Replaces
Part Details
Our direct fit gas-charged strut assemblies help to restore your vehicle’s handling and ride quality to just like new.
Our direct fit gas-charged shock absorbers help restore your vehicle's handling and ride quality to just like new.
Item Condition:
New
Attention California Customers:
WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including Chromium (Hexavalent Compounds), which is known to the State of California to cause cancer, and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov
Lifetime Warranty
This item is backed by our limited lifetime warranty. In the event that this item should fail due to manufacturing defects during intended use, we will replace the part free of charge. This warranty covers the cost of the part only.
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Tools used
Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.
Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks!
In this video, we're going to show you how to replace a front strut with an unloaded strut from 1AAuto.com on this 2010 Buick Enclave. We show you on the passenger side, but the driver's side is the same procedure. The items you'll need is that new unloaded strut from 1AAuto.com, flat blade screwdriver, 8mm, 15mm, 18mm, 21mm, 22mm, and 24mm socket and ratchet, 18mm wrench, torque wrench, spring compressors, a 13/16 spark plug socket, and jack and jack stands.
Start off by prying off your hub cap and then remove these 22mm lug nuts. You want to just loosen them while the vehicle is on the ground and then raise the vehicle up and remove them the rest of the way. Now the wheel will pull free.
Pry up the cap at the end of your wiper arm and then remove this 15mm nut. Then either using a wiper arm puller or just pushing it in and out and using penetrating oil and pulling it off, you want to remove the wiper arm, but a wiper puller helps. You just twist it. It pops it off the stud and you can pull it free. Then you just want to repeat the process on the other wiper arm.
Now you need to remove these four clips, and you can either use a pick and you just pry up the center of the clip and then pull the clip up and out, or you can use a flat blade screw driver, pry up the center, and then pry out the bottom. Remove this ground and pull it free. Then pry out this clip right here, and there's another one on the other side. You just need to pry them out of the body of the car, peel off this adhesive pad from the cowl panel, and do the same thing on the other side. Then pry up this clip right here on the driver's side of the cowl panel, and then pull up sharply on the cowl panel and it will release the clips. Then do the same thing for the other side. Then you want to just pull this up. Make sure all the clips have released and then pull the panel free.
Now you want to remove two of these three 15mm nuts, and then the last nut you just want to loosen most of the way. Use a flat blade screwdriver and pry out the clip that holds your brake line in place. Then an 18mm socket and ratchet you just want to get the bolt on the end of the stabilizer link to move. You have it moving. Then use an 18mm wrench and then an 8mm socket and ratchet. The 8mm socket and ratchet hold the stud into place while you remove them with the wrench.
You might have to a couple of times, spray some penetrating oil on, re-tighten the nut, and then loosen it back up. You can see, it just pulls right out. Now remove these two 24mm nuts, and you can loosen them up with a breaker bar, or you can use power tools. Once you get those nuts to a certain point, just put them back on just a little bit, and then pull this harness out of here. Just make sure you put the nuts on so they're flush with the bolts. Once you get them moving, then take the nuts off. All right, we've got the jack supporting the suspension just a little bit, so this comes up nice and loose. You want to make sure that your steering knuckle doesn't pull too far out. Remove the nut. Now we just wire tighten this right here so there's not too much stress on the axle or too much stress on the hose here.
Now with the strut out, you have to compress the spring. I've got my spring compressors. I'm just going to tighten those up. This is a large spark plug socket and it's got an insert in here to hold the spark plug up. I'm just going to take a 90-degree pick and pull that insert out so it's wide open. Put a 7/8 wrench on here and then there's a 9mm socket and I have an adapter on it to get it to 3/8. This socket is on here really tight, so I want to knock it off first.
Now you can just remove that nut and pull the top off with the spring and this pad. Take your new strut. Just loosen up the nut on the top and it will just pull out. Take this boot, transfer it over and transfer over this pad. Once you have that lined up, take the spring and lower it into place. Then the same way you got the previous nut off, you want to do that again to tighten this one back on. We'll fast-forward as Mike does that.
Before I tighten it up, I've just got my spring there, which it's in my cushion correctly. Make sure it's right there on the platform of the strut as well where it's supposed to be. Then, just to preliminarily aim, this should be facing towards the outside of the car, and then this stud here, the big one, should be towards the outboard part of the car. Once you line it up, tighten up the nut that holds the spring out of the strut, and then make sure it stays lined up as you loosen up your spring compressors.
Now feed the strut back up into place. You just want to push those studs through, replace one of the nuts preliminarily to just hold it there, and then line up the wheel knuckle into the strut. Then replace one of those bolts just to help hold it into place. Then replace the other bolt, and you can just hammer them in the rest of the way. Now just replace those two nuts. You can adjust your alignment, so you will need to have your vehicle aligned after you install these.
It looks like mine is pretty close to the middle. The top one is fixed, but the bottom one you can flex by pushing in or out on the knuckle. I'm actually just looking in behind. I can see a nice line where my old one was sitting. I'm just going to line it up there and then tighten it up preliminarily. I'm going to torque these to 120 foot-pounds.
Jack the strut up into place. I'm just going to put these 15mm nuts back on. I'll preliminarily tighten them, but we're going to torque them once the vehicle is back on the ground with the wheel on. Take the harness clip from your old strut and it just pulls out. Then you just push it into place in the new strut. Then re-clip the harness into that clip. Push this clip back into the lower part of the strut. Push the sway bar link back into place, and then just replace that nut and tighten it up.
Now you can replace the wheel, and then just replace the lug nuts and tighten them preliminarily in a crossing pattern. Then you want to lower the vehicle and tighten these the rest of the way and torque each of them to 100 foot-pounds, again in a crossing pattern.
Then you can just line up and hit your hub cap back into place. Now torque these three nuts up here to 45 foot-pounds. Pull out any clips that stayed behind in the vehicle and push them back into place in your cowl panel. Then feed the cowl panel back into place. Make sure it tucks back under, under the hood. Once you get everything lined up, just start pushing the clips back into place. Make sure that this adhesive cushion over here goes back up and over, and repeat the process on the other side.
Now replace those four clips. Just push in the lower part and then the center to lock them in. Replace the ground and tighten it back up. Make sure your weather strip is back in place, and then, for now, you can close the hood. Make sure these clips on either side of the cowl panel are back into the body of the vehicle. Push the wiper arm onto the stud. Make sure it's lined up where you want it and then replace that 15mm nut and tighten it up. Put the cover back on the end. Now just repeat the process with the other wiper arm.
We hope this video helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.
Tools used
Hi. I'm Mike from 1AAuto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years!
Use a breaker bar and a 22mm socket to loosen the lug nuts with the vehicle on the ground. Just go around and loosen them all. Raise and support the vehicle. We're using a two-post lift. You can use a jack and jack stands. Use a socket and finish removing the lug nuts. Take the wheel and tire off.
The wheel and tire is stuck to the brake rotor. I have to put a lug nut on it. Put a second one on the opposite side here. Just lightly take a dead blow. We'll just break it free. It might take a couple hits. It might take one hit. The lug nuts keep it from falling off. Just put the wheel and tire aside.
If the shock bolt that goes through the top is covered with dirt, I’m going to take some rust penetrant, spray it on here, and with a wire brush, try and knock some of that dirt free so when I go to remove the nut it spins off the threads easily, so it doesn't get clogged up with dirt. I have to clean some of the dirt off the end. For the lower one, I'll do the same. Spray it with some rust penetrant.
I'll start by loosening but not removing the upper one. There isn't quite enough clearance to get an 18mm deep socket in here and a ratchet, so I'm going to use an 18mm box wrench. I'm going to loosen the nut, and I have a 15mm wrench to counterhold the bolts. Just keep going until you have the nut almost all the way off. You can change to the open ended part so it'll go a little quicker. I've got this loose but not all the way out. I'm going to spray some more rust penetrant in here. It is moving freely, but I want to make sure it comes out of this part of the shock.
The shock is mounted to the lower control arm with a large bolt that goes all the way through the control arm and is held on with a flange nut. Both of these are 21mm. I'm going to use a 21mm socket and a breaker bar. I'm going to hold the end of the bolt. I'm going to use a 21mm box wrench to break the nut free. It's a lot easier sometimes to break the nut free than try to turn the whole bolt.
I turn this pretty far out on the threads, and then I will use a floor jack to support the lower control arm and remove the lower bolt. Use our floor jack. I'll just lift up on the control arm just a tiny amount. Unthread this by hand now. Let's lift up on the jack a little bit. There it is. We're going to remove this upper nut from the long bolt. Give it a good push. Pull straight through, which is good, or else grab the shocks, and pull the bolt out. I'm just going to push the brake line just gently out of the way. I pulled the bolt out. I'm also supporting the shock. Just like that. Now, I'm just going to work on walking the shock out of the mount here. The hinge is caught on some dirt.
This is the original shock from our vehicle, and a brand new shock from 1AAuto.com. It comes wrapped with this shipping strap so it doesn't fully extend like this one is. I will actually install it with that in there. It also comes with this little conical washer to match the original. That'll go on the inside here. This'll fit great and work great in your vehicle.
I'm going to loosen this bracket here, these two 15mm bolts using a 15mm socket and ratchet. I'm not going to remove them, I'm just going to loosen them. That should give me enough movement. Install our shock. Okay, just slide the long bolt through. Install the nut. Tighten these bolts back up. Just go until they get tight. Now you cut this shipping strapping with some side cutters. The shock will start to expand.
This washer that comes with the new shock, the cone part is going to match the cone part in the control arm. Slide this over. You might have to push up the shock a little bit. Put the bolt through, just like that. The washer will go back around this side, and the large nut. Torque the lower bolt and nut to 74 foot-pounds. Lower the floor jack. I'm going to use a 15mm ratcheting wrench on the bolt end and counterhold the 18mm nut and snug this up. Counterhold the nut with the 18mm, and then torque the bolt's head 52 foot-pounds. It would be ideal if I could torque on the nut, but I can't get it in here with a deep socket.
Reinstall the wheel and tire. Thread the lug nuts on by hand. Now lower the vehicle to the ground and torque the lug nuts. Torque the lug nuts to 140 foot-pounds in a cross pattern.
Thanks for watching. Visit us at 1AAuto.com for quality auto parts, fast and free shipping, and the best customer service in the industry.
