Well I am going to be lowering my tC this coming weekend. Any suggestions from the members who did this themselves so the install goes smoothly?

 

Spring compressors are a must.
Pay special attention to getting the spring bottoms properly keyed into their perches.
Oh, and make a mental note of the orientation of the rear shocks before you take them apart-- they only fit on the car one way. Took me almost 2x as long to do the rear as the front.
Remember to put a brick or jackstand under the front hubs when you have the sturt out, otherwise, they'll try to pull the axle out of the trans. That would make for a bad day.
Don't forget your torque wrench!

Have fun, don't try to rush.
Get your alignment, ASAP!! The TRD package will net you 7/32" of toe-in in the rear. The tires won't even know what hit them.

 

as doc I said, the rears are a pain in the ****! i would recommend doing these first so you still have all your energy to use on them. the fronts are a breeze. all in all it took me and a friend about 1:30 because of the first rear one we did. the first rear took about 40 mins, other lest took about 20, and each front about 15

when you do the rear, you have to completely remove all the pieces in your trunk because of the third hidden bolt that is holding the strut to the car.

for the front you have to remove your wipers and wiper cowl. their is one bolt on the drivers side that will be a pain in the **** as well... you will know what im tlakin about when you get to it.

good luck with the install!

 

Thanks everyone! I have been working on imports (Mitsubishi) for the last ten. I didn't know about the hidden bolts though so I guess I should look for a DIY somewhere on the board. Unless someone has a link which would be apperciated. I have been searching the boards now for the past couple of hours for related threads.

 

when you remove the side panels on the interior of the trunk, you will see the third bolt.

 

Does anyone have the spec's of how much torque per nut/bolt? None of the faq's I read have that info.

 

Click here

 

Also - you can save a little muscle if you loosen the bolts (the center one) on the front springs while they are still on the body of the car....just loosen a little since it is compressed. But they make it so much easier

 

yeah the backs are a PIA...what I did to remember the way they were b4. I used a white out pen and drew a dot on top and one at the bottom so they would align right.
that wya when u put them back together u can use the dots, line etc to see if its lined up

 

Thanks for the link to the torque specs, gonna bookmark that one!

Also, being a newbie whose going to attempt this for the first time, can someone elaborate on the rear's being 'aligned' right. I've read several times over in different threads about 'making sure they are aligned' right when putting them back in...can't it only go in one way? I'm defintely going use that white-out pen tip. As always, thanks!

 

its more or less the struts..... go take a look at how they are connected.... its at a slight angle... if this is your first spring install, i would recommend having a friend help you a little... expierence is helpful for a coil install

 

People who have successfully installed their lowering springs...when using the spring compressors to compress and take out the stock springs, are the stock springs hard to compress? I used to lower my 94 Accord and the stock springs are hard aars hell. I borrowed a spring compressors from autozone and it took me awhile to compress the stock springs. I'm wondering if the TC stock springs are as hard as the Accord stock springs....

 

i didnt use a sprig compressor to take my stocks off. i put it on the ground, put the strut against a block, another person stood on the spring, and i took i toff with ait tools. i only used spring compressors to install my lowering springs

 

the whole deal with the "aligning" thing is that u have to make sure u know what the orientation of the upper spring perch relative to the shock body. I found it useful to mark the rubber boot also.

here a link to the Hotchkis instructions scroll down to page 11 and read step 12.)

http://www.hotchkistuning.com/bin/in...ions/19425.pdf