going to use a ratchet, snug it down, and then I'll torque it afterwards. So now I'm going to torque these nuts. I'm going to torque them to 116 foot-pounds. I'll hold the wrench on the bolt while I torque it. This torque wrench we actually sell at 1AAuto.com. That's good.
All right, now I can remove this pole jack. We're going to reinstall this brake hose into this bracket. We'll use our bolt just to get that started. Once you get that started, then we'll use our 12mm socket and extension and ratchet, and we'll snug that up.
I'm going to reinstall this ABS wire. Slide that into the hole right there. May have to push these retainers down just like that. Install that into that bracket. And then this one goes right here. I'll slide the upper stud in here. Can push it down a little bit. Slide that in through the strut. And snug that up. I'm going to use a 3/4 ratchet wrench to snug this nut down, and I'm going to use a 6mm Allen socket to hold the stud from spinning. So I'll stick my ratchet on there. Just tighten this up, and then put the ratchet on loosen, and that will hold the stud while I'm tightening it up.
All right, now we're going to torque this using a 19mm socket and a torque wrench. I'm going to torque it to 58 foot-pounds. It’s kind of hard to do this, the stud is just spinning, so I'm going to just lock the backside of this stud with these locking pliers. That's 58 foot-pounds.
Now we're going to put the tire back on. Line it up with the studs, and we'll take our lug nuts. Put them on. It's easier to use the socket when you're putting the lug nuts on. All right. Then we're going to drop it down and torque them. Now we're going to use a torque wrench and torque it with a 19mm socket. We're going to torque these to 80 foot-pounds in a star pattern. That is going to tighten the wheel properly just like that.
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