Hey All:

I just got my Tein S-Tech's yesterday in the mail and I am ready to put them on, but have a few questions, a few of which have been answered by me searching throughout the fourms.

First Question:

I am going to put my S-Techs on the car with the stock shocks. Is this a huge no-no or will i be ok? I looked through the vast amount of fourms on this and it looks like i will be ok for a few thousand miles, which by then i should have gotten my Tokico HP's.

Second...
My friend owns a 2004 Mazda 6 and he is lowered. He put his springs in by himself with only a jack and stands. So he asked if i wanted him to put mine in for me? Should i let him seeing as he does not have a proper lift, and he also does not have a spring compressor... do you need the compressor?

Third...
If i were to let him and i put them in would it be hard as hell to do so, or should i go to a pro to do it. If i went to a pro, how much would it cost me on average... I'm in Maryland.

Thanks for any suggestions.

-Brandon-

1) S-Techs are a pretty big drop. I would suggest replacing the shocks within the next 5000 miles to be safe. I have H-Techs and i've gone about 6000 miles with the stock shocks.

2) There is no way he put on his own springs without a spring compressor, unless he bought pre-assembled strut assemblies. All you need to assemble though is a jack with stands, the compressor, and an assortment of wrenches and sockets

3) I put mine on myself in a span of about 5 hours. It was the first time I had done it so it was a learning experience. It took the longest time just removing all the trim, carpet and seats from the trunk. A pro might cost your 150-300 bucks to install em.

yo i'm jst were ur at n posted the same thing, and i got a good response from this guy. There's this scikotic meet tomorrow in the MD area and there'll b BBQ and stuff. He said ppl there r cool about mod enthusiasts and would help any1 that wants to be in the scikotics group or mayb jst has a scion. u should search bbq scikotics and there's a post about the event. seems like a great fam to join. remember to bring sumthin lol.

I also wanted to get s-techs too and wanted to install them myself and i know you have to have a spring compressor or else the springs will shoot out from the struts hehe my brother did b4 w/o compressor and almost got his frend in the you know where. :rofl: Dont you hve to get an alignment after you install the springs???.

hey guys im in the germantown area. i might be able to help you. ive installed springs on 3 tc's before but that was in a shop where i had all the tool neccessary. i might be able to do them in my garage if i can get all the tools i need. also where is this scikotics meet tom. im not working and would like to join them!

Running stechs on stock struts is ok for a little while but eventually you will need new struts.

Ive installed springs 4 different times, twice on my tc, once on a new civic si, and once on a h22 prelude. All you need is a jack, jack stands, spring compressor, and all the sockets and wrenches. You will need one other person cause it is a two person job.

Do it yourself, Never pay someone to do a job you can do yourself. Just follow instructions and double check your work and you will be fine.

Get a friend to help you and take a saturday out to do it. You can rent the spring compressor from autozone for 50 bucks and you get your 50 bucks back when you return it.

IM running stechs on stock struts and so far they are fine but i will need to upgrade my struts down the road sometime.

Hey all:

thanks for all the help. My friend got his hands on a compressor so we are going to do it tomorrow afternoon.

For the ones that have done it themselves... how hard is it to do this, how long would it take, and what do i do to complete this? I can't find a dyi on the forums.

Thanks again all for your help, cant wait to see how sexy it will look dropped!

-Brandon-

hey give me a holler tom. pm me and ill come over and help if you cover gas. lets just say if youve never done it before and your doing it by yourself....GOODLUCK! lol! its pretty hard, time consuming (by yourself...maybe 5-6hours), and you need 4 jack stands, a jack, and all the sockets, wratchets, and extensions!

A jack and jackstands can be considered a "proper" lift, I mean hell race teams use them daily. Right? lol

I wouldn't say its IMPOSSIBLE to install springs without a compressor, just a little dangerous. On that note any name brand parts store will rent a compressor for a refundable price.

make sure u have a breaker bar or a bar that you can slide over ur ratchet to give you more leverage so you can break the bolts loose that connect the strut to the rotor/brake assembly.

you can install without the compressor by using the jack to compress the spring from the hub, but it is a stupid idea and probably gonna end up bad for ya

i wouldnt mind installing springs for people but im just worried that i wont be able to compress the rear springs enough. two installs i did ok but they were a hassle but mine i had to use a floor jack and a wall mounted compressor to get the springs on the struts. hmmm ill think about it and let everyone know soon.

why were you compressing them to put them on? just slide them on and run them down with a compressor same as you would to take them off

1) you should wait for the tokicos then install them them and the springs together.

2) i kept my car on 2 jacks, no jack stands. one on each side. I first started with the rear then wen to the front. its not a big deal to have jack stands unless you are keeping the car lifted for more than 2 days. you will need just a basic metric socket and ratchet set, prefferably in 1/2" size. You could get ratcheting wrenches but those are sorta expensive. And yes, you would need a spring compressor. Though some people take their trash bin and unscrew the top hat just right before it comes off then they aim it into the bin and the spring shoots into the bin. Thats one way of doing it. , its just dangerous though.

3)it took me about 4 hours with my friend to do it. not that hard. i think there are some DIYs on here that u can use. its not worth it to have a pro do it because they would charge a lot. however after 2 weeks of so on the new shocks and springs you should get an alignment.

Have a breaker bar and a pry bar and a bottle of PB blaster handy. It'll make your install day much much more pleasant :P

why were you compressing them to put them on? just slide them on and run them down with a compressor same as you would to take them off

the hotchkis rear springs do not have room to be compressed at the bottom so i was only able to compress it an inch or two which was not enough to slide the shock all the way up. i had to take a floor jack and bassically compress the spring even more with the strut. its hard to explain, it worked but was not the smartest idea! i found the hardest part about the whole install was compressing the rear spring. that was hard, everything else was just time consuming!

Thanks all for you help with this. My friend and I just finished last night... took about 4-5 hours I would say.

Review:

Too a while on the first one b/c we didn't know what we were dealing with, we took every nut and bolt off, then put them back on and so fourth, just to find out it was an easy install.

The second front took only 12 min for us to do... LOL

The hardest part was the rear. We had alot of problems getting the nut and bolts off... they were tq to 103 lbs! and then when re-installing the setup, we couldn't get the darn thing to line up again, so we had to start all over on those... LOL

All in all, the set up looks great, I'm going to have an alignment done in a week or so, but I must say i am very pleased.

thanks again all

-Brandon-

Good job, the rears are always the hardest to do. That's where having a huge pry bar comes in handy :)

lol, wish I would've seen this post earlier, I could've helped, I did my first set of springs in front of a friends house and it took about that long, that camber arm is a PITA to line up, pics???

i am going to install my TRD this week. Did u have to the bump stop?

I got hotchkis springs and installed the fronts fine, but had a (unsuccessful) hell of a time trying to get the 19mm bolt off on the rears. The bolt I'm referring to is the one that connects the strut to the rear suspension arm. Anyone have a good trick to get that off or do you just have to use brute force? I broke one of the 3/8 inch craftsman driver bars trying to get it off. I called it a day and left the rears undone. How did other people get that nut/bolt off?

you need a 1/2" ratchet or a 1/2" breaker bar. OR you can use an impact gun to get it off. with the 1/2" breaker bar, you can find a long pipe and just slide it over the breaker bar to give you more leverage.

Thanks for the reply Chubby. That's what I was thinking also, so I went and bought it. My pipe just barely fits over the handle of the 1/2 inch breaker bar. I was just hoping there was an easier way, but I guess not. Thanks again.

sure no prob.