There is another member on here (now primarily on FB) in teh big city of Houston who might be able to help ya out too. However, $50/corner isn't too bad installation cost, honestly.
Oh, I've done it before. It's that 10 lb right arm limitation. Just popping the main bolts off of the struts will take more force than that. More annoyed about _having_ to pay for it because of the limitation, but I want the problem to go away, not make it worse.zbyers wrote: ↑Thu Jan 30, 2020 9:33 amThere is another member on here (now primarily on FB) in teh big city of Houston who might be able to help ya out too. However, $50/corner isn't too bad installation cost, honestly.
Rears are easy peasy. Two 14mm studs inside the car, one 14mm bolt in the upper wheel well, and then a 17 or 19mm nut for that bottom stud. You can do the rear with tires on.
Fronts are also easy, but require a little more effort. I'd consider buying new sway bar links for the front, especially if you haven't replaced them. They're usually a PITA to undo.
I honestly don't think I have heard of anyone having to do that. We've replaced them on...4 or 5 of our Vibes now and haven't had any issues outside of rust making it difficult. Being in Houston, that should hardly be an issue for you.
I'll bow to your experience. You have about 4 or 5 times the experience I have with shocks on the Vibes
olliesshop wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2020 4:11 am Thanks Jolt ... Given all you've said I think I'm going to go with OEM parts and then assemble the struts. Now I have to figure out which are the right parts and springs. With regard to Rock Auto, I like them and actually got the current struts from them, but I'm way beyond their return date, since installed them 4 months ago. I've looked at them now and they don't seem to have OEM parts, though. So I'll probably have to go somewhere else and spend more.
With regard to the clunking. It was "clunk-free" before replacing the struts, which leads me to believe it's something I messed up on both sides while replacing the struts, or it's the struts themselves. I've replaced the sway bar mount bushings before, but I probably should replace them again. I also triple-checked all the torques on everything that was removed. I then decided to put new sway bar links on, since the noise is somewhat similar to a bad sway bar link, but that didn't make a difference. After a couple of months, the noise was still there, and driving me crazy. So I fabbed up a 21mm impact socket to tighten the shaft nut (but cutting the square part off and welding the two pieces back together). The tool worked great, but the noise remained. I even snapped the top of the shaft off, right above the nut on one side.
It sure is frustrating