rev up your engines, today I'm gonna show you how to fix a worn-out suspension in
the case of this rav4 the customer was hearing noise in the Left Front and it
wasn't riding right, so I jacked it up in the air then crawled under and what do
we see hmm the top of this strut is all oily meaning that the strut is
probably leaking, let's check the other side well go to the other side and lo
and behold there's the strut and you can see the whole thing is dry
instead of being dark on the top it's dry so this one isn't leaking as you can
see on the leak inside, the bottom is dry but all the way up is wet, that means
that the strut inside is leaking and the hydraulic fluid is coming down now if
you want perfection in a ride you replace them in pairs you'd replace both
front struts, but whatever you do use quality ones I'm using the KYB, Monroe
or other brands they never seem to work all that long or last for a long period of
time, so I'm sticking KYBs these are made in Japan so we'll take off the tire
get it out of the way, and as you can see here it's all leaking we've got to replace it because
it's leaking away, now here's the replacement strut as you can see it
doesn't have the spring in the top assembly, so we have to remove the whole
strut from the car take it apart then put all the pieces on here and bolt it
back on the car, I'm bolting the torsion bar, bolt here taking these two big bolts
off and of course we have to remove the tie rod arm first so we can get working
room, and then when we flip it to the side it'll come on even so you get
snippers and we put them on a cotter pin and pull it out, then we remove the bolt
on top I'm lazy I'm using an air wrench it's a lot easier than
doing it by hand, now you can try to use a hammer hit that off but often they're
frozen on pretty solid so I use this puller tools it always works just fits in
on it, it just screws on the top of the bolt here and then when you tighten it
it pops right off, there it goes, now by swinging this
we can access all the little bolts we need take off all the parts that are
bolted to it, and as you can see now the hose and everything swings free so when we
pull this back it will go fine, and we take the torsion bar bolt off get that out of
the way, and then remove the two giant bolts that hold it together as you can
see now the whole assembly is released and we switched to the top where the
three mounting bolts are and take them out, we just got them off now the back
ones are harder to get to so I'm using this angled wrench to reach them get it
out I can't even use my impact there there's no room, they fit on and we gotta
pull harder but they come off then the whole assembly falls down and you take
it out here it is, now comes the hard part
you got to compress the spring I'm using these basic spring compressors now you
can buy a whole strut assembly in one, but they cost a fortune and the whole assembly
cost over three times what the good replacement costs without the spring and
assembly, generally the whole strut assemblies
are much cheaper made like the monroe quick struts I tried them they
didn't last long, they didn't ride right, I stick was replacing them with a
quality unit myself, now you stick the spring compressor on one side to squish
it down, put it on then tighten it a little, then go back and forth till you
get the tension off the top
now you can see why I'm using an air tool you can use ranches and do it by
hand, but it takes a lot longer doing it that way
get an electric impact wrench if you want those, we'll take these off too but
once these are tight you take the top off
wiggle it off, then the whole assembly comes off move all the parts and place
the spring assembly on top of the new one, now if you look close you'll see
there's a notch on the end of this and it fits right into the little groove all
then you took the top of the assembly bearing and put that back on there
you got to do some wiggling with these, huh they're done, before you go any
further put the top nut on so it doesn't come
all apart, now that's the tops tight you can start loosening the clamps on the
side little by little, do one side a little then the other go back again, now
you can take them off, then we fish it back through the bottom and bolt the top
on first, that's always a fun part a little wiggling but then you get it on
then put these three one two three back here just on somewhat snug so you can still
wiggle the assembly to get the bottom on, now you gotta slide this, then pull it
up wiggle and put the bolts in, to get them in you got to wiggle the this a lot
but eventually they'll slide in, once you have the top one in
the bottom one, you can wiggle it a little and it's easier cuz the tops in
and the bottom will slide in with a little jiggling and pushing, again you
can do this by hand but it's a lot more work, you get them tight and use a long
extension bar and socket you'll get them nice and tight, then bolt all the
pieces on like the torsion bar bolt, stick the tie rod arm back into its hole
you got to do wiggling but eventually it comes out through the hole where, then
tighten the nut on top of it and put in a new cotter pin, stick the pin in and
then pull it up on the other end with a pair of pliers so it doesn't come loose
bend it up that way it won't come out, and go back up to the top and tighten those
nuts on, put the tire back on and you're done, so now you know how to fix your own car
suspension when a strut wears out and starts leaking, so if you never want to
miss another one of my new car repair videos, remember to ring that Bell