New Struts or New Mounts?

We’re working great till last week lol....looks like both shocks have busted off
Long time ago. Never seen anything this bad before.

how many miles on this car?

take some more pictures under the car in the front and in the back let’s see how bad the front and rear suspension is under there the struts may be the least of your problems.

 

Fairly certain the damaged parts in your photo is part of the strut itself not part of the car's actual mount.

And these days you can get a really low price online for struts that are already mounted to new springs so it's an easy nuts and bolts swap for DIY folks, though you do need to get an alignment job afterwords to do it right.

 

Oh I see it now. The orange part is the "Bump Stop," And I have never seen a Bump Stop disintegrate like that? So add that part into your to be bought pile. And yes the strut mount and the bump stops are available. But if it has the original struts you should replace those also. The whole strut assembly has to come out and be disabled to replace the strut mount or the bump stop. It makes no sense to replace just those parts. And E bay, Amazon or RockAuto all have the parts. But something is going on here? Are the parts all original? What do the tires look like?

And here is an overview of what you'd knew to do.

And you'd need a coil spring compressor to take the strut assembly apart and put it back together. And you can rent those from most auto part stores.

 

So much less hassle to just buy springs, struts and mounts all pre-assembled and ready to install, especially considering how badly damaged these are. Those cheap spring compressors can kill people!

 

You don't "need," a multi thousand dollar coil spring compressor to compress a coil spring? Shop's use them because, time is money not because a hand coil spring compressor is "Dangerous?"

But he was asking about individual components not the whole strut assembly? If he wants to replace the whole deal as an assembly? Easier still, you don't need a spring compressor at all. You just leave the car on the ground, undo the strut mount bolts break them loose. Leave the top nut alone and the whole assembly drops out as a unit.

To disassemble, as a unit, with the weight on the car hit, the strut nut with an impact gun to undo it. The weight of the car keep's the spring compressed. The weight of the car keep's the spring compressed, then jack the car up and the pieces come apart not under tension.

You only need to compress the spring, if your taking the Strut Assembly apart, otherwise you can safely remove it as a unit. But I don't what, the OP plans to do or replace?

 

yes... Ever since I started watching tik-tok there's an amazing amount of repairs you can get done by creatively using the weight of the vehicle rather than powerful expensive tools only a high volume shop can afford.

 

Do you have a link to the tik-tok thing, I'm not sure how that works?

The leaving the car on the ground bit and using an impact gun, is not me. That came from my friend way back in the mid 80's? It sounded nut's to me at the time but what the hell? I'll try and see what happens? It worked out fine.

The cheap coil spring compressor back in the day. Did not have "retaining clamp's," to secure the coil spring? What that meant (first hand experience) is that as you tightened down the spring compression the clamp could slip, and as you loosen the top nut, it could shoot that top nut off like a hand grenade! A truly butt pucker experience. 1981 Chevy Citation I was changing over to Koni Shocks.Good time's good time.

And yep you are correct ,if you just swap the complete shock, spring, top mount assembly out ... you don't need a spring compressor. You just take the top nut off with the car on the ground and no one need's to die. And put the new assembly in place and thread down the top mount and lower the car to seat the strut.

But I did miss that because I don't do stock. I usually change to Camber Plates and shorter spring's so no need for a Spring Compressor to reassemble.

But my wife is not really a fan of my work? Dropping our Gen 2 will not really set to well with her? But hey it does have a leaking rear shock! So I got my opening!

 

Ask a teenager to show you how to use tiktok

As for your wife, how about you compromise and lower the car an inch on the front and lift it an inch on the rear?

 

Aww well these day's my life revolves around helping vet's (I am a PCA, personnel care assistant) training dog's (Boxers and Working Line German Shepherd and Pitty guy)
and well car's. I don't know any teenagers?

I have never raised a car a car in my life? I was gonna drop our fuel sucking, Denali but my wife wrecked it.

But why would I drop the front and raise the back? I don't get it?