Well, I really f%^&*d up this time....Had the car on jack stands, doing an oil change. The idiot at the garage that did my last oil change put the filter on too tight. I have a strut tower bar, and it was in the way of my using a longer socket rachet to undo the filter housing.

Without thinking, I thought - Oh, I'll just remove the brace...

You guessed it - my struts (well, one) dropped.

The driver's side piston was down, so "all" I had to do (it was a giant PIA) was to get a helper, and ease the car down so that the three mounting bolts came up through the holes.

BUT - on the passenger side, the piston won't decompress and the strut is pushing up at an awkward angle, and I cannot budge it.

How do I get the piston to go down, so that the wheel will drop and I can do what I did on the other side? I need to knw how to do this WITHOUT removing the wheel (that's another story - had new tires put on recently, asked them to torque the bolts, I still can onoly get two of the four bolts out - and with a breaker bar, they are starting to strip - so I don't want to go any further...) SO, the car is propped up on one side with the jack now.

What a giant mess I'm in - please help!!

 

I may have found a solution - has anyone tried this? Apparently Randy Webb found an ingenious way of using three, heavy-duty rachet type tie-down straps to compress the spring. I think that is all I need to do - once the spring is compressed, I can move the strut mount back into position - and check for cracks while I'm at it! Even thought the tire is on the car, and the strut assembly is attached at the bottom, since the car is jacked up on that side, if I compress the spring, that should lower down the top part of the strut - does this make any sense?

Anyone out there think this sounds like a viable solution?

Here's a photo of using the tie-downs to compress the spring:
http://lyle.smu.edu/rcam/cpm3v/minis...isprings_8.htm

 

That should work, as long as you can get the straps on. The spring should compress easily at first, and get stiffer as it compresses more. Try to strap around as many links as possible and use at least 2 straps to have a more even compression.

Does your car have a front anti sway bar? If so, "lowering" the driver's side may give you more clearance on your passenger side.
Good luck.

 

I'd suggest er, using a different vehicle, and loaning a spring compression tool from autozone.

 

I'm lost here, but I'm trying to figure out why you would need to compress the srping?? If you only took the 3 13mm nuts off at the top of the strut you shouldn't need to compress the spring to get it back together. Maybe if you can snap a picture and get that up here, it would help us see whats going on. Having the sway bar still connected might be giving you a problem too. I would try taking off the end links to the sway bar and try that??

 

I'm confused myself, why the entire tire/wheel/strut assembly dropped to the ground on the driver's side but not on the passenger's side...

Basically, even though the car is way jacked up on the passenger side, the wheel is still on the ground, and the entire assembly above it is extended - so that the top of the strut, with the plate (the one that comes up underneath the strut tower and is fastened with three screws on the engine side) is tilted away at an angle and wedged - it's close to the strut tower, but as it is, I cannot budge it. It appears that I only need a 1/2 inch or so of clearance to be able to shift it back into place to where I can align the holes with the strut tower holes - and I can't jack up the car any further, when I tried that, the spring expanded too so it didn't relieve the problem.

Don't know if that makes better sense. I was trying to figure out a way to compress the spring so i can move the thing back into place.

Does my description help you out any further?

I appreciate the help!!

 

My car is a 2005 and has stock S suspension - so if there is a front anti-sway bar with that, I have it - otherwise, no...

Thanks - I am going to get three of the heavy-duty straps, like in the photo i attached, and try that. It seems that I only need to compress the spring about 1/2 to one inch to be able to shift the assembly back into place...

If that fails, would I be able to use a spring compressor tool with the wheel still on??

 

Are you able to lift up both sides of the vehicle?? If so lift the both to equal heights then get some help again to align the strut into position. With the front in the air and both wheels off the ground you should be able to get both struts in without straps or spring compressors...

 

I wonder if by installing the drivers side with the sway bar still connected to BOTH sides if that may be the problem. By doing so the sway bar may be forcing the passenger strut assembly up against the mounting pad. Have you tried disconnecting the sway bar on the passengers side? I think that may be what you are fighting against. Just a thought that popped into my pea brain.

 

Your tire and wheel still being on is a big hamper. Start with that first, after all that's going to have to be tackled anyway. Once all that weight is off and you can get a clearer view in there, you'll be better off. I think you probably shouldn't have lowered the car while fixing the first strut. You should have left it on the jacks and used a Jack to lift it back up. When you lowered one side, you probably pushed the other one up and jammed it. Get that wheel off so you can see what's going on. That strut should go straight up with no problems.

 

Unfortunately, a big part of my problem was that I couldn't get all of the lug bolts removed to take off the wheel!

Nevertheless, I am happy to report that all is well now.... I used three racheting tie-down straps, and while they compressed the spring just fine, it didn't really help me - the top-most spring coil was pushed up hard, and I could not budge it - much less try and get the strap around it.

I ended up using a small pry-bar tool, a 2x4 and my hips! Using the pry-bar, I worked from the top to lever down on top of the strut plate, which freed it up a bit to move. While I did this, I banged the wheel with my hip and shoved it closer into position. I managed to get a 2x4 piece of wood under the wheel to help hold it up into place (without that, the whole assemblage kept falling out of place every time I released hip pressure), and using the pry bar, kept working the plate closer to the holes. Before I knew it, they popped up through the holes, back into place! (insert emoticon for "Whew!!" here.)

I actually started a new thread - "The Official Stupid Mistake List" - in honor of my error - I definitely learned some things from this one!