removing front spring without a tool

[xisco44]

hi this is how to remove and install oem spring without a compresor thing.
to remove the spring do as instructed, then push the spring away watch out with ur eye.

now the hard part how to put it without the special tool?
place the spring underneath the car and jack it up, so u can put all the weight of the car on one side of the car, so the weight of the car can compressed the spring, once u have the car compressing the spring get a bunch of zipties or some sort of an strong wire and wire the spring up.
u need a bunch of wires speaker wires would do the job

then raise the car again slowly watch out that the wires are able to kept the spring compressed. once the car is up and the spring is compressed put the spring on the strut and put it back on the car
once u put the strut on the car and torque to specs just remove the wire or cut them up.

sorry for my grammar im from panama
i know its gettho its cheap but it works i wasnt going to pay 50 bucks for labor and i wasnt going to buy the spring compressor for like 40 bucks.

[axthrower]

By far the most stupid thing I have heard today..

[Tefal]

sometimes u have to do what u have to do, but its not a very safe way! u are lucky u still have your fingers!

[Eryan36]

I will call you Frodo.

[jasonf860]

Of course be forewarned that the recoil of said spring can LITERALLY:eek: TAKE YOUR HEAD OFF:eek: if your wires or whatever let go!! Seriously, don't be an idiot:nono. If you don't have the proper tools, or suitable replacements, don't do the job.


Next we'll all be jacking up our cars with a 2x4 and a rock.

[Bluebimma]

How do you expect to put it back in. :dunno Maybe youre superwoman/man

[xisco44]

well i did and no problem whatsoever and i know it was dangerous as hell but it was a one time thing i hope lol

[bmxludwig]

Because it is sooo hard to go the the hardware store, and buy a couple pieces to make a spring compressor. All you need are a couple long threaded shafts, 8 nuts to fit the shafts, and a couple "U" pieces. I made mine for under 10 bucks, and they work great. I am happy to know that the springs won't fly off and break my teeth. Which they could easily do.

[Critter7r]

Wow. I think we know who the "tool" is here.

If you're going to do that, just undo the top nut and then jack up the car until the spring falls out from having no compression force. Then unbolt the strut from the knuckle and unbolt the strut bearing from the strut tower. And then you just put in the new strut mount and lower car back down onto the strut and spring and put the nut back on when the shaft comes back up through the strut mount. Not the best way, but I've seen it done that way and it doesn't involve zip tying the spring in a compressed position and "watch out with ur eye".

[Nacanowhere]

Because it is sooo hard to go the the hardware store, and buy a couple pieces to make a spring compressor. All you need are a couple long threaded shafts, 8 nuts to fit the shafts, and a couple "U" pieces. I made mine for under 10 bucks, and they work great. I am happy to know that the springs won't fly off and break my teeth. Which they could easily do.


yeesh I'm sure that tool works fine.. but still use extreme caution - I've seen serious mishaps while using an actual compressor and having it fail. Fortunately the spring just shot a hole through the spring hat and fender.. but this was a professional grade tool, I don't think I could trust something I Home Depot'd.... much less speaker wire and zip ties like this Frodo's talking about. :confused

[xisco44]

lol frodo !!! it work it work
the thing in us is that u are pussys u need the right tool , the right everything yes it make the work easier but hey im not wasting my sweet money on stupid tools lol.

sorry if i hurt a full country lol i love ur girls soooo much

[hooRAH]

I'm imagining cletus from the Simpsons with a compressed spring wrapped in speaker wire and zip ties with the scissors an inch away about to cut the wire and yelling:

"Hell yall, watch this!"

[xisco44]

btw i love u guys i have solved so many issues in my bimmer thanks to u all.

[maximussom]

Just rent one but good luck with the nut that holds the spring in. Impact wrench or you can turn all day long for both. then have the spring pop out at you.

[synthply]

Awesome thread! Now I can go back to the trailer park and change the springs on my cousin's '85 Camaro without no stupid spring compressors.

[Pneumatic]

Let him change it the way he wants. When it pops loose and lodges snuggly in his skull we can chalk it up to yet another "thinning of the herd" and we will have a new winner of the Darwin Award.

[xisco44]

hey but i already change it i make a post of my car how it looks after lol im still alive

[synthply]

I'm sure your 318 with stock 15's looks sooo sick dropped

[xisco44]

its stocker is not supposed to be dropped

[xisco44]

im the mcgiver of fixing bimmers i do whatever with what i can find on my house

[Blanco]

Nowhere to rent tools where you live?

If I can't do something safely, I don't do it. Working on my car is not worth my life.

[xisco44]

to be honest there is nowhere to rent the tools, so it could be a good business. Now that u talk about it, but usually labour here is pretty cheap u can get ur car alligned with like 20 dollars :P and change all shocks for like 80.00, anyways the day that i was going to replace the front struts, i ask for the spring compressor to an uncle but he didnt have it with him, and i try to buy one but it was like 40 bucks, so i came with that idea, to be honest its really not that dangerous at the least the part where u compress the spring with the weight of the car.

[Blanco]

It is dangerous. Extremely dangerous. That spring has enough power to crush your skull or chest. Meaning it can kill you instantly if it flies off.

That said, buy the tool and do suspension jobs for people. It'll pay for itself.

[SpeedTheory]

This is ridiculously dangerous. We're not talking tire mounting machines, alignment racks, etc. We're talking about a $40 set of spring compressors. This is one of the silliest ways to cheap out on a car I've ever heard of.

[noise boy]

You all realize that the OP lives in Panama (the country, not the beach in Miami). I am pretty sure that there isn't a tool rental place right around the corner from his house. Props and a bravery award to him for figuring out a way around an issue.

Robert

[pwlorraine]

+1 for being resourceful and working around not having the proper tool

-1 for being reckless.

We are fortunate in the US that worker safety by and large takes precedence over cost savings - not everyone around the world can afford to do this to the same extent so people need to be resourceful. But you probably could have made a safer spring compressor as others have pointed out. This was about time trumping safety rather than money.

Next time invent a safe way to get around a hurdle and people will be patting you on the back. Count yourself lucky this went well THIS TIME and be more careful in the future.

Peter

[TCarlisle]

When I did my springs, I went to Autozone and used the loan-a-tool program to get the proper tool. Probably not an option in Panama, but for the US-based folks reading this, please investigate options before carrying out this procedure.

http://www.autozone.com/in_our_stores/loan_a_tool/steering_suspension/spring_compressor.htm

If procuring a tool is not an option, for whatever reason, then there are better ways. Someone has already mentioned just unbolting the top nut and then raising the car, then assembling and using the weight of the car as the spring compressor.


If for whatever reason you choose to proceed along the lines of this OP, at least go to the hardware store and buy steel cable, and wrap it around several times. There is no way in hell plastic zip ties will hold this amount of force, and speaker wire is not much better.

By the way, if the goal was saving money..... speaker wire that I use probably will hold the force of a compressed coil spring, but it is probably more expensive than buying the tool.

[xisco44]

You all realize that the OP lives in Panama (the country, not the beach in Miami). I am pretty sure that there isn't a tool rental place right around the corner from his house. Props and a bravery award to him for figuring out a way around an issue.

Robert


You got the point im aware is not the best way to do it but those were the circumstances

[xisco44]

You got the point im aware is not the best way to do it but those were the circumstances

byt the way panama city on spring break rulez lol

[xisco44]

[quote=TCarlisle;10891722]When I did my springs, I went to Autozone and used the loan-a-tool program to get the proper tool. Probably not an option in Panama, but for the US-based folks reading this, please investigate options before carrying out this procedure.

http://www.autozone.com/in_our_stores/loan_a_tool/steering_suspension/spring_compressor.htm

If procuring a tool is not an option, for whatever reason, then there are better ways. Someone has already mentioned just unbolting the top nut and then raising the car, then assembling and using the weight of the car as the spring compressor.

thats exactly what i did! lol, i wasnt able to explain the first part correctly, and u can compress the the spring using the weight of the car

[Alex0607]

Sometimes when we have done a good job with a DIY task that is somewhat out of the norm, we can be happy and be proud of it but honestly, to the OP, it is something that we should keep to ourself as not everyone has the same skill as the OP to open and fix a spring without a compressor. In fact it can be dangerous and have serious repercussion to an unsuspecting person. An innocent guy would come along and read this and thought hey! if someone can do this without using a proper tool, then he can probably do it too. And he may end up being hurt seriously. Who is to be blamed?

I always remember what my brother said to me that when counseling someone it is best to counsel with caution or leave it to the expert and if we do counsel or advice regardless, we may do more harm than good. Hope we learn a lesson here.

And probably good to put a disclaimer at the end of every DIY just in case.

[TCarlisle]

Well, or at least put a disclaimer on a DIY that has a pretty good chance of injury or death.

[Headnsouth]

Zip ties and speaker wire?? WTF? I highly doubt either would hold the force on those springs. :nuts step away from the bong dude

[weld]

an easier way is to use an impact wrench (if you have one).

with the strut/spring assembly off the car, lay it down on the ground and stand on the spring. face the bottom of the strut away from you and unbolt the top bolt with the impact wrench. strut will slide maybe 3-4 ft away and the spring will stay underneath your foot. people over exaggerate the force of the spring when it doesn't have the weight on it.

sadly, you need a spring compressor to get a spring back on, but this is the best and by far the fastest method to remove the front springs. done it quite a few times with zero potential dangers.

[etxxz]

for the future.

advance auto parts rents this "special tool" for FREE. on a second note, my fingers, eyes, and head are definetly worth more than $25, needless to mention the ammount of time and effort that you put into doing that.

[TuHandy]

Well that was a interesting read. All I can say is WOW,

I would not have believed someone would ever try that, soooooo dangerous.

I just got done installing some H&R springs yesterday and I was even nervous using a spring compressor. I know how much force was on that spring, if the compressor broke that thing would go flying right a me. PLEASE DO NOT TRY THE CHEAP METHOD. Go buy, rent, borrow, steal if you have to (kidding).

Any ways to change subject slightly.

I have the car at Les Schwabbs getting aligned right now. The guy called and said the camber or caster, cant remember, was way out and he didn't think he would be able to align it correctly. He was going to install some type of aftermarket camber adjuster, but still didn't think he could get it 100%.

Has anyone else had any trouble getting their bimmer aligned after installing lowering springs?

Thanks

[maximussom]

Yeah he could rent the tool from advance or autozone if he was in the states but unfortunatly he's in panama so i dub thee big balls for being resourceful.

[xisco44]

Yeah he could rent the tool from advance or autozone if he was in the states but unfortunatly he's in panama so i dub thee big balls for being resourceful.


wtf panama is soooo cooolllllllll

[FUNNIEGUS]

I just changed my struts today and used a spring compressor. The one's with the bolt and hooks. And they suck! After ten minutes of tightening by hand stupid thing still wasnt compressed enough for me to screw on the nut on the strut. I was cautious as hell because my shop instructor told me stories about what happens when springs start flyin. So I said screw it and went to a shop and got both my springs installed on my struts for 35 buks. I also hypothisized out a way to get them on with out using a toll. Just bolt on the spring hat to the tower, bolt on the strut with the hardware on including the spring. Then place a jack on under the bottom ball joint and jack it slowly And position the strut until it goes into the strut hat then just screw on the nut. Dont know if that method will work but I'm going to give it a shot when I get my springs I ordered in.