CMax front shocks, here's how

dr.fuzzenstein

Just bought a set of springs and shocks of onlineautomotive.co.uk and set about fitting them.
Or should i say a friend helped me with most of it, I couldn't have done it without his expertise. We started on the passenger side and he did pretty much all of that. I had a bash at the driver's side.
Jack up the car and secure with axle stands. Take off whatever wheel you're working on.
First you will have to remove the scuttle panel, just undo a few clips along the lip of the panel and remove the wipers:



You will then see a very strong looking cross-brace on top of the shock-mounts. You will notice that this brace peters out in a very flimsy bit of metal, being held on by 10 mm bolts.
I am still mystified as to it's purpose, since as a crossbrace it would be about as effective as a chocolate fireguard. Sorry, no pics of this for some reason, but it is only a couple of bolts. Remove and put away.
The you can loosen the three bolts holding the top mount and crack open the nut holding the top mount on the shock.
WARNING: DO NOT REMOVE THE CENTER NUT FULLY!
Only open it a bit to make work easier later on:


The three top mount bolts have already been removed in this pic, this turned out to be a mistake and we had to put them back in. Don't tighten fully, as you will need a bit of play in the top to remove the bottom.

At the bottom, remove the anti-roll bar link:



And pry brake line from the holder on the other side.

After that, get to work on the nut at the back of the bottom of the shock:



Copious amounts of WD40 the night before certainly helped.

After that, the suspension bit at the bottom (forget what it's called) needs to be moved down, to clear the bottom of the shock:


This is the bit where you get to hit stuff with a large hammer. Take care of your ears, fingers and the connector to the ABS sensor that fell victim to my enthusiasm.

dr.fuzzenstein

After the suspension has been separated from the bottom of the shock, you can now undo the bolts holding the top mount and take out the entire shock assembly:



After that you need to put on the clamps:



The first one I did by hand, i.e. using a ratchet. You will look like Popeye afterwards.
If you anyhow have a chance to use an air ratchet for this bit, go for it. Otherwise you may not be able to hold knife and fork for a few days.
Compress your spring and remove top mount. Remove any bits you will need.
I needed the gaiter and bump stop.

Now attach clamps to new spring, compress and assemble your new strut assembly:



Shocks for the CMax are not the same on each side, so be careful to get this right. All other bits where universal and fitted either side.
Insert strut into wheel well and screw in the top bolts, again leaving a bit of play.
Insert the bottom of the shock into the suspension bit that shall remain nameless and make sure it is seated correctly.
At the back of the shock is a little nipple that has to sit into a grove in the suspension.
Make sure this is sitting right. There are two lips of metal either side of that nipple, they have to sit on the suspension arm.
Use a mirror and a bright light to check this is sitting correctly!
I had trouble getting the shock to slide into the suspension again, my friend came up with the idea to grab the shock and pull outwards and hey presto! it slid into position.

After that, just redo your anti roll bar, put the brake line in it's bracket on the shock, put the scuttle and wheels back on and do the same again on the other side.

As you can see it was high time I did this: