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PARTS USED:
Set of sports springs from Pi, Eibach or Spax
(If fitting Eibachs, you must also fit uprated dampers.
Also consider doing this if your dampers have over 40k miles on them)
TIME TAKEN:
From 4 to 7 hours.
TOOLS NEEDED:
Suspension coil spring compressors (good quality ones such as Sykes - Pickavant)
TORQUE SETTINGS:
Lower shock mounting nut: 73-93 N-m (54-69 ft-lbs)
Start the job the night before you actually undo any of the nuts and bolts on the car by
spraying penetrating oil liberally onto all the fastenings, not forgetting the 12mm bolt
that holds the ABS sensor cable to the strut.
The next morning, starting with one of the front corners, jack the car up (a trolley jack is
useful if you have one) remove the road wheel and support the car on an axle stand. Use a
flat bladed screwdriver and mallet to tap off the clip securing the flexible brake hose to
its bracket on the strut leg and secure the hose out of the way.
Using a 12mm socket, remove the bolt securing the ABS sendor cable to the leg and again
secure it away from the work area. This bolt may still shear off despite having been soaked
overnight. Now you know what the zip ties are for. Switch to a 17mm socket, and using the
steel tube or breaker bar, undo the two lower strut mounts and withdraw the bolts. You may
need to tap these through their mounting holes with the mallet and screwdriver.
Lift the bonnet, and using a 14mm socket, first undo the three nuts each side that secure
the tower brace. Withdraw the brace from the engine compartment and temporarily replace the
nuts on the side upon which you are not working. Remove the black plastic centre cap from
the tower top, and just "crack" the 21mm piston rod upper nut. Don't be tempted to do
anything more than crack the joint: undoing this nut now is dangerous and potentially
irreversible.
Back underneath the wheelarch, manouver the strut out of the car. If you were unfortunate
enough to shear off the ABS cable bracket bolt, you will need to use a sturdy screwdriver or
similar lever to spread the botton mounting of the strut enough to clear the small "pip"
left by the broken bolt. Use a hacksaw to cut this off flush when the strut is out of the
car. Remove the thin plastic gasket from the top mount and put it in a safe place.
CAREFULLY AND EVENLY compress the springs so that there is absolutely no pressure on the top
mount whatsoever. The top mount should be free to rotate before removing the 21mm nut from
the top of piston rod.
With the spring compressed, lay the strut on the ground, place a suitable bar between two of
the mounting studs to prevent it from rotating, and remove the 21mm nut from the top of the
piston rod. Dismantle the strut and carefully remove the compressors from the old spring.
remove the yellow foam bump stop from the strut rod and cut one section fron the bottom
(narrowest) end with a junior hacksaw. This will stop the front of the car bottoming out
over potholes and traffic humps.
Refitting, as they say, is a reversal of removal. Don't forget the plastic gasket for the
top mount, the brake hose or the ABS sensor. The heads of the 17mm lower mounting bolts
should face the front of the car. Torque everything up (settings as above), replace the road
wheel, let the car back down to the ground and do the other side.
The rears are essentially the same as the fronts, however there are only three top mount
nuts to deal with. The easiest way to do the rears is to remove the rear parcel shelf so
that you can reach the top mounting nuts from the inside of the car via access holes in the
rear scuttle panel. These are covered by a grey self adhesive cover. The rear tower brace is
a split design, you will need to undo the 16mm bolts in the centre section before it can be
removed. The lower mounting bolts can't be withdrawn from the strut until the disc caliper
has been swung out of the way. Remove the top mounting bolt from the caliper completely,
loosen the lower one and swing the caliper down and away from the strut mounting bolts until
they can be withdrawn.
Don't cut the rear bumpstops until you know that you need to. Drive the car for a week or
so; if it bottoms out regularly, then you probably need to trim them in the same way as the
front bumpstops. Fortunately, it is just possible to do this without removing the struts
again by pushing the shock boots up the legs and trimming the bumpstops off carefully with a
Stanley knife. Don't forget that the lower strut mounting boltheads at the rear of the car
face backwards.
Once all four wheels are back on the ground, bounce the car up and down a few times to
settle it down. Give it a week or so, then have a good four wheel alignment done. Don't
skimp on this, it really is essential.
When the job is done, and everything is correctly aligned, you should notice a worthwhile
improvement in your car's handling. Turn in is a lot quicker and sharper, and body roll is
largely eliminated. The car shouldn't understeer as much as a standard Xedos, and when it
does finally let go it does so in a predictable fashion. The steering will be heavier (no
bad thing given the over light steering of the factory set-up) and the car will dive less
under heavy braking.The downside is a slight but noticeable increase in road noise, and a
slightly harder (but not uncomfortable) ride quality.
Finally, a word about springs. The Pi springs are moderately uprated, and will work well
with standard dampers provided they are in good condition. The Eibachs are considerably
uprated compared to factory springs, and should only be considered as part of a spring and
damper replacement. I have no experience of the Spax springs for a Xedos 6, and I don't know
anyone who has them. If you choose these, the best advice would be to contact Spax and see
what they recommend.
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