2014 CX-5 AWD My Strut/Shock swap experience and frustrations.

Decided to swap out my struts and shocks at 85K Miles. Generally it wasn't a complicated job with the right tools. We had access to a lift, pneumatic tools and a spring compressor that made the job a little easier.

There were some difficult points around removing the Stabilizer link upper nuts on the struts. My vehicle lived in Cleveland, Ohio for three years and the salt corrosion was just enough to be a headache in a few places. We had to use a lot of PB Blaster and could back the nuts off a few threads until they seized again, re-tighten a few threads, wire brush, and rinse and repeat, finally got them off. Our secret was to use the hex wrench AND a pair of hefty vice grips on the rear flange of the link bolt. Took some time but worked.

Another frustration was one of the ABS sensor retaining bolts broke off in the hub on the first quarter turn of the wrench. Fortunately the sensor seems to have stayed firmly in place. Eventually may try an EZ out to see if I can replace the broken bolt. I don't think it's really necessary to remove the sensor as was recommended in the step by step instructions I found. Just need to be careful not to damage the wire.

Our biggest frustration and still unresolved problem was we could not get the left rear shock off it's bolt which is threaded into the hub support. The bushing sleeve is seized onto the bolt and even seems to have welded itself to the hub support. We tried everything we could think of. Pneumatic and manual tie rod forks, Chisels, tons of PB Blaster, even tried some moderate torch heat, No joy ;( The right side was difficult as well, but, eventually we were able to break it free.

If any of you know of a "Pro" tip that we could try, would love to hear it. Otherwise I'll try my local shop. Can't do the alignment until I get that shocked replaced.

Thanks for any suggestions or tips you may have.

L

Only the heat will do. Maybe penetrants, but it will take time. If you can't use the full-blast torch, see if anyone has electric induction heater that goes over the bolt or nut...
Let the shop deal with it, the do it every day.

Have you tried drilling a hole in the bolt to release tension? I had to that to remove a stuck exhaust pipe bolt; worked well.

Thanks for confirming our suspicions. I was afraid to burn up the bushing rubber for fear that I wouldn't be able to drive it if we weren't successful in getting it off. Will have a shop do it.

Drilling the bolt "stud" wasn't an option at the time. It has a four sided tip about 6mm x 6mm at the end and we didn't think we could use a big enough drill bit to make a difference, plus it might be hardened steel.

yugrus said:

Only the heat will do. Maybe penetrants, but it will take time. If you can't use the full-blast torch, see if anyone has electric induction heater that goes over the bolt or nut...
Let the shop deal with it, the do it every day.

Click to expand...

Yugrus called it. Local shop nuked the rear lower shock bushing with an Acetelyne torch and a few seconds with a pneumatic chisel and it came right off. Got the alignment done and all is well for now. Next step, when Spring appears, is to have a crack at the broken ABS sensor bolt with an EZ out.

Tools make the man.