Automobile Maintenance : Changing The Front Shock Absorbers

Had to change my worn-out front shock absorbers (or dampers) for the bi-annual test of vehicle. Worn-out shocks had lowered the vehicle and had also modified the camber angle of tires. Being a purely mechanical job, I decided to do it myself following the instructions of the service manual. This work was performed on the Renault Espace II.



First of all, remove dust and rust from the nuts and bolts that are to be loosened, using a wire brush. 

 Then apply some penetrating oil to the fasteners that might be stuck or jammed or even corroded.

Loosen the lower support of the shock absorber on the upper control arm. For leverage, use two wrenches like shown in the image.

Fastener on the upper control arm being removed.

Once loosened, a ratchet can be used to speed up the process of removing fasteners.

Lower support of the shock absorber finally out.

Shock absorber unit out of the vehicle, after removing upper fasteners too.

Releasing the upper nut of the shock with locking pliers and a wrench.

Spring of the old strut secured with spring compressors. Spring need to be compressed to get out the shock absorber. Springs can be compressed with a ratchet and a socket of appropirate size.

Spring in the compressed form.

Finally, shock absorber is out of the spring.

Old and new shocks.

New shock absorber fitted inside the compressed spring.

Spring released. Strut ready for installation.

Strut mounted in the vehicle and final tightening of the fasteners to the specs with a torque wrench. Job done and certified in the vehicle test.

Lastly, on this particular vehicle, the strut assembly does not rotate with the steering and if one is careful, there is practically no need for re-adjusting the wheel geometry or parallelism after this job on this particular vehicle. However, a quick re-check is not harmful. 

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