It was nice so I thought I'd attack the struts on my son's '02. Got a new set of KYB's on sale for it. Luckily this car has apparently been in the south it's whole life because nothing was bad rusty. In fact all original springs and struts were still wearing oem black paint. Started with the front and only had problems getting the drivers side tie rod end off as I replaced those too. Also tightened the axle boot clamp as it was allowing some grease to sling out. And replaced the lower ball joint pinch bolt and nut because some idiot had rounded the head and half stripped the bolt....then left it on there! On the rear I had some trouble with both sides getting the nut off the stabilizer bar end link. After some wire wheeling and liquid wrench the drivers side came off. On the passenger side I carefully cut through the metal on the old strut right at the bolt then chiseled it out. This allowed me to swing the end link down for better access and get vise grips on the inside part next to the rubber. After turning a little back and forth I persuaded the nut to come off and didn't damage the end link, yay! Went ahead and bled the rear brakes while I was out back and tomorrow I'll bleed the front. All in all I'd say I spent about 2-2.5 hours on each one. The car rides so much better now and the steering feels a lot better too, the old tie rod ends were sloppy loose.
