xinkid

Hi, I'm trying to decide whether to replace my leaking front air strut today. My question is, will the rear air struts work without the fronts? I'm afraid I don't have enough time to do all 4 and will have to drive around tomorrow with only 2 springs and 2 airs.

steve2006

I doubt it, as far as I know all 4 struts are fed from one compressor pump so with 2 disconnected the rears won't inflate, plus with 2 different set ups front and rear I would think the car would have handling problems.
Change all 4 together when you have more time.

xinkid

OK let me ask 2 more questions. I just read the tutorial on removal of air struts. It looks like each strut has on top an actuator/controller that determines how much air to pump into the strut. Doesn't that mean each strut's is individually valved/sealed by the actuator, assuming that is not leaking?

Also, does air leak out of the struts when the actuator is not functioning, i.e. unplugged? I figure no but I'm not sure. That means as long as my rears have enough air in them right now, they will continue to have enough air?

xinkid

Thanks for all the tips in the other threads. I guess I won't have to find out anymore because this is what happened to my 3/8 extension while sitting on my breaker bar with all of my 150 lbs. I've never had such a hard time with loosening a nut on my other car. I only remember once I also sat on the breaker bar in order to tighten a crash bolt so it won't slip, the 19mm socket cracked and broke off. I also had to put bricks under the front tire to get the jack out since it is sitting so low.

jdog0411

Which nut were you trying to loosen when you broke that?

xinkid

the lower strut bolt nut

jdog0411

You shouldn't need to use an extension on the the breaker bar to get to that nut. Make sure you are turning it the correct way as well. You can sometimes get twisted around and tighten when you think you are loosening. The only time I ever sheared off a socket like that was when I was turning in the wrong direction.

xinkid

well the nut is behind the big caliper. visualize the driver front. I'm sitting on the breaker bar, so I'm turning the nut counter-clockwise. I think I will just let a shop do it. They shouldn't have any problems with the impact gun.

jdog0411

Fair enough...just FYI you need to remove the brake rotor/caliper to make access to the suspension parts MUCH easier. Trying to go around them would be a pain in the a$$.

xinkid

ah, that's good to know. I'm going to get the shop do the brakes at the same time then.