Are you having a rough ride with that vehicle of yours? The first thing most people think of when the ride gets rough is the shocks need replacing, but quite often it is the rear coil springs and not the shocks.
The rear coil springs take some of the wear and tear off of your vehicle’s suspension. They save the shocks by taking some of the force out of bumps in the road, and by easing the load when you are hauling heavy loads. Eventually, as with all auto parts, your coil springs will need replacing. The front coil springs are difficult to replace and should be left to a car mechanic unless you are very proficient with auto repair. However, the rear coil springs are a relatively easy replacement.
For this car repair job, all you need are two car jacks, socket wrenches and a lug nut wrench.
Jack the rear of your vehicle up with a car jack on both sides. Remove the lug nuts on your rear wheels and slide the wheel off of the wheels studs on both sides.
Take your socket wrench and remove the top mounting nuts of the two rear struts. By removing these it will allow your rear axle to lower to the ground. You might want to enlist the aid of a friend to help you lower the axle.
With the axle removed, pull the coil springs out of their mounting brackets.
Slide new coil springs into place, secure them in the mounting brackets, and then lift the rear axle into place and install the mounting nuts to the top of the struts again. Put the rear wheels back in place, tighten the nuts and lower your car. The job is done.
Of course we make this sound very simple but in reality this job will probably take you between one and two hours. A trained car mechanic can do this in an hour, which means by doing it yourself you will be saving somewhere in the neighborhood of $75 to $100 in labor fees.
As for the price of replacement coil springs, you can obviously go to a car dealership or an auto parts store and pay full price for new coil springs, or you can save further money by shopping at your local salvage yard. For savings of up to 50% on quality used auto parts, shop at places like All Import Auto Parts and save big time on quality replacement parts.