Jakez

My rear springs need replaced and I just got Arnotts in the mail (took 1 day ground shipping ). I want to do it myself but not blindly lol. I swear I did a ton of searching on here and Google but not really sure if some of the diy's I found are what I'm looking for..

benzmodz

There are two ways. Release the control arm bolts with a jack or compress the spring with a KLAN tool or a copy of a KLAN tool such as HCB.

GT-ER

I did it the easy way. I just unbolted and lowered the rear arm ( unbolted it from the knuckle ) to make room and cut the reservoir hose from the oem springs to release the air inside the springs ( you don't reuse these reservoirs and they cannot be removed without lowering the subframe so you may as well just cut the hose ). Once the bellow is empty it'll compress by hand and bend at will to allow for easy removal once you unhook the air line and wires. Same goes for the new springs, they are empty and you can bend them at will. It was ULTRA easy., the easiest spring change I've done in my life.

Manuyc

my right rear make a crackling noise every time I drive from a stop so I think shock is going as well

shardul

iTrader: (1)

check your sub frame.

Manuyc

The subframe itself or subframe bushing? What should I look for when I check it?

GT-ER

Loose bolts, broken bushings, cracked frame.

shardul

iTrader: (1)

broken bolt

Manuyc

That's is what it sounds like.
Only when acclerrate or decelerate it does sounds like a grinding noise

But when I go off a bump now grinding noise so it must be something loose or broken

Manuyc

thanks

berti_00

Lets deadlift your car on Tuesday and see were the bolt is brahh

Jakez

Well you sure make it sound easy lol. But im sure theres more to unhook/bolt than that? Any idea what size bolts im looking at? No special ones right?

Any more details you could give using these pics I attached? I want to make a DIY for this if I can.

GT-ER

Man, I wish I would have taken pics and done a DIY when I did mine but I literally did one side in like 30 minutes or something. It was that easy. The first side I did took me like an hour or more because I had never done it before but once I figured out how to do it I realized that I did a bunch of stuff I didn't have to and the second side was a sinch.

I know that I unbolted the rear arm ( the furthest one back ) from the knuckle and lowered it. I also unbolted the shock and removed it ( one bolt on top and one on the bottom, you can leave it connected ). Then I unplugged the air bellow ( I unhooked the air lines from the distribution block near the differential ) and cut the hose that goes to the reservoir. This deflates the shock to the point where I just squished it and removed it. The new one comes deflated so you can squish it the same way and insert it and put everything back to how it was before. Simple.

Jakez

Can't believe there is no DIY for what is probably the most important ($$$) repair on these cars lol. I guess because there wasn't anything available until just recently?

Anywho, I'm going to attempt to figure it out and do it again tomorrow with a friend. If you guys can help me get through it I promise I will do a nice DIY.

black06c230

I have my rear Arnotts ordered and I will try to get a DIY done with pics.

GT-ER

There is a DIY for changing out the oem ones but it involves dropping your subframe. Arnott's instructions show this. It's completely unnecessary though and is a HUGE pain.

black06c230

Anyone know which fuse goes to the rear? I would like to pull the fuse so that the air comp doesn't stay on while I move the car to the shop a few miles away. Don't want to get the shocks replaced just to have to turn around and replace the comp!!!

Jakez

I forgot about the instructions packaged with the Arnott's lol. I only pulled one of the springs out so far to look at it and haven't looked at the papers inside the box.

Any hints as to where I can find the DIY for swapping out oem ones? Maybe I can get enough info from that and/or the Arnott paperwork to help me do this job and just ignore the sub frame part.

GT-ER

The instructions arnott supplies are for the oem ones. To swap out the oem ones with their respective reservoirs you MUST drop the subframe. Some people unplug the reservoirs and simply reuse the old reservoirs with the new struts but MB doesn't recommend it.

Jakez

Ok can someone please look at these pics really quick and verify that the steps are correct to remove the air spring? If there is ANYTHING else needed (disconnect battery? unbolt shock/spring/arm in different order? disconnect sensor junction block in fender well? be careful of something? ANYTHING) PLEEEASE say so.

I don't want to cut the hose to the reservoir (and be stuck?) until I know 100% I will be able to finish the job. Going to do a full thorough DIY if I can get this done!

GT-ER

No need to unbolt the control arm it's self, it'll go down enough to be able to remove the deflated bellow. Only unbolt the thin rear arm at the knuckle to get it to wiggle. You must also unbolt the shock at the bottom to remove it. You may want to unbolt the sway bar link to get it go lower but it's not necessary ( I didn't ). When cutting the hose, make a small incision first and let the air bleed out. Don't cut too fast as it's pressurized and may scare the live crap out of you...lol.

Jakez

Ok the sucker is ready to fall out now. Except there's some kind of ball joint or something still holding the top of the spring in??? What am I looking for?

Edit: n/m, pried her out lol. Going to DIY the other side. Woohoo!

GT-ER

Not to hard eh?

Jakez

For me? Extremely haha. But the good thing about that is my DIY will make it so easy that even someone not mechanically inclined (like me) will have no problem doing it. I think it took like 3-4 hours. Had to go buy a 16 or 18mm wrench and stuff. But yeah the other side SHOULD be easy.

Thank you all for the help!

PS: afterward it didn't really seem to want to raise up very high or do a whole lot. But then again the front wasn't doing much either. IDK I swear each corner of the system has a mind of it's own. Going to jump in the shower and then check it out again and test drive.

black06c230

Keep us all posted my new rears are coming this week and this will certainly make it easy!