Thanks for the info. I also found those but only at CARID.com whose custom service I am not sure about.They are $20 more each than the PPVs too. Now I have bought both the stock and PPV struts from Amazon, one of them will need to go back and you guessed it rightThere is also one other strut option for those that want a close to oem ride. Peddlers makes a Black gas charged strut and shock for stock replacement. They are close to the FE3 and ride better than PPVs. Also slightly less than PPVs too
Thanks for your suggestion JCM. I am trying to stay away from cutting and drilling right now since I don't have the right tools and space. I do want to do these things eventually but I want to do them right with the right tools. For educational purpose, what's the benefit replacing the cartridge?WC - if you are able to replace the struts yourself, then replacing the cartridge is an option. To some it's intimidating, really it's non-issue. Make a cut near top, plenty of threads detailing location and drill hole in bottom. This will give you adjustability for ride comfort. google 8641-1506SPORT
Per personal experiences, their customer no service is atrocious.... I also found those but only at CARID.com whose custom service I am not sure about...
sounds very much doable! That means I will need to buy the koni one just for the cartridge right? With this method I can pretty much use any cartridge that's not too thick and at about the same length. good idea, I never thought of that, because I have never done ANY work on struts until 2 days ago lol. I will keep it in mind for future projects. Thanks!All struts have a cartridge that is the actual shock absorber. Today, many are integrated with the mount and spring perch , the strut held in place with a crimp or spot weld. For the koni, you cut off the crimp, pull the cartridge out and replace. Drill hole in the bottom and run a bolt into the strut to hold in place. No special tools needed - hacksaw and generic drill.
glad I avoided it.Per personal experiences, their customer no service is atrocious.
Looks intimidating but Super Easy to do!All struts have a cartridge that is the actual shock absorber. Today, many are integrated with the mount and spring perch , the strut held in place with a crimp or spot weld. For the koni, you cut off the crimp, pull the cartridge out and replace. Drill hole in the bottom and run a bolt into the strut to hold in place. No special tools needed - hacksaw and generic drill.
Final Update:Update: while I am just waiting for parts and a little warmer weather, I raised the car multiple times to inspect. I don't see anything wrong besides the gap shown, but the clicking noise went away every time I raised the car. I tried to push the front down to see how the struts are doing but it's either I am too light or the struts are solid--the car doesn't seem to budge. Maybe a little but definitely no oscillations. It feels tight. Maybe I am lucky and the struts are still good after 11 years and 80k miles or it's completely dead lol. I will update more after this weekend hopefully.
Save those old struts. Perfect for the Koni inserts.Final Update:
I got the two PPV shocks in my G8 now. The drive seems fine for now.
The job still took me 4 hours--I was expecting 2 hours after I changed the mount last week. Oh well, I am glad it is done now. Left stock shock was leaking and oily, right one is ok. See picture for comparison.
A couple hiccups:
1.finding the the right lineup between the spring and the strut. I have seen people talking about marking all the positions but I didn't quite understand why until I need to install it myself. Basically both the shock and spring have angles at the bottom, if they are not lined up correctly, the stem of the shock and the top plate will be in a weird angle and the top mount wont be able to 'sit' flush with the plate. So I was spinning the shock, thus the bottom plate, until I see the top mount fell flush with the top plate. As expected the notch of top plate would point to the engine when the assembly is mounted back. It is not 100% accurate but roughly right. I tried to mark the spring with the notch of the old shock, but either the ppv shock has different angle or I already messed it up last time when I installed the mount. Feel pretty confident this time.
2.torquing the clevis nuts. Someone said 63fp then 74fp then 90*( I assumed 90 degree). But the bag that holds the new nuts says 85fp then 100fp then 90 degree. The problem is with the hub raised to the ride height, it's hard to torque it to that high not to mention another 90 degrees. It would be much better to have a helper to hold the 19mm wrench. Anyway I torqued it basically as much I could. I think it's probably OK with the new nuts and blue locktite.
Other than these, it was a smooth job. Thanks a lot for all the inputs guys. See you next project!