Now that I am back in Raleigh, I swear I will never buy a car with rust again.
Needed to replace the shocks and struts, sway bar links and outer tie rods (cracked/broken rubber boots), and had a front wheel bearing going.
Got my parts from
1A Auto | Aftermarket Car Parts - Buy Quality Auto Parts Online , not top of the line but not the bottom of the barrel either. This is just a daily driver/commuter and wasn’t looking to spend a bunch for a premium suspension, so hopefully it doesn’t come back to bite me.
183k miles, was a PA car for most of its life. I bought it in OH at around 120k, now in Raleigh NC.
Frame is still solid, but there is rust everywhere underneath.
It is super clean though inside and out, and paint and body are in great shape.
Front wheel hubs are an easy job, just had to get the loaner axle socket from Autozone. I just did them both since I believe the originals were still on.
Rear shock mount sleeves on both sides were rusted/seized to the mount.
Tried to pry and beat them off, no luck.
Used a jaw puller to pull them off, but just tore the rubber bushing off and left the sleeve still seized to the frame mount.
Tried for quite a while to beat it, rotary hammer drill w/chisel to the tiny crevice at the back of the sleeve, Kroil, heat, more beating, jammed an impact socket on it (didn’t have an extractor socket that big) and hit it with an impact gun hoping it would break loose.
Would budge a bit.
Finally broke out the grinder.
Started at the top and started slowly shaving it off. Didn’t cut straight in as I didn’t want to cut into mount.
Once I ground through the sleeve I could see a line differentiating the metal sleeve from the mount.
Used the line as a guide as I worked my way around shaving/grinding the metal sleeve and not shaving off the mount.
Shaved down on both sides from the top until most of the top half of the sleeve was gone.
At that point I was able to tap the edge of the remaining bottom half of the sleeve and it fell off.
Hit it real good with a wire brush on a drill to ensure all rust was removed and slathered the mount and inner sleeve of the new shock in anti-seize before installing.
Then on the front struts the top plate of the strut mount was rusted/seized to the housing.
After trying everything I could think with no luck, finally got the idea to use a ratchet strap with one hook around the top of the spring (wedges against the strut housing) and the other hook to the frame.
Cinched it down extremely tight. Got the top of housing nice and hot and a couple whacks with the hammer and it popped right off with the downward pressure from the strap.
What an ordeal, on what normally is pretty straightforward.
Probably should have expected it though, put a Magnaflow Cat-back exhaust on it after I got it and there was a lot of “extra” grinding required to get the old one out.
Used a ton a anti-seize on the reinstalls, coated every metal to metal contact surface.
But no more grinding noise from the bearing and no more “extra” bouncing over the road bumps/body roll.
Ball joints and CV axles are still good, but I’m sure my day is coming.
Will probably just replace the control arms at that time, as the current ones look pretty crusty and the bushings should probably be replaced then also.
Probably a whole lot easier (and not much more $) just to replace the CA’s.
Rust sucks.