Coilover Install (DMS)

[SuperDave]

Disclaimer:

Read this guide through completely before commencing to ensure that you are competent in doing the work yourself. By following this guide you are accepting full responsibility and I will not be held responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or anything else caused by following this guide.

Required Tools

19mm socket

14mm socket

12mm socket

10mm socket

Breaker bar

Torque bar

Foul language

Pictures of the DMS struts

Rear

1. Start by removing all the boot trims.

2. Chock the front wheels as there will nothing to prevent the car from rolling away while the rear wheels are in the air.

3. Undo the rear wheels nuts, but don't take them off just yet.

4. Jack the rear of the car up and support it on jack stands. Do not support the car on any of the suspension components as all this needs to move easily to do the install. Not to mention the car will have nothing to hold itself up without the suspension in.

5. Take the wheels off and undo all bolts circled. The upper and lower mounts are 19mm. If the bolt is difficult to remove get a long thin bolt that you no longer need and place it over the end and knock it out with a hammer.

6. Once you get the bottom off you can then drop the strut out. Repeat on the other side. If it isn't possible to remove the strut undo the three bolts on the front of the trailing arm.

7. Installation is the reverse of the steps above. An extra tip is to disassemble the lower strut mount and apply some grease to it as it might squeek like an empty trailer if the grease has dried up. For this you'll need to remove the lower mount hole sleeve (it's in 2 pieces). Rotate the lower ball around and give it a clean with a dry rag before adding grease to it. See this link for removing/installing springs and upper mounts; Spring Install. I reused the rubber spring seats to avoid sping noise. In order to line up the lower strut mount you will need some leverage and 5 arms. Since the holes aren't in line, a screw driver or similar object, might be required to rotate the lower mount to line up. All torque settings for the upper mount (pink) nuts is 80Nm. The bolt for the lower mount is 140Nm. The bolts on the leading end of the trailing arm (purple) have a torque setting of 65Nm. If having difficulty getting the bolt in spray some WD40 on it and use the random bolt and a hammer to knock it back in. Be sure to only do this when it is lined up as damage to the threads can occur. A tip to reattach the 3 bolts at the leading edge of the trailing arm is to get a block of wood and use the jack underneath the bushing to jack it into place. There is an alignment hole between the two bolt holes; use a screw driver/metal bar to line up the bolt holes.

8. Recheck everything after about 100km of driving, if there is any new clunking noises then recheck all bolts immediately.

Front

1. Undo the front wheels nuts, but don't take them off just yet.

2. Jack the front of the car up and support it on jack stands. Do not support the car on any of the suspension components as all this needs to move easily to do the install. Not to mention the car will have nothing to hold itself up without the suspension in.

3. Take the wheels off and undo all the bolts and nuts circled. The three sockets needed are, 19mm for the bottom mount, 10 and 12mm for the brake hose mount and 12mm for the anti roll bar endlink. If the bolts are difficult to remove get a long thin bolt that you no longer need and place it over the end and knock it out with a hammer.

4. Open the bonnet and undo the three nuts (12mm) on the upper mount of the suspension. This requires a second person as the strut will then drop out if no one is holding it.

5. Lower the old strut out and place the new strut in, again a second person is needed in order to put the nuts back on for the upper mount. See this link for removing/installing springs and upper mounts; Spring Install. The DMS come with a nyloc nut since there is no way to torque the nut down. Just hold the shaft as tight as possible while doing it up. When installing DMS ensure that the holes in the lower mount are clear (refer image below). Due to the tight tolerances a file is required to enlarge &/or flatten the holes out. I am not responsible for any damage caused here

6. The second person is still needed as lining up the two bolts circled in yellow requires a team effort and swear words. You might like to use a rag to prevent your hands from touching the brake rotor and to not cut yourself on the splash guard. Ensure the bolts are installed so that the bolts go in with the thread facing that rear of the car, and then add the nuts. A small jack underneath the lower suspension arm with a small amount lift on the suspension assembly can help with the process.

7. Leave the anti roll bar end link for the time being (circled red) and mount the brake hose and wheel speed sensor to the green circled mount. This image was taken of a Celica that didn't have a point to attach these to, but make sure you get the ABS mount on correctly with the notch and hole. Torque these bolts (green) up to 15Nm.

8. Go to the other side and do the same with that corner.

9. Now you can put the anti roll bar end links (red) in place, add some WD40 to the thread and torque up to 45Nm

10. The strut bottoms (yellow) have a torque setting of 150Nm.

11. Now torque the upper mounts (light blue) to 40Nm, Torque the wheel nuts up to about 105Nm

12. Go for an easy test drive then recheck everything after about 100km of driving, if there is any new clunking noises during either period then recheck all bolts immediately.