In this video
we're going to be replacing the front struts
on a 2010
Kia Rio
as you can see
I already jacked up the vehicle
put a safety jack stand underneath
and removed the wheel
first thing I'm going to do
is hit all the bolts that I have to remove with penetrating fluid
or PB Blaster as some would call it
let that sit for about, I don't know a half hour to an hour
most of the time what I like to do is I like to soak this
with penetrating fluid like the day before
gives it time to soak in
so while we're waiting for this to soak in
give you a little break down as to why we're replacing the front struts
going down the road
these struts are making a lot of noise
the strut mounts themselves on top
are pretty much shot
and these shocks or struts
are also
dead in the water
they pretty much lost their pressure in the strut
I already did, if you watched the video, I did the rear
shocks or struts
I think their called struts in the rear
but I did those already and now we're going to do the fronts
I just got them in
I ordered the whole assembly with the spring
now
this is not a luxury vehicle
its a Kia Rio
so yes
by ordering
the whole assembly with the spring
and its an after market strut
I am not going to get the same ride with the vehicle
compared to OEM stuff
but like I said this is a Kia Rio
I'm not looking to spend
a thousand dollars on struts
I just want to replace these
to make it safe
and that's my main concern here
now that the penetrating fluid has had time to soak in
we'll go ahead and remove this stuff
I'm going to start with the brake hose first
do the linkage
and then do the two bolts on the bottom here
brake hose
is a
12 mm nut
or bolt
I'm going to use an impact
you can actually use
a ratchet
if that's all you have
obviously impacts make the job that much easier
now the linkage bolt
that is a 14 mm
see if that will come off
that actually came off easier than I thought
now do realize this is under pressure
that linkage rod goes all the way down
to the sway bar
and that sway bar that's going to be under pressure
your going to need something
to push this bar down and get that out of the way
alright push that down
and then you can slide
the link right out of its place
and then release the sway bar
so the brake line is off
sway bar link is off
all that's left is these two bolts
one on the top and one on the bottom
now these do have nuts on the other side so your probably going to need a wrench to hold that nut
those are actually 17 mm nuts
alright
to get these bolts out whether its the top bolt or the bottom bolt
their is a good chance you are going to need a hammer
the top one came out fine
but the bottom one is pretty much pressed in there, probably from all the rust
and pressure
so
we're going to go ahead and just tap this bolt out
or attempt to
and that bolt comes right out, you can see
their is a ton of rust on there
and that's usually what gets these things stuck in there
its okay to tap the end of the bolt
cause you see how it is tapered
you won't hurt the threads
your just hitting this top piece here the tapered section
alright
so now that this is all out
it should be free to move
and you might have to use a pry bar
just to kinda
get that strut off of there
oops, I almost forgot
almost forgot the ABS
brake line
wow that would have been bad
alright
so that's a 10 mm on those
let me put some
penetrating fluid on there
just to
help those come out
so now everything is off
so now we can take a pry bar
stick it in here
and get that
off of there
their we go
on top
you are going to see
this housing area right here
their is three bolts
one
two
three
we're going to remove all three of these
this is just a plastic cover
you don't have to take that out
and just to let you know these are 12 mm
your going to take two completely out
the last bolt
you're going to take that one out
but as you take it out
you are going to hold
the strut
from underneath the fender
so it don't drop on you
okay once you have the tops bolts out
this whole assembly
out of here
alright
careful
for that ABS wire
their you go that's your whole strut assembly
you see this one is pretty
(laughing/chuckles)
its in bad shape
but this isn't the one that's really bad
its the other side that's even worse
but ya
you can feel, their is bearings inside the ah
what's called the strut mount
those bearings in there they get rusted out, they go bad
you know
and when the car is going down on bumps
this whole assembly moves
when it should be
stationary inside this
strut mount here
so anyway
that's the old one let's go get the new one
now be advised
these are side specific
you see up here it says right hand
two different part numbers
so make sure you put the right on on the right side
if you don't obviously its probably not going to line up
so you got the right hand side goes on the right hand side
but its
pretty nice when its new
always looks good when you put new parts in doesn't it
anyway if you move this one around
you can see
their is no play in that
its nice and tight like it should be
alright let's get this in
so what we're going to do first is we're going to line this plate
on the top
and put these three nuts back in
basically its the opposite of taking it out
slide it up with one hand
get one nut started
these are not very heavy so
its fairly easy to
get these on
once there started go ahead and tighten it down
careful when you tighten these down
you don't want to
over tighten these
you will strip
these studs
if your not sure definitely look up you torque specs on this stuff
you want to make sure that all this stuff is where it is suppose to go
so we're going to line up the knuckle
with the strut
or try to
try to get at least
one bolt in there
and this is the biggest pain in the butt right here, is getting this lined up
I can tell that's off a little bit
so let's see if we can turn this just a little bit
their we go
sometimes
these don't line up right away so you have to
turn the strut
to get it to line up
nice and straight in there
and that helps
so your going to take one bolt
put it through
there we go
and take the other bolt
get that in there
there we go
okay
take the nuts
get them started
I'm just putting a little lubrication
on those threads
just to
prevent them from rusting up in the future
once you got those started
tighten them right down
now we got to get this link back in here
now you can see how high it is
here is the hole
its up here
again
we have to
pull down on that
sway bar
to get that link lined up
and in
now I am going to go ahead and just start this by hand
make sure it goes in correctly
and tighten that down
next we'll put the ABS lines
back in place
looks like their is a problem here
see this is what happens when you buy cheap parts
the nut
does not belong on that side, it belongs on this side
for some reason they welded it on the wrong side
I'll just have to go in through the opposite side
to make it work
I'll just bend this back a little bit
their we go
that will work
strut is in place
all we have left to do is put the tire back on
and we're done
and that's how you replace the struts on a 2010 Kia Rio
fairly simple to do
well
for me it is
it might take you a little bit to do it with hand tools
which I am not a stranger to
I've done that in the past
the most important thing I could probably say to you is
apply penetrating
fluid
on all the nuts and bolts
on the threads
that will definitely make it easier to get those out
you all thank you for being here with me I apreciate
your time
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thank you
God bless
see ya on the next one