STi Suspension Kit

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:07 PM

Courtesy Alex Shikhmuradov.

Tools required:
Lots of tools

These instructions can be also used if you are going to install any suspension kit. The installation is pretty easy. If you have a moderate experience with tools, you'll be fine with these instructions. The whole process should take about 2-3 hours. I got my kit pre-assembled. However, you can cut the cost of the kit down, and assemble it yourself. If you get pre-ssembled you won't need need to use a spring compressor. Take old suspension out, put new one in, bleed the brakes, align the car and you are set. Ok, lets start.

Open the hood and jack up the front right side of the car. Remember to put the parking brake on and put a brick or something similar behind the rear tires to be safe. Support the car with a jack stand to avoid it from falling down while you are working on it.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:07 PM

Take off the front wheel. If you don't have a lug wrench handy, you can use a wrench with a 19mm deep-socket to remove the lug nuts.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:07 PM

After the wheel is off, go ahead and unbolt the three 12mm nuts that hold the strut in place at the top.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:08 PM

Now lets take a closer look at the strut from the bottom. There are two big 19mm bolts with nuts that are holding it in place. Only the top one has a washer. There is also a brake line attached to the shock on one side (marked with a red arrow) ...

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:08 PM

... And a speed sensor wire on the other side.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:08 PM

Remove the 12mm bolt that holds the speed sensor wire in its place.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:08 PM

Now lets take off the brake line. First you will need pull off that "U" shaped thing that holds the brake line to the strut. I apologize for the quality of this picture. Doh!

Simply use the pliers to pull it out.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:09 PM

Then follow the line and find the 14mm banjo bolt that attaches the line to the caliper. Unscrew it with a 14mm wrench. Be careful not to lose the 2 crush washers. The brake fluid will start to leak out from the line. Don't worry about it, we will resolve this later.

You can also cut a slot in the brake line brake and bend it to get the brake line out without disconnecting it. Doing this will save you about 1-2 hours of work and the the need to bleed the brakes.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:09 PM

Pull out the brake line through the hole and tie it up somewhere, so that less fluid leaks out.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:09 PM

Unbolt the two 19mm nuts that hold the strut in place.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:10 PM

Pull out the bolts. They are kind of hard to remove, so wiggle them, tap them and turn them.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:11 PM

When the bolts are out, the strut will be loose. Wiggle it to get it off its mounting plate.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:11 PM

This is what you will see after you take out the stock shock/spring. Note, how I tied the brake line to avoid excessive leakage.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:11 PM

This is a stock strut next to the STi unit.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:11 PM

Take the STi strut that has a RH sticker at the bottom. Put it in place, insert the bolts and secure it with the appropriate nuts. Remember, that there is only one washer on the top bolt.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:12 PM

Attach the speed sensor wire with the 12mm bolt.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:12 PM

Put the brake line through the hole in the bracket on the shock.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:12 PM

Secure the brake line with the "U" shaped clip.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:12 PM

Now attach the end of the brake line to the caliper with a 14mm banjo bolt. Don't forget that there should be 2 crush washers on each side of the line.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:13 PM

Bolt the three 12mm nuts back on at the top of the strut.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:13 PM

Make sure that all the bolts are tight, but do not overtighten them. Put the wheel back on, take out the jack stands and lower the car.

Now go to the front left wheel and repeat all the steps from step 1.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:14 PM

Now it is time to go to the rear of the car. First lets take off the rear seat. I would recommend doing that before you jack up the car. Start by removing the two 12mm bolts that hold the bottom cushion of the seat. On this picture you can see the driver's side bolt. There is the same bolt in the same place on the passenger's side.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:15 PM

Then remove the three 12mm bolts that hold the back cushion in its place.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:15 PM

This is the most time consuming part of the entire installation. You need to remove the three 12mm nuts that hold the strut at the top mount. You can make it easier and take off the rear decklid and the seat belt tensioner to have better access to the nuts. I chose not to. I used both a 12mm socket wrench and an open end 12mm wrench to remove these nuts.

It took me quite a while to do that, but I did.

kastle · 06-07-2002, 04:16 PM

Jack up the car and support it with jack stands. Take off the wheel and look around. This time the speed sensor wire is not attached to the strut. This is good.

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