I needto replace leaking rear struts in a 2002 elantraGT. Has anyone hereexperience replacing these, and can you tell me how difficult it is to do and what is involved?

 

to do any type of suspension you have to besomewhat mechanically inclined and have knowlege of struts/shocks. i beleive the struts are an assembly. you will need a spring compressor, a torque wrench woudl be a good idea but it isnt' nessasarry, i've done several suspensions that i didn't use torque specs for and they were fine but they were also older vehicals. In a whole its pretty straight forward. two bolts should be on the bottom of the strut, one on a topof the strut, then 3 bolts for the spring assembly. easiest way to get it out is to compress the spring, undo the bolts on the strut, the entire thing should come out, then once its out, undo the bolts for the spring and undo the spring compressor. reverse the process to put it back in. Note:::: you will most likely need to take off your brakes and rotors to get easy access to it, but you may not. Hope this helps a little. let me know if you need more help.

 

I appreciate the logic. I have disassembled some of the items you've mentioned on other vehicles in the past. I just thought it would be a good idea to use the forum to leverage from others experience on this car. I will be back.

 

Im getting ready for this on a rear driver side strut. It is "frozen".
I dont have the tools, so called around.

A) The Dealer is $328 per wheel (they only want to do both so that $650. for both sides, dealer done with 1yr warranty.

B) Autozone has $75 1qty strut, and will lease/refund a spring compressor for $50 refundable back when done. $75 approx do it yourself..

C) Buy $75 strut, and pay someone to install it. Quotes were $135 to $90 to install it.
$165 ish

Not sure if I'll need the rubber pad or anything until its out. But I'll probably do C, so the cars not down long.
Will have to do the other one asap...like next month or something.

This 2001 at 142k is starting to cost approx $100-$200 month so it seems.....