So the R failed it's MOT yesterday due to front nearside road spring being incorrectly seated - it's not quite sitting correctly against the plastic retainer at the top (probably after I've had it up on axle stands recently). My local garage want to disconnect the wishbone, use a giant spring compressor etc. and charge me £50 for the privilege. My question is, if I nipped over to the auto factors or Halfrauds and picked up one of these, could I not just jack the car up part way (wheel on, so the spring is partially compressed), get the clamp on there, jack it up a little bit more until I can re-seat the spring, then back down and remove the clamp? Seems like it should be really easy and not require any of the suspension to be disconnected. Would I struggle to get the spring clamps in position with the wheel still on and everything connected? I know what I'm doing with a spanner, but I've not used spring clamps before. Thoughts appreciated, cheers.
I haven't tried to do it on a megane, but what you have described is certainly possible on other cars. The only thing you may struggle with is getting the compressor in there and getting your hands and tools in to tighten - not sure how much space there is around the spring.
^^^ I don't think there would be room personally, they're quite big when they're clamped on. I may be wrong mind but it's a £30 risk. I'd just stump up and pay the extra, let someone else worry about it!
You might be right. Being a practical kind of guy, I just begrudge paying anyone a chunk of money for something that looks relatively straightforward! I'll have a poke around at lunchtime and see how much clearance there is.
Worst case take the strut off and do it yourself now you have the spring clamps iv got to change full set of springs got cooksport ones as one has snapped on front If I remember il make a guide on this
Well, after an hour of sweating and cursing during my lunch break, I can confirm that manual spring compressors are not going to work! Ironically, they might have fitted if the spring was correctly seated but, as it's currently misaligned, there's no space at one side of the turret to fit the clamp. I can fit it around a lower coil, but then I can't compress the spring quite far enough to re-seat it . Very frustrating! Basically, it looks like a complete strut out job
Told ya It's a shitter matey - just one of those unfortunate jobs that you can't end up doing yourself.
Final thought.... If it unbolt the top of the strut from the turret under the bonnet, any chance I'll be able to jack the car up high enough to release pressure on the spring without undoing the base of the strut?
Possibly - I guess it depends on how high you can get it and how much compression there is on the spring.
