Thread: Suspension lifetime

I've shaken the car side to side as per Josh's suggestion and it all seems tight so I think I'm ok. The reason for my questions is because I got caught on the Gunbarrel Hwy in my D2 with busted rear shocks and could only travel at 10km/h for the next 3 days.
What happens to a D4 if the shocks were to fail and bags stay intact? Would the thing go to bump stops and stop, or would just give me a terrible ride but I could still progress or what?

Just a harsh ride, the bags provide some damping if they stay inflated. My 209000km old shocks still had the bags in good nick, but when I took them out of the car, they dropped a good 50mm just on their own. The shocks inside basically had nothing left in them.

I’ve had a few major bits fail, always whilst on holiday and not the school run, so took a preventative approach for this

I’ve noticed the car seems to adjust less after getting parked up - it used to need to settle a longer way, when the weight of 4 passengers got out and the doors were closed. Quite minor now...

In the end, I figured these are arguably some of the hardest working components in the car, not unreasonable to spend a few dollars on replacement after a decade :-)

I have a pretty set of front struts here that I'm going to tackle tomorrow.

The workshop manual says to remove the inner guard lining which of course requires removal of the headlight and grill also. Are people removing that liner or managing without doing so?

I'm a bit worried about getting the air line out of thw top of the strut and making a good connection in to the new one. Any tricks to this?

Did my fronts a few weeks ago. Did not remove the inner guard lining but it is tight and a short ratchet ring spanner helps.

Take your time it'll be fine. I didn't remove the guard.. The airline seals well.. Really easy job

To get the airline out of the old strut, undo the fitting out of the top plate, the old fitting then stays on the airline. Remove strut, then you have more access to the airline. Push the old fitting upper bit up the plastic airline, this the allowws you to wriggle the old "olive" off the line, the upper part of the fitting then just slides off the airline. You will have new fittings with the strut, fit these to the strut before you install to the car. The sirline simply pushes into the new fitting, push it as far as it can go, then give it a bit of a sharp tug upwards, this seats the new olive on the line. The air pressure in the line when the compressor starts up seats it fully, should have no leaks if you have the airline fully pushed in.

Originally Posted by Ferret

Did my fronts a few weeks ago. Did not remove the inner guard lining but it is tight and a short ratchet ring spanner helps.

Originally Posted by Eric SDV6SE

To get the airline out of the old strut, undo the fitting out of the top plate, the old fitting then stays on the airline. Remove strut, then you have more access to the airline. Push the old fitting upper bit up the plastic airline, this the allowws you to wriggle the old "olive" off the line, the upper part of the fitting then just slides off the airline. You will have new fittings with the strut, fit these to the strut before you install to the car. The sirline simply pushes into the new fitting, push it as far as it can go, then give it a bit of a sharp tug upwards, this seats the new olive on the line. The air pressure in the line when the compressor starts up seats it fully, should have no leaks if you have the airline fully pushed in.

Thanks lads. LHS done this afternoon. I worked out the air line eventually. I ended up removing the guard liner as I couldn't get enough access with my spanner collection. HEAPS easier to access and do the air line with it removed. RHS tomorrow morning hopefully. Then the rears when they arrive in a week or 2.
Cheers,