Changing shock absorbers?

[lewic]

Have had my Micra LS for about a month now, and the handling isnt great, feels a bit twitchy at speed. In previous post I was concerned how it would perform on the motorway, but so far feels safer there than on twisty A-roads with poor surface.

It had the left rear shock absorber replaced for its MOT the day before I bought it, and I assumed the others were ok. However a friend checked it and said although it isnt an MOT fail, the others are a bit spongy and this is probably causing the instability round corners.

Have decided not to lower the car (go to too many muddy campsites and festivals!), but I'd like to get the other shocks done to improve handling. Have been quoted £216 by a garage, which sounded a lot as I thought it was a quick job, so am thinking of doing it myself.

How easy would this be for a novice? Have a Haynes manual and a helpful mate with tools who has done small jobs on his Escort (though not shock absorbers!). Don't want to start it and end up having to get it towed to a garage to undo the damage, or it be unsafe...

Also, can anyone recommend a cheap place to buy them? Dont want anything fancy as I won't be hammering it. Cheapest I've found were KYB oil shocks @ £83 for the three.

 

[K10Daz]

K10 rear shocks are really easy, Jack the car up on the rear stick it on axle stands, then put a trolley jack on the back axle to support it, take out the bottom bolt on the damper then the top (6mm) spanner or a good pair of vice grips to hold the top of the piston so it doesn't rotate.

Fronts are a bit trickier - you gotta remove spring and the damper as it is one unit (macpherson strut) need a good pair of spring clamps - compress the spring and swap over the dampers.


www.buypartsby.co.uk is where i got my dampers (kyb gas ones) for both my k10 and my k11

hope this helps mate!

Daz

 

[Pete]

that is an excellent quide guide there, hehe.

What I would say is, whoever changed the one shock needs it beating around their head. Shocks should always be changed in pairs

 

[K10Daz]

Gotta agree there dampers should ideally be replaced in pairs on the axle as one will be stronger.

I could give a better more detailed guide if you would like - could take pics too but they would be from my k11 - but they are basically the same!

 

[Pete]

ok i'll grant you this one K11 boy, tho I think there is a guide somewhere and there are some pics of K10 suspension floating about after I took a boat load for batch a million years back.

 

[K10Daz]

started off with a k10 but some woman ran into me and wrote it off so i got a k11 - still know most of the ins and outs of a k10 tho as i did a lot of work on it! So i may have a k11 now but im an old k10 boy at heart lol trying to get another one actually as a little project!

 

[lewic]

Hi Daz
Thanks for the advice. Yes please any photos would be helpful. Please can you email to [email protected]

Don't think I'll attempt the front ones - sounds like we could end up making a right pigs ear of it!

 

[K10Daz]

Ill get that done when i get a chance mate - front ones are a bit of a pain, and quite dangerous if you dont know how!

Daz

 

[Turtle]

I think theres a guide in the members area to doing this. Wanna buy some spring compressors off me? I bought them when I didnt need them!! £10 plus postage

 

[Arnold]

You dont need compressors for the fronts, just undo the necessary bits first then jack the car up! Same effect

 

[james betley]

i had a full set from mansfield shock absorber it cost me £50 a full set front and back and they r normal ones

 

[lewic]

Hi James
Do you have the contact details for Mansfield shock absorbers? Tried internet search and couldnt find anything!
Thanks
Cath

 

[james betley]

i have the number it is 01623 633381 4 mansfield shock absorbers

 

[Fordy]

ive got some monroe uprated gas shocks coming from proven-products (link in my sig) for all 4 £130 they dont do list prices cause the prices change all the time so you will get a better deal, the very nice people even rang me to make sure the details were correct, im lowering it by 35mm at the same time so if you wait till monday if i receive the shocks by thursday/friday i will have it done and can tell you how much better it is on monday