99 Malibu Strut and Shock Replacement

[FullyAvenged]

Hey everyone. I just wanted to know how hard it is to replace the strut and shock on a 99 Malibu. What's the difficulty and the tools required to do so?

[johnschmitt]

I haven't dealt with the back ones, but the front ones are pretty easy if you use a pre-assembled strut/spring kind of deal.

You'll need:

1. A breaker bar and the proper socket for the two bolts that hold the bottom of the strut to the knuckle

2. A hammer and a punch to push those same two bolts through their holes

3. wrench to remove the bolts holding the top of the strut to the tower (from under the hood)

I removed the bottom then the top. Not sure if it matters, but it worked.

Installation is a little trickier. You need to push the knuckle down/out far enough to get the bottom bolt to go in. It'll take a little muscle. With that one in you can push the strut towards the car to align the other bolt holes.

I've heard you should mark the bolt holes so you can set them as they were before, but I don't see where they could possibly go with all round holes everywhere.

I'd get an alignment check after you're done.

I don't have much experience tearing the struts down and doing it that way, but I figure you replace all the parts with the pre-assembled part and you're way less likely to injure yourself.

[NocturnalCreations]

just use a good strut spring compressor if u need to dismantle the strut

[thusted]

I found these in a ebay store - came brand new (although made in china), A pair of fully assembled strut, spring and mount assemblies.

No dangerous compressing of coil springs needed. Your remove entire front strut-spring assembly as one unit - throw it away, and put in new assembly. A relatively easy job (two hours for first one, one hour for second) Muffler shop wanted $720 and local shop wanted $500 for replacement of struts and mounts only.

my problem were the dreaded upper mounts in front.

I paid $160 for both, with free shipping and no tax. If you have time, shop many ebay stores to get best price.

I'm sure the products are not high quality, but I own a 97, If I get a couple of years out of them, i'll be way ahead.

http://stores.ebay.com/Prime-Choice-...id=p4340.l2563

Todd