Just got my Teins yesterday and I began the install process. I am gonna update this guide later today when I am finished with it all. Last night I was only able to install the 2 front springs. I wont be held responsible of something goes wrong in your installs, this guide should be used as a reference, I am no mechanic so I was learning along the way. I had installed with my friend in his Eclipse GSX the struts so I thought this would be much faster and if not easier. It was :-).

The captions will be above the picture it corresponds to.

Front Springs Install
Here we have the Springs right out of the box that UPS was nice enough to bring


The stock springs make the car very high, which is why we install springs to change that height to out liking.


You can see the stock drop in this picture (rotors are rusty cause I use the car once or twice a week).


Here is my pal opening the box.


Begin by removing the loosening up the wheel nuts before you lift up the car.


Next we will have to move the plastic above the strut nuts out of the way. You do not have to remove it since it is flexable. Pop out the clips by pressing down on the center of it. Use a Needle nose plier for the first clip under the weatherstriping.


Do the same for the opposite side.


Remove the wipers so that we can bend the plastic up a bit, use a 12mm or 14mm here I believe.


Here are the uninstalled wipers.


Begin by loosening up the strut nuts but do no take them out completely.


Remove the nuts on the bottom of the strut but again do not remove the screw because the whole assembly will fall on you.


Remove the nut for the sway bar before you take off the nuts on top and the nuts on the bottom.


Remove the screw holding in place the abs and brake lines.


Remove the screws on top holding the strut, and the nuts on the bottom, you can use a jack stand so it doesnt fall down too far. Remove the nut in the middle that has a rubber dust cap on it in the direct center of the strut (it has some grease on it). Compress the spring until the top comes off or you can bang it a bit with a wrench and the spring will expand to where the top is pushed out (be very careful, like I said I am no mechanic so if anyone has a better way to do this PM me and I will change this instruction. :-).


Place the new spring according to the grooves on the bottom and top of the strut (compress it until it is small enough to put back all the peices that came out. Make sure to note the order of things. 1) bump stop, acordian dust protector, cap, gasket, and top cover. Sorry I dont know the terms of these things, again PM me for the words and I will change them. Reinstall everything in reverse from the directions.


Rear Lowering Springs Install

First begin by loosening up the lug nuts and jacking up the car, use jack stands so that the car doesnt fall on you by accident. Remove the Wheel.


Remove the Bracket holding up the brake lines.


Remove the screws holding in place the panels on the right and left.


I used a coat hanger end to pop out this annoying little peice. You have to play with it as if you are trying to pick a lock.


Use a 10mm to screw out the cargo holders.


Here is the panel so you have an idea where everything is.


Here are the little peices you took out.


Once all that is out just start to pop out the panel, it will come off, I know you have to remove the panels to the right and left of the rear seats but I believe in doing as little work as possible (I didnt break one interior peice :D ).



Some little white clips might fall off but you can just put them back on.


Pull out the conector that goes to the light on the driver side panel.


You will also have to remove the center peice directly behind the rear seats, that can be removed by lifting up the plastic covers with a flat head screwdriver and using your 10mm ratchet just screw them out. I didnt take a picture of this. After removing those peices just pop the peice out, it comes right off. The center peice to the rear of the trunk also pops right off.

Here you see the bolts to the strut, 2 on the rear, 1 on the front.



I used a breaker bar to remove these. The one in the front is a pain in the ___ to get to.


Then just use your ratchet (12mm I belive) to take them out.


Now remove this annoying bolt holding the strut in place, its just one but its a pain to access.


In reality going by the tC factory manual you have to remove the whole side of the sway assembly so that you can drop the whole spindle and take out the strut with ease. Like I said, I come from the DSM community, doing as little work as possible is the way to go LOL. I managed to take out the strut by some clever manuvering hehe.


Here it is out.


Here are the tools I used to compress the spring.


I marked which was the front side of the strut using my wifes nail polish, sue me it looks ___ I KNOW, but it works.


And then I marked the angle in which the top of the strut is placed, THIS IS CRUCIAL, it has to come at an EXACT angle if not you are SCREWED. Mark it well, use a ruler to match it up.


See?


Now compress it, a real pain in the a$$ but it works, you really need 2 people to do this project.



Now compress it, take memory of the way the parts are inside. Take the parts out (you might need an allen key and a wrench to remove the bolt under the plastic cap, uncompress the spring, compress the new one, make sure it lines up with the groove at the bottom, install the peices in reverse order, secure the top again with the allen key and wrench. And when uncompressing your new spring into the strut MAKE SURE YOU LINE IT UP with the markings you made earlier. I can stress enough how CRUCIAL this is. I believe if you look at the strut from over head the correct angle is around 27.5 Degrees from what I remember.

Reinstall the strut assembly, bolt it all up and do the reverse of the install!


The finished product.




The springs will settle and it will be lower in time, though it is pretty low, you will notice that when you try to get out of the car for the first time hehe.

Hope this helped! Good luck to you guys.

Hope this was helpful, many guides that you guys make have helped me in this.

 

How did you compress your springs? Thanks

 

I used a tool similar to this one, Ill post a picture of it later when I do the rear springs.



You put one on each side of the spring and turn each side a bit to evenly compress the whole spring.

 

Where did you get that tool and how much is it? Is it dangerous to use since compressing the spring in a wrong way may break it or even may do any harm to your body, will it?

 

No it isnt dangerous, the tool costs around $40 or so. Just make sure to clamp them on opposite sides and compress it evenly. Its pretty easy :-).

 

awesome, sticky this please

 

Where did you get the tool then?

 

Were you too excited to wait for daylight? Haha!

 

nice intructions man. 'speacially for us "non mechanical guys." cant wait to see what it looks like when its all done.

 

my friend said that we couldn't change our springs by ourselves... I just don't wanna pay labor if I can do it myself...

 

I feel you, though the back springs are giving us a harder time than the front ones, im gonna see what im doing wrong, 9am saturday right now, very sunny outside :-).

Oh and you can get the tool from any Advance Auto, Autozone, NAPA, etc etc.

 

This is off topic but if you drive the car everyday would it ever build up rust like that?

 

I usually drive 40 to 80 miles a day... and my rotors are just lil rusty... despite the rust, the car's brake is not braking as well as my previous '98 Camry LE... off topic, would replacing the stock ones with Powerslot Slotted Rotors help? Or do I have to get Wilwood or Brembo calipers in order to have shorter braking distance?

 

what happened to the rears?!

 

Gonna post the pics tomorrow at work while I slack off, its no fun to slack off at home .

 

lol what a bummmm!! but hey youre taking the time to make a write up for us. props.

 

Bump for an AWESOME FINISHED guide .

 

i'm looking at getting the H techs for my tC, i want a rake in the front for the extra weight i'll be putting in the back for a system

 

perfect, and im assuming you can rent this tool autozone or something?

 

spring compressors can normally be rented at auto parts stores if you just call and ask to make sure they have it in.