Do I dare give it a shot?!

[Lance Flanagan]

I’ve been watching Eric’s videos for a long while and I’ve worked up the courage in the past to tackle (successfully!) a brake job consisting of new callipers, discs and pads.

My current car has a failed top mount on the passenger side strut which is causing an awful knocking noise. Again, from the videos, I’m pretty sure I can handle the job myself but here are the factors I’m considering….

Option 1: I could take to a garage who have quoted £130 (I’m in the UK) for the job

Option 2: I can buy a complete second hand strut (coil, shock and mount) and fit it myself. I’m pretty sure I’d need to buy an electric impact gun to get the nuts off the car. (Costs: £30 part, £50 impact gun = £80)

Option 3: Buy a new strut mount and fit it to the existing coil/shock. For this I’d need to buy coil compression clamps. Furthermore, this looks a bit dangerous. (Cost: £15 strut mount, £15 clamps, £50 impact gun = £80)

Options 2 & 3 at least gain me some experience but come with a degree of risk as frankly, I’m not a mechanic… but, I’m not useless either!

Would appreciate people’s opinions

Lance

Topic

[Mike]

I would recommend option 2. Dealing with cheap spring compressors is usually difficult and dangerous. You’ll also be glad to have a new tool that grants you the ability to do more repairs yourself.

[Matthew Ross]

If you decide to compress the springs yourself, I highly recommend that you buy a “clamshell” type spring compressor. They are more expensive, but much safer. Here’s a link to one on amazon that is very high quality: http://www.amazon.com/OTC-6494-Clamshell-Spring-Compressor/dp/B0002SRHU6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1414858684&sr=8-2&keywords=otc+spring+compressor

Buying the cheap spring compressors that are two separate rods is very dangerous. Since they are separate, they can slide and cause the spring to release.

[Walt jr]

Not only are the clamshells safer, they are easier to position.

[Austin]

Take the strut out, take it to a shop and pay a tech $20 to swap the mount out. Don’t try a spring compressor yourself, they’re just too dangerous.

[Erin]

For 130, I would honestly let the shop deal with that headache.

The problem with doing one’s own car repairs is there is always unseen B.S. coming up like running into other problems. By the time other problems come up, the job could end up costing more than taking it to a shop unless you already own all the right tools.

This is just my opinion though, I absolutely HATE dealing with anything in the suspension.

Looks like doing a conversion, that 130 UK money is about 210 american dollars. That is not a bad deal. American shops would probably charge closer to 250 UK “dollars”

EDIT – you probably could handle the job, the real question as I kinda said is, do you want to deal with the hassle? I mean if you had to pay yourself to do it, what would it cost?

[Kenneth]

Buy a quality spring compressor. And from now on you’ll be able to save big money doing it yourself.
It gives you a feeling of empowerment over your maintenance costs. Trust me it’ll be great!

[Author]

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