I changed my front and rear shock absorber struts and the upper strut mounts yesterday. I was getting a lot of rattling over every little bump. The car has about 225,000 miles.
There are at least 6 brand names on the market; I bought Monroe part numbers 71366, 71367 and 904972.
The old ones were very rusty and appeared to be the originals, or at least the upper mounts were. They had paper stickers on top reading LHF Blue, RHF White, LHR Green and RHR Yellow.
I failed to notice these stickers until the job was done, but I did notice dabs of blue and white paint on the springs. There was no difference I could see between left and right springs, both were wound the same direction, and I did not mix them up, so I don’t know what the stickers meant.
Here is the procedure I followed.
First remove the four small nuts on the upper end. Here is the front. The rear is the same and is under the trunk (boot) carpeting.
Next put the car on a lift or jack stands and remove the front tires.
On mine the front shock lower end bolts were blocked by the anti-roll bar links, so I disconnected them next.
Other cars may have the bolts installed from the rear, in which case the tie rod ends will be in the way.
On the front disconnect the upper control arm ball joints, so the lower arms will swing down enough.
Then remove the lower nut and bolt and the shock assembly will come out.
On the rear, there was no need to remove the tire or anything else, just the lower bolt, which is threaded into the lower suspension arm, no nut.
Check to make sure you have the right shocks.
There are many types of spring compressors on the market. I used these, a bit of work to use, but the price was right. You want lots of grease on the threads with these. Put them on at an angle so the hooks don’t slip on the coils.
Pro shops have a foot pumped hydraulic press set up to do just this job, much faster of course.
The factory method was a motorized version of the hydraulic press, even faster yet.
When the spring is compressed enough so the upper mount is loose, remove the top nut. The end of the shaft has flats for a small wrench but I used a big adjustable wrench.
Then it will come apart. Mine were rusty and needed a little persuasion.
The old upper mount had a plastic insert to fit the shape of the end coil, but the new upper mount was all rubber. I re-used the lower end plastic inserts, and on the rears there was another plastic spacer under the lower insert.
The smaller rebound buffer fits inside the upper mount. The plastic bellows fits over that. The Monroe mounts did not come with bellows; why not, it can’t cost over 25 cents to make? I was not able to find new bellows from my usual sources. It may be a Ford exclusive part?
There is a small very thick washer that goes on before you put the upper mount parts on, then another thinner washer, and finally the nut.
Be sure both ends of the coil spring are correctly seated in their insert shapes before releasing the compressor.
You do not have to align the lower end bushing with the upper end before you put it back on the car. You can put a big screwdriver or punch or whatever in there and turn the lower end after the upper end is in place.
The front was easy enough to fit with the upper control arms and steering knuckles loose.
The rears took some doing, getting the 4 studs into the holes when you can’t see them.
Either you need a helper in the trunk (boot) to guide them in, or fit some plastic drinking straws over the studs, so you can guide them in from underneath.
Result, the rattling is almost entirely eliminated and the car rides a lot better.
Next job, looking for that elusive remaining tiny rattle.