There are too many images in this post. The forum pukes. So unless someone can get me around the limit the pics are mostly links instead of inline.

Okay, here is what is needed.
Liquid wrench or wd40
Phillips screwdriver to take out inner fender liner
Set of allen wrenches
Spring Compressor- autozone has them for rent for a few bucks.
Helper with mass to bounce on the rear hub.
Jackstands and a jack.
10MM to take out inner fender liner.
12MM Socket for upper rear shock mounting bolts
14MM Socket for upper front shock mounting bolts and swaybar endlinks
17MM open ended wrench and a 17MM socket with a long rachet (Rear Caliper bracker Bolts)
19MM Socket and box wrench for lower shock bolts
21MM socket to pull off wheel.
Few feet of wire/coat hanger for strain relief.
Air tools of course are the way to fly.

Start. Jack up car and support properly. Take off the wheel. Remove the inner fenderliner so you have access to the washer bottle. These are all ultra coarse(screw) thread 10MM bolts.



Then starts the fun stuff.




1.There are three bolts that hold on the washer bottle.(10MM) Remove the two bolts that are horizontal. Loosen the vertical bolt . This should give you enough play to yank out the upper control arm bolt.

2. This bolt needs to be removed to allow the upper control arm both to slide out. You may need to loosen the bolt just to the right of it to get the bracket to slide out so you can move it around.

3 and 4. Remove these and slide the clips off the UCA.

ABS SENSOR There is a single 10MM both that hold this in place. Its attached to the spindle and its the one with the wires going into it. Remove the sensor and be careful not to let it touch the ground and be careful not to get junk in the hole left by the sensor.

5 and 6. This is a 19MM bolt and nut that hold the UCA on. Loosen and remove the bolt partially. String up the caliper using that wire so the brake line is not strained. I ran wire fron the caliper to the bracket that hold the brake line in place. See the pics below. Can't miss the red wire.

*** Your going to have to disconnect the sway endlink. But undo the lower bolt. Not the one circled. See pics below. *****


http://24.234.117.190/extradsk/clco/003.jpg
See, Don't move the bottle and don't move that bracket and the bolt won't come out.

http://24.234.117.190/extradsk/clco/004.jpg

Here is the 14MM lower swaybar link that you need to remove. Might take some coaxing by liquid wrench and the allen wrench/open ended wrench combo. With air all it seemed to do is spin the shaft. Also the 19MM bolt that hold the shock in.
Remove both bolts at this time.



Here is a pic of the shock bolt removed. You can see the swaybar endlink has to go. It's keeping the shock from sliding out. Also if you thought I was kidding about the wire holding the caliper check out my brake line. I played guitar on it for a bit



Here is what it should look like if you listened to me
Remove the LCA bolt and move the LCA out of the way if you haven't already.
At this point remove the top bolts that hold the strut in. These are located under the hood
I undid two bolts, loosened the third and just held the shock and undid it the rest of the way. I call this move the "foot saver".

http://24.234.117.190/extradsk/clco/007.jpg

***** You need AIRTOOLS for this part*******
So grab your spring compressors and compress the spring a bit. Yank off the top nut once spring tension has been relieved. You should use air for this. If your airless, your gonna have to visit your local service station and have them do it for you. Pull off the rubber mount and keep it if you didn't get pillow *****.


http://24.234.117.190/extradsk/clco/008.jpg

Ohhh... Shiny and new. (Thank you Roland @ H & R for the sponsorship of the coilovers)

http://24.234.117.190/extradsk/clco/009.jpg

H&R doesn't make Lexus parts. Thanks god I have a Lexus bodied Supra

Grab your new shock and spring and tighten the collars at the hieght you want. Then place the new spings on. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE FRONT SPRINGS ON THE FRONT COILOVERS. DOUBLE CHECK THIS. DOUBLE CHECK THIS.
Then place the rubber mount on and tighten up the bolt that holds it on.(19MM in my case)

Do the other side. With the exception that I don't think you have to take out the inner fender liner for this side. Mine were already out for another reason.

Reinstall everything in reverse order.

Moving onto the rear. (I forgot to take pics during the install so I took my wheel off and snapped a few pics for you guys. )

http://24.234.117.190/extradsk/clco/011.jpg
This pic is taken from behind the caliper facing out.
1. Remove the caliper bolts (14MM) (ring up the caliper to the brake line mounting bracket.
2. Remove the pad carrier bolts (17MM) These might take lots of liquid wrench and lots of force.


http://24.234.117.190/extradsk/clco/012.jpg
Undo the swaybar endlink.(14MM) I found the top to be easier to undo.

http://24.234.117.190/extradsk/clco/013.jpg
Undo the lower shock bolt(19MM) and the upper ones as well (12MM). The uppers are located in the trunk behind the large panel. Mine just popped right out giving me access.
I at this point had my helper stand on the hub and bounce a bit. I was able to wrestle the shock over the lower link without issue. I was then able to get the shock out no problem. There might be a magic bolt that lets you get the shock out without the bounce, but I didn't wanna take apart half the car to find out. Factory service manual mentions nothing of this.

Repeat the other side. Make sure all of your bolts are tight and put the wheels back on.

So there you go. Now what does it look like? Well if your still on 16's waiting for your 19inch iForged wheels to show up this week. (Vincent @ Iforged...Thanks for the hookup)

You might look like this.
http://24.234.117.190/extradsk/clco/014.jpg
http://24.234.117.190/extradsk/clco/015.jpg


No I am not driving it like that. Well okay. I cruised around for a bit. Rides great. I'll repost and opinion once the real wheels get here.

Hope this helps.
Oh... total time was about 4 hours....

Mike
sc300ccret
Supra almost inside.

 

Great post Mike, thanks! I tried to convert the URLs to images as well, but even I wan't allowed (sorry).

 

Thanks dude, we needed more of these.

 

Excellent DIY. I'll use it when I can afford Tein CS coilovers

 

You guys are welcome.. I might post my caliper painting DIY as well. There are a few around, but since I'm doing it....


Mike

 

great write up.... just got a few things to add:
1. Autozone rents the spring compressor out for free you just gotta put down a $40 deposit i believe and you get it back when you return the tool.
2. Just to let some of the DIY'er with out air tools know. It's do able with out air tools as i've done it before on pervious cars back when i didnt have air tools. You'll definately get one heck of a work out compressing the spring by hand and it'll probably add an extra 2-3 hours to the job but its doable. I'd definately recommend you getting a set of airtools they are great and save you heck of alot of time and frustation from trying to get off them rusted bolts. It's definately worth it in the long run it if you plan to do future DIY work but it's a costly $600+ investment.

 

i spent 10 hours doing the same thing saturday my compressor was to weak to loosen any bolts, and i bought a cheap o spring compressor from pepboys, the one that you have to crank with a wrench

 

great write up


Folks, remember, safety is paramount here!

 

thank you this is exactly what i needed......i will post pics once mine is done.

 

some one should make this a sticky very nice post

 

Great tutorial.

I posted a long tutorial w/many pics and hit the limit. I just separated the tutorial into a few posts rather one long one.

 

Great write up! I am going to follow it soon!

 

You guys are welcome. If there are any steps missing or if you feel theneed to revise something let me know. I'll reedit my post....

Mike

 

When I did this install I wanted to take off as little amount of bolts and parts as I had to...

I didn't even take the control arm off or the fender lining, or the washer bottle, or the ABS sensor...

I simply took off the the strut bolts up top, and then the bracket that holds the bottom of the strut (mounted on the lower control arm. Once all these were off... i had a friend step on the rotor to lower everything a bit while i slid out the bottom of the strut to the side (because the bracket is now gone) and then slid it up over and out.

And then i did the reverse to put the coilover in.

 

when i did the install i had no need to remove the calipers or swaybar endlinks. All i removed for the front was the washer bottle and upper control arm. I then used a long metal pole(like the one from a jack) and then pryed down against the hub. Its much more effective than having a friend jump on it. It came out fine even with the sway bar endlink in the way. When your prying against the hub just becarefull of the brake line. The rears are a peice of cake. just remove the bolts that hold in the strut and it comes right out using the same method of prying against the hub.