First get a mesure of ride height from centre of hub to wheel arch, mine were 365mm fronts 380mm rears

1. Lift car on to stands placed under the chassis rail , Remove wheels

2. For the left side remove air box from crossover ,for right side remove overflow bottle you don’t need to remove it completely just unbolt it and move aside so you can access top strut bolts.

3. Crack the first nut 17mm closet to the front first don’t remove it yet then remove the other two nuts holding the top of strut ,The one under the ecu is a pain just needs a little extra patience. Do not remove the nut in the center this is holding the spring in the strut.

4. I then dropped the sway bay off at the drop links 14mm nuts , This allows you to push the sway bar down out of the way so you can push the lower arm further down later on .

5. Remove brake line from its holding bracket , Remove nut from bottom of the strut 22mm nut and large shifter on bolt head but leave the bolt in for now , Then remove nut from the upper ball joint 18mm nut

6. Now remove bolt at bottom of strut and the last nut from the top of the strut mount, This is where two people would be good, Take the bolt out of the upper joint this will let the lower arm and hub drop down , You need to be carefull not to stretch brake line and be very careful not to damage abs wire that runs under the bottom of strut.

7. Before removing strut make note of where the top of the coil spring finishes and make sure the new one goes back at the same place.

8. Get one person to hold the arm that’s been disconnected from upper joint and push the lower arm and hub down this will allow you to drop the strut down and out of the car . Unfortunatly I couldn't take pics at this time as I was doing it by myself.

9. Take strut assembly aside and apply spring compresser ,These really dont need to be forced to much just compress the spring a little , Then remove the top of the strut by slowly undoing the 17mm nut from the top.( compressers from hire shop $20 )

10. Now assemble new strut and spring , With these ones I was able to push down on the spring and was able to get the new nut back on the top ,Tighten top nut

11. Then follow removal process in reverse to install new strut .

This took me 3 hours start to finish ,spend a day or so reading everything about this you can find plan your attack and it's not that hard a job.

Hope this helps anyone trying this.

Edited October 23, 200817 yr by our06t

So far I only did the front ,will do rears tonight and get wheel aligh tommorow then leave some feedback on how it rides

I used whiteline control springs and bilstien shocks .

Well Done on the write up mate

Its always good when people take the time to do these guides, it benefits sooo many people.

Cheers mate it's a good way to do a job to , it helps you step it out and remember to do the little things when your thinkin of some one else trying to follow your steps.

If any one else has extra tips or tricks add them to.

excellent mate, thanks for taking the time to do such a write up good job!!

Do you happen to know the model code for the front and rear Shocks im looking into getting a set im just not sure how many model's bilstein make for the BA/BF.

cheers

Nice write up for so early on a friday morning!

Tops pics too

click for Sydney shock absorbers /Heasmans suspension

that's where I got mine from helpful and fast delivery

not sure how many models they make

fronts were .B461255BA

rears .BE562670

that's for BA sedan

Edited October 23, 200817 yr by our06t

Cheers Rapid had to get it outa my head while I still remembered it all.

had wheel alignment done ,nothing really needed doing apparently it all went back back in the same spots wich is a good thing.

After a couple of hours cruising the old Pacific Hwy on Sat. This set up has made a huge difference to the car , overall a much better experience as far as steering the car goes, Gave up a very minor amount of ride comfort but the response and confidence in the car is well worth it.

awesome right up mate, they will be my next mod with sway bars glad your loving the new ride