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FCP Euro Service Kits

FCP Euro Kits

If hitting a bump is loud inside the vehicle, you may be dealing with struts that have failed or are failing. You’ll need to confirm though as it could be a number of things in the suspension. In my case I could tell it was the struts simply by looking at it and considering its age. One side’s strut bellow looked damp while the other side looked dry, which means its internal fluid has likely leaked out. Another suspicion was the age of the car: it’s 10 years old with over 100k miles on the original struts+shocks. Time for some new Saab shocks from FCP Euro!

Standard or Sport Suspension

Keep in mind that if one side goes out you really should replace the other side as well as they are typically installed in pairs. In my case the passenger side was shot but the driver side still seemed ok. It was just a matter of time, so I ordered both the right and left struts simultaneously. Also make sure you determine if you’ve got a standard or sport suspension as you shouldn’t mix the springs from one on a strut for the other (mine were standard so I stuck to that). You could opt to upgrade to a sport version by also buying the matching sport-spec springs but that’s beyond the scope of this DIY.

Warning: It’s a good idea to have someone experienced with struts show or explain how some of the tools work. In particular, there’s a spring compressor tool that’s needed to remove the strut from the other components like the spring+mount as those will likely get re-used if they’re in good shape. You’ll need to be very comfortable with how to use the tool as there’s a LOT of stored energy in a compressed spring. It should come with instructions and you’ll NEED to read and understand it.

If something breaks the sprint will be a projectile that can and will likely injure you. Even I messed up once in the past and luckily didn’t get hurt when I over-compressed a spring a long time ago in my early years. (Which resulted in one side of the compressor tool snapping off, sending pieces of metal flying!) Wear safety gear like goggles, gloves and tough clothes covering your limbs as an added measure. If you’re not ready for this I suggest leaving this job for a pro.

Ready to swap out the struts?

Let’s assume you’ve somehow confirmed that your struts need replacing and you’re ready to tackle the job. Here are the steps I took on a 2004 Saab 9-3 Arc:

Engage the emergency hand brake, safely jack up each side near the front wheels and use jack stands to secure the lift. I prefer to also use wheel chocks at the rear wheels as a backup.

Remove the wheels. I used an impact wrench so I didn’t need to loosen the wheel bolts before lifting the car:

Remove wheels

Pop open the hood as you’ll be removing the strut mount’s bolts later.

Remove the nut attaching the anti-roll bar link. You’ll need a thin 17mm wrench to hold the back side of the shaft while using an 18mm wrench or socket to remove the nut.

Roll bar nut

NOTE: Unfortunately I didn’t take pics of the old strut mounted so I’m showing the new one with circled locations in the following steps:

Remove the wheel sensor line which is bolted to the strut. Carefully remove the line’s clip from the small bracket you just unbolted (you’ll need the clip to slide it onto the new strut’s bracket). It slides off with some convincing so don’t try prying it off like I did and break it.

Wheel sensor line

Remove the brake hose clip and slide/unhook the brake hose:

Brake hose clip

Remove the 18mm nuts from steering knuckle bolts. While keeping the nuts on at the very end of the bolts to protect the threads you can carefully hammer out the bolts on the other side and remove them:

Steering knuckle bolts

Carefully rock the steering knuckle off the strut and move the strut a bit to the side.

Now go under the hood and remove the 3 strut mount bolts. When you’re about to remove the last bolt it’s a good idea to hold onto the strut with one hand (or have a friend available) so that it doesn’t drop when the bolt comes out:

Strut mount bolts

Remove the strut from car and carefully lay it on the ground. You can choose to remove the other side using the steps above or keep working the same side strut in the following steps.

Compress the springs to remove the strut mount. You’ll need to follow the instructions from your spring compressor tool in order to do this. Mine has 2 parts where it compresses opposite sides to eventually compress the spring enough to relieve pressure on the strut mount. Again, heed my warning mentioned at the very beginning and ensure you are comfortable enough to do this job - otherwise leave this part for a pro.

Remove the strut mount by first removing the plastic mount cover (if it’s still on) and then the shaft nut using a 13/16” spark plug socket with a wrench to rotate it while holding the strut shaft with a long stem 7mm hex allen wrench or socket. You can cheat by just using an impact wrench with a deep socket for removing the old strut but I wouldn’t do it when installing the new strut as you don’t want the shaft spinning. Here’s a representation:

Counter hold

At this point the remaining strut components can be removed: the strut mount, bump stop, strut bearing, bellow, spring and zinc washer at the bottom. If you choose to keep the spring compressed, carefully set down the compressed spring as there’s a LOT of stored energy in it.

Strut components

Put the old strut to the side and clean+inspect the components. The strut bearing should spin smoothly+easily and things shouldn’t be awfully deteriorated. My bad strut had fluid all over it’s components so it took a while to clean it all up to inspect its condition. Luckily everything seemed ok so I didn’t feel the need to replace any of it. Here’s a pic of the bad passenger-side strut on the left in comparison to the old driver-side strut on the right:

Struts

Reassembly!

Installation is essentially the reverse of removal. The new Sachs strut brake hose bracket needed to be bolted on using the steering knuckle bolts (refer to the pics above). The wheel sensor line clip just slides into that bracket in the rear as mentioned in step #5 above and there’s another piece that snaps in a mount point below the brake hose clip (again, refer to the pics above).

Torque specs are:

  • Strut mount bolts: 14 ft-lb
  • Steering knuckle nuts: 59 ft-lb + 135 degrees of rotation (I did the best I could on this spec)
  • Anti-roll bar link nut: 47 ft-lb

Don’t forget to counter-hold the strut shaft + anti-roll bar link as mentioned in the removal steps above. Be careful uncompressing the spring and work slowly to ensure you’ve seating everything correctly as you go.

Once everything is back in you can choose to get the car checked for a wheel alignment.

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Written by :
Gerry Tseng

Gerry lives in Cincinnati, OH where he works as a data analyst by day and enjoys working on cars in his free time. He’s spent over 25 years on domestics + imports alike. His latest efforts include a Saab 9-3, a BMW M3 and a Volvo S60.


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