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In this video, we're going to be working with our 2011 Chevy Camaro. We're going to show you how to remove and replace your vehicle's front strut. We are doing this on the passenger side, but the procedure will be the same on the driver's side. We do recommend you replace any suspension components in pairs.
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Here are the items you'll need for this repair: full metric socket set, ratchet, ½ inch breaker bar, full metric wrench set, 7mm allen wrench, locking pliers, torque wrench, torque angle finder, jack, jack stands
Using a 22 millimeter socket and a breaker bar, we'll loosen all of our lug nuts. Raise and support your vehicle. We are doing this on the lift to make it easier to show you what's going on. This can easily be done at home on a jack and jack stands. With the tire off the ground, go ahead and finish removing your lug nuts and the wheel and tire assembly.
Support the back side of the sway bar link joint with either a pair of vice grips or a wrench if it has the provisions for one. Loosen the 15 millimeter nut on the other side with a socket and ratchet. We actually just replaced ours, so once I crack this loose, it's just going to come off by hand. You'll just want to keep ratcheting that off normally and remove the sway bar link from the strut. This is where you want to put your vice grips, or your wrench. This is our part that we've already installed, so ours fits a 17 millimeter wrench. The factory ones are round. You'll need to clamp on to those with a pair of locking pliers. On the front side, we'll pop the ABS sensor wire out of its retainer on the strut.
To disconnect the brake hose that is also attached to the strut, we'll need to loosen the 10 millimeter bolt on the back side with a 10 millimeter socket and ratchet. We'll then just allow the hose to hang out of the way. We'll now remove the two lower strut bolts. These are 24 millimeter on both sides. Occasionally, the bolt side over here is splined and locks into the aluminum on the hub when you tighten it. We'll support that with a wrench just in case and use a socket and ratchet on the other side. All right. These are not splined, so you will need to support it with your 24 millimeter wrench while you loosen it. We'll now do the same thing to remove the other bolt.
Your best bet to remove that bottom bolt is just to wiggle the steering knuckle. Might have to lift up and down a little and remove the bolt. Carefully lower it and allow it to hang. Ours hangs nicely. There's no tension on either the brake hose, or the ABS line. We'll just allow it to rest like this while we undo the top bolt. Undo the cover on top of your strut, just spins off by hand. There is a hex inside of here. If you need to counter hold it, but odds are you can hold the strut and loosen the nut with a 24 millimeter socket and ratchet.
Ours is spinning, so we're going to use a 7 millimeter Allen key and a pair of pliers, locking pliers to hold the center in place while we use a 24 millimeter wrench to loosen up the nut. You could also usually remove these with an impact gun, usually works pretty well. If you don't have one, you can also do it manually like this. Now we're right about at the end of our nut. I'm going to use those vice grips and brace against the hood strut here, hold my strut with the other hand and finish backing off the nut on top. Once that's off, we'll pop out our Allen key and our nut and remove our strut from the vehicle.
Carefully reinstall your strut into the vehicle, back up though the top. Get the nut started on there as far as you can. We're just going to allow this to hang. Reinstall the bottom and we'll tighten this down once the weight of the vehicle is back on it just to make things a little easier. Reinstall the steering knuckle into the strut. Have a bolt in hand and ready, so you can put it through and keep everything in place while we line up the other side. Once again, it's going to take a little wiggling to get the other bolt through. Make sure our cables and hoses are out of the way. Reinstall the two 24 millimeter nuts. We'll now snug these bolts down without out tightening them fully just yet, because we are going to torque them.
We'll torque both bolts to 59 foot-pounds. We'll then add 180 degrees. Reinstall the brake hose into its retainer, along with the 10 millimeter bolt, which we'll then tighten down with our socket and ratchet. Go ahead and pop your ABS sensor back into the bracket. Reinstall the sway bar link into the top of the strut, using a pair of vice grips, or the appropriate size wrench. Keep the back side of the sway bar link from turning and use your 15 millimeter socket and ratchet to reinstall the nut.
Reinstall your wheel and tire and get all five of your lug nuts on as tight as you can by hand. You may also use a 22 millimeter socket to help you spin these in. Lower your vehicle back onto its wheels. You can now torque your lug nuts to 140 foot-pounds in a cross pattern. You can now tighten the strut top nut with a 24 millimeter socket and ratchet. They're usually a little less prone to spinning once you have the weight on them. You should just be able to do this with a ratchet. You can then torque to 52 foot-pounds. Don't forget to spin your little cap back.
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