I am needing to replace my front struts and rear shocks the only thing is im unsure about what I need to replace and how its done on the front. For the struts, do I replace the strut and the spring, or just the strut and reuse the old spring? Car has 175,000 miles and I dont think they have ever been replaced. Also when I take the assembly out I do need to compress the coil, right? Because in my haynes manual it doesnt say i need to, but I know otherwise that they should be, Id just prefer not to spend the day in the er. And thirdly I heard that after I do this replacement I need to have the car realigned. Is that necessary? Thanks for all your help.

 

reuse the old spring. yes you need to compress the springs or get protective clothing and helmet. and yes you will need to have the front realigned.

 

The spring probably doesn't need to be replaced but with so many miles you may want to replace the strut bearing. That's all the way at the top of the strut and the weight of the car rests on it. It has ballbearings inside to allow wasy strut movement during turns. It'll be easy to check for ease of movement once you compress the spring and take the nut off the top of the strut.

BTW, you want to be extra careful when setting up and using a spring compressor. If you compress the spring and it slips out of the compressor and hits you it will seriously hurt you and could even kill you. There's a *lot* of stored energy in a strut spring. If you have a local garage with a wall-mounted strut compressor you may want to go there with your old and new struts and have them do the swap. Much safer.

 

strut bearing????? not one on mine.

 

Neither here.....

 

4th Gens have all shocks, there are no struts. Your front shock nuts are likely to be rusted & need replacing, after torquing the new ones properly, ya might want to cover them with marine grease to help prevent that going forward.

 

These shock install videos should be helpful:
http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/suspen...all-video.html

 

At 175000 miles I would definately be replacing the springs, but that's just me.

 

Thanks for all the information. But are you sure 4th gens dont have struts because im pretty sure mine does. Struts in the front and shocks in the rear.

 

^ 4th Gen Camaro is an Upper A-Arm car, 3rd and 5th Gen are Strut cars...