Took my 2002 Oldsmobile Bravada AWD in for inspection today (300k ish miles). They hard failed me on the suspension and exhaust. The exhaust is complete BS as we don't have emissions inspection in my county, but I know what I want to do about that - just replace it with something obnoxious that doesn't leak. To add insult to injury they're failing me for fog lights (because they don't know how to turn them on or off - I have the high 6 mod, btw - and my right low beam flickers as it's an offbrand led).
The suspension is another matter altogether. They're working up a quote for LCA bushings but for what I know they're going to charge, I'm thinking of buying a solid gold toilet and then doing upper and lower UCAs (for Pete's sake, it's time), plus upper and lower balljoints. Oh, and they failed the right outer tie rod that's a year old. So it looks like outer tie rods as well.
My questions revolve around difficulty and danger. I'm pretty old school. In my day, doing anything involving springs was BAD, like, potentially life-threateningly bad. This has struts. Does that mean once the front end is unloaded completely unloaded (jacked up all the way), I can unbolt the LCA and just drop the strut? or do I need a compressor to safely remove the strut from the vehicle? How much of a PITA is it to remove the LCA assembly and the UCA assembly? I'm confident I can remove the balljoints. I've done the wheel bearings, rotors, pads, and calipers more times than I can count. So tearing down to that point is a cake walk. It's at that point I start to wonder. I know I'll struggle removing the bolts holding the LCA and UCA to the frame, but I'm persistent, have air tools, and can get very persuasive. The other difficulty is that my outers are 16mm but all the "kits" I find are 14mm.... unless someone knows where I can get a kit of UCA, LCA, BJs, and 16mm outers.
The suspension is another matter altogether. They're working up a quote for LCA bushings but for what I know they're going to charge, I'm thinking of buying a solid gold toilet and then doing upper and lower UCAs (for Pete's sake, it's time), plus upper and lower balljoints. Oh, and they failed the right outer tie rod that's a year old. So it looks like outer tie rods as well.
My questions revolve around difficulty and danger. I'm pretty old school. In my day, doing anything involving springs was BAD, like, potentially life-threateningly bad. This has struts. Does that mean once the front end is unloaded completely unloaded (jacked up all the way), I can unbolt the LCA and just drop the strut? or do I need a compressor to safely remove the strut from the vehicle? How much of a PITA is it to remove the LCA assembly and the UCA assembly? I'm confident I can remove the balljoints. I've done the wheel bearings, rotors, pads, and calipers more times than I can count. So tearing down to that point is a cake walk. It's at that point I start to wonder. I know I'll struggle removing the bolts holding the LCA and UCA to the frame, but I'm persistent, have air tools, and can get very persuasive. The other difficulty is that my outers are 16mm but all the "kits" I find are 14mm.... unless someone knows where I can get a kit of UCA, LCA, BJs, and 16mm outers.
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