Driving the other day down 295s (Balto-Wash Parkway) when I suddenly notice a large metal debris on the right lane. I attempt to avoid it.. but some dumb ass on their cell phone is in the passing lane cruising along like it was Sunday.
If I go over into their lane.. I NAIL 'em.. I stay in my lane.. I hit the debris...
SO... I HITTHE DEBRIS...
"CLUNK, CLANG, BAM BING!!!" I hear under my car. Suddenly I notice that my steering.. when I lean the car over on an curve to the left... is making a bit of a shudder... Like maybe I damaged a tie rod.. or the linkage. I pull over.. see no immediate damage and figure that the debris has bent my rim.
Anyway.. I take the car into a shop I deal with.. and they throw it up on the lift.
Dude is like..
"Damn Money... what the eff did U do to eff that Strut iup like that??? I've never seen one so shot and banged up." "U are gonna have to replace that.. and if U do one.. U might as well do the other since U are almost at 100K."
Anyway.. He was gonna charge me $270 to change it for me if I bought the part. He could do it on Monday (today) and it would be with him for about 3 hours.:(
So... I went to Salvo Auto Parts and picked up some KYB Struts for $93 a piece on Saturday. Came home.. looked at the car yesterday.. said "Eff it... I gotta change the oil anyway..." I was at 13% Oil Life left (That reminds me I gotta reset that mofo). I jacked her up... put my jack stands under.. and went to town.
While I was down there I noticed my brake pads were in need as well... So I yanked them off as the Calipers had to be unhooked anyway. Power Slot rotors were cool, so I held off on turning them. OK.. here's the procedure for anyone who wants to change their struts.
1) Open Hood
2) Jack the car up... then secure with jack stands.
3) Take off the Wheels
4) Take those Calipers off. U will need to in order to get to the Strut bolts
5) Once Caliper is out off the brace... set it to the side preferably on a stand so as to not put stress on the hose
6) The Strut is held on by essentially 3 main Bolts. The main to bolts are obvious. They are held in by a a single nut. Loosen the Bolt using an 18mm Socket. U will not need to hold the other end as it is grooved and will not move while U are turning the nuts
7) Once the nuts are off... take a hammer and bang the nut with a strong WHACK to get it to back out. Move additional brake hardware to the side.
8) The last main bolt is secured to the linkage. U will need a pair of vice grips to secure the back of this one as it will turn as U are turning the nut, which is also removed using a 18mm socket.
9) U will also have to remove a small long nut which I believe is taken off by a 9 mm socket... I think. I can't remember which socket.. but it needs to come off. Move it to the side
10) your bottom portion of the Strut will now be loose
11) Under Hood U will notice 3 nuts in a Triangle towards the opposite ends of the back of the Firewall. Loosen them up... but take care as the Strut will drop when U loosen the last one.
12) Pull Strut out.
The Struts I bought did not come with new springs.. so I had to use the old ones. I did not have a compressor tool so I took the strut to the shop and had them remove the old spring form the old Struts and put them on the new ones. This cost me $40... still saving me $230 and the wait until today to get it done
13) Reverse everything U did to get it out.. to get 'em back in.
Total cost to fix Struts was approx. $240 including parts (would have been $470 if I didn't do it myself)
Also took care of front brake pads and oil change. Pads cost $40 while Advance Auto was having sale on Castrol with Filter for $14.99.
At 92K miles my G6 has cost me very little to keep in proper condition. She still looks as good as it did when I picked her up with exception to some road/pebble paint nicks on the front.
I have changed tires twice. Once getting rid of the original Continetals for Kuhmos after 35K. The Kuhmos were very grippy and smooth riding.. but tread life was dead after about 20K. I have had Yokohamas on since then (getting about 35K with proper rotation, with new ones just ordered from Tire Rack the other day... along with some Michelin PS2s for the Vette to replace the RUNFLATS which have 7500 mile son them and will be going up for sale as soon as the swithc has been made.
Safety:
USE JACK STANDS PLEASE. Do not use just a Jack.
A friend of mine used to use just a Jack all the time until his are was broken in 3 places after his jack failed one day while changing his oil luckily he was able to push most of his body from under the car as he heard the Jack creaking. His arm was caught under one of the tires and a socket extension.
Do not attempt to take spring out yourself. The spring is under a great deal of pressure to hold it in place. Let a shop remove it or buy Struts with them already in place. If a spring hits U.. the force could kill U.
Use Heavy Gloves. U would be surprised how many sharp edges U will encounter under that car.. not to mention bangs and smashes to your fingers and thunbs.
Tell someone U are under that car. My wife checked on me literally every 5 minutes to see if I "was OK.." almost to a point that it was annoying... but I appreciate the fact that I had someone there checking on me to make sure the car hadn't fallen.. and I was underneath of it. That type of attention could be the time difference between life and death.