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Lowering spring install - what not to do....

gerard_finn200

gerard_finn200

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Location
Mayo, Ireland
Car
2.2 Accord i-CTDi
So as some of ye know I decided to get a set of Eibach Pro springs for the car, got them delivered on Wednesday and yesterday evening I decided to tackle the job in my uncles garage.
The first few steps were quiet easy and none of the bolts were badly seized, having removed the shock and old spring from the car I took the original spring off and clamped the new one, ready to install. To my horror though, the threading on the clamp failed, basically. So leaving me with a shock and spring out, four new springs to be fitted and one clamp, I had to take a trip to Halfords (the only place open at half 7 in the evening) :rolleyes: To make matters worse they didn't even stock them!!

So after an hour trawling the town for a garage, motor factors or tool hire I managed to get a set off some man that had his own private garage. I came back and realising the time, decided to put back the one original springs as I didnt want to be out 'till 12 trying to fit a lowering kit.

The start of the job wasn't bad but refitting the shock and spring was torture, I'm sure there's a knack to lining up the notch on the shock and the fork with the bolts in the engine bay, but I didn't have it. :eek: I'd say I spent a good hour alone removing it, compressing and adjusting the position of the top mount until it all sat correctly.

Don't get me wrong I'm not here b1tching about it all :lol: I just want to give a word of warning to anyone thinking of doing this job, although it's easy to remove the shock and compress the springs, refitting is quiet difficult and you'd really need a second pair of hands. Also make sure your spring compressor's have a good thread as you definitely don't want them slipping half way through. Plus you really need to do it on a full working day just incase you need to get to a motor factors!! ;)

So after giving the whole job a good "blessing" I packed up and called to my own mechanic on the way home :rolleyes:
 
Can you put some pictures with eibach springs latter.
 
ya fitting the springs on my car was torture aswell, luckly i just got a few of the lads to give me a hand to put the shocks back into place, have to get new front shocks soon and not looking forward to it :L
 
Tomas44 said:
Can you put some pictures with eibach springs latter.
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Yeah I will do for sure! It's going to the garage anyway to get the job done right!

As for those shocks Paul, they're a nightmare! There has to be some way of getting them lined up correctly?
 
Black Hawk said:
As for those shocks Paul, they're a nightmare! There has to be some way of getting them lined up correctly?
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i ended up using a hammer at 1 stage to try and get to bottom to line up,best thing is to use a crowbar and get someone to stand in it to get the bottom suspension to lower so you can squeeze the shock into place, took me a full day to get all 4 done :L
 
I think you need a small bottle jack to raise the bottom arm up to the bottom of the strut..
 
i want to get my car lowered, can anyone point me towards a link for a 2004 executive./. the eibach ones.

i'm going to see a indy garage check how much it will cost.
 
toffee_pie said:
i want to get my car lowered, can anyone point me towards a link for a 2004 executive./. the eibach ones.

i'm going to see a indy garage check how much it will cost.
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http://www.dcperformance.co.uk/uprated/eibach-pro-kit-springs/honda/accord.html
now choose correct springs for your engine as 2.0 are different from 2.2 and 2.4, and I abelieve you've saloon as Eibach is not doing for tourer anymore.
 
F6HAD said:
I think you need a small bottle jack to raise the bottom arm up to the bottom of the strut..
Click to expand...

I had a trolley jack there to lift it up, the problem wasn't lining up the fork and bolt holes. But when the whole strut and spring was put back together the alignment of the top mounts and the little notch that sits into the fork was off.

I might be making a bad job of describing this :rolleyes: but after I had fitted the new spring, the five bolts that fix the top of the strut to the car wouldnt line up when I had the bottom of the shock sitting into the groove on the fork.

There has to be some way of doing it correctly. Does anyone have a full DIY on this? Or could someone point me to an online workshop manual for the 2004 Sport Saloon?
 
quinn_656 said:
anybody know where to get >40mm lowering springs for an '04 diesel accord?

willy
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Generally a good idea is to google it, I had Apex springs before and they were around 45mm lower, Eibach (which I would recommend) do a Pro Kit which gives 35mm drop or a Sportline Kit which gives around 55mm of a drop!

I'm not totally sure but I think dcperformance.co.uk should have them?
 
On any car when refitting a strut I usually put the strut straight up into the shock tower and loosely bolt it up. You can then just twist the lower shock round until your groove lines up jack the lower arm and tap your bolt into place. Hope this helps =]
 
Also when bolting the top hat back on the strut look at the rubber inside as it will show you where the old spring sat and help get it orientated correctly!
 
Thought it would be appropriate to add this here as have been doing the fronts today (with the help of a 2nd set of hands - which you defo need for this job!) Quick couple of questions for anyone who may know. I had to leave out the rubber spring mountings on re-***embly (see below) as the new ap springs were a fractionally wider that the OEM ones. The new springs fit snug into the shock absorber mounting without the rubber spring mountings, is this likely to be a problem ? Also as i'm doing the rears tomorrow, but, how on earth do you remove the rear side seatback trim/bolster to get to the rear shock absorber mounting ?

DSC01005.jpg
 
toffee_pie said:
niceeeeeee

how low is that???

looks friggin low...
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They are Eibach Pro springs, 35mm drop on the box. Might settle a little more over time, but realistically Eibach springs don't sink much more once fitted.


Blanco808 said:
Also as i'm doing the rears tomorrow, but, how on earth do you remove the rear side seatback trim/bolster to get to the rear shock absorber mounting ?
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I'm probably too late to help yourself but it might help others because it baffled me for a while :)
You'll see where the base and back of the seats meet at the corner inside the door, if you push down the base, there is a bolt holding the rear side bolster in place. Just undo it and the side piece slides up and out of the slots :)

IMG_0046.jpg


IMG_0047.jpg
 
i got the same eibach kit as you but my rear is lower than the front...:$

the front of mine is fine. so my rear tyres will suffer from premature wear unless i do something.

seems camber kits are common here so i might have to take that route.
 
Cheers Gerard completed the rears today before seeing your reply, but managed to find the retaining bolts at the base of the bolsters anyway ;)
 
LOL

have you seen my photos on the other thread, is the rear like yours?
not many CL9s in munster...im off home at the weekend. cant wait for the driving antics
 
toffee_pie said:
LOL

have you seen my photos on the other thread, is the rear like yours?
not many CL9s in munster...im off home at the weekend. cant wait for the driving antics
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Yeah I seen the pics alright, it looks pretty bad :huh: If you manage to take a full length photo of the side throw it up here and we'll take a look. Just sometimes the ground can play tricks ;)
 
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