You need to lift up the boot carpet and spare wheel flap. I only removed the nearside and pivoted it out of the way to save disturbing the CD multi-changer. This gives just enough access to the O/S shock absorber mounting point. The carpet is held down by the plastic caps with a screwdriver slot in them and the carpet slides off the sprung loaded cover at the back of the seat.
You well see two small black panels held by 4 self tapping screws. The dampers are underneath these.
I found the job fairly straight forward, using the oof guide. Only comment is you need 21mm socket, not 22mm.
The top nuts came undone quite easily and likewise, the nuts at the bottom, but I did need my long torque wrench for these as they were tight. I found removing the dampers at the bottom very difficult, after putting penetrating oil on the suspension joint and and leaving it for 30mins, I ended up using a combination of my wife levering it with wrecking bar
while I hit the side of a drift in the shock absorber's bolt hole worked.
I found the removable washer and spacer at the top of the shock absorber were not included with my Vx replacements, so I had to remove them from the old ones. This was very difficult as they were solidly rusted to the old shock absorber top. I found a combination of penetrating oil, swearing
placing two large spanners underneath the washer while clamping the shock absorber in the jaws of my B&D workmate, and then hitting the top with my 4lb gentle persuader (club hammer) worked, but if these are available as a separate item I would suggest getting them as it will save a lot of time.
I hope this is of help.
I did take some pictures, of the estate floor, which I can email to anybody if they want to add them to the oof guide.
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Topic: Rear shocks (Read 737 times)