1sg gen Neon rear struts and springs, PITA?

[RoadWarrior222]

Hi guys,

So the rear struts on my SIL's 1st gen Neon seem to be completely shot. She really doesn't want to put much money into it at all, because we don't think it's got more than another year or two due to corrosion issues, and the electrics are getting a bit funky also.

Anyway, options seem to be, wreckers yard assemblies which don't seem all that well priced for any that are local, around $75 a side :( and they might not last the year or two. Cheapy new assemblies seem to be in the $120 range. Cheapy struts by themselves seem to run at about $30 or $40 though.

I've got some of those spring clamps, and I've done front struts before with those, and a lot of safety chain, but they need a bit of clearance to use on the car, which I usually like to do, to get better compression with the weight on the springs.

So wondering how much of a PITA it is to swap struts without springs on the rear, and whether to volunteer my services or not.... coz I figure she can get shop to stick the cheapies on for about the same as the assemblies.

thanks,


RW222

[cordes]

IIRC the springs didn't need to be compressed enough to necessitate a spring compressor when I did the rears on ours. I could push them down enough by hand to use a gun to remove the nut. Installation was a little more complicated, but nothing to complain about.

[BadAssPerformance]

Chryguy was mentioning the redi-struts that come with new springs and mounts ready to go... sounded like a 30min job with those.

[cordes]

Chryguy was mentioning the redi-struts that come with new springs and mounts ready to go... sounded like a 30min job with those.

That's really easy. Just the three nuts in the trunk and the two holding the strut in. There is the one holding the brake line on their too I guess.

[shadow88]

^^ Best option in my opinion. The strut mounts very likely need to be replaced as well as the struts. This way you get it as am assembly. The only down side is, many of the new struts have an elongated lower hole (hehehe) and require you mark the rear knuckle before you remove them so you don;t ruin the rear alignment.

[contraption22]

The other downside is these "Quick Struts" also usually have a one-size-fits-all coil spring for a given YMME. While there might be 4 or 5 different spring rates from the factory.

[RoadWarrior222]

Well I just went with the "economy" quick struts from my local parts guys, think they were branded Cardinal, but then they had Monroe stickers on the box and surprise "Made in USA".

They did have that elongated top hole in the knuckle clamp. I scribed the knuckle, but for reference, the bolt positioned toward the back of the hole with about 1/8" remaining.

Springs and mounts didn't look too bad when they came off, so I put 'em up for grabs locally on OSDAC, in case anyone needs those or the whole caboodle for a "pattern" or to carve up for the bits and pieces to adapt eBay cheapies.

Rides a helluva lot better. No apparent alignment issues thus far.

Dumb thing had a groaning noise though, hard to pinpoint you seem to hear it through the whole of the bodywork, well that seemed to me to have got louder, but my SiL said it was louder before... anyway was wondering if it was the rear bearings, transmitting more noise now that the struts are stiff. However, couldn't feel play in them and they're not getting hot.