struts and bushings

[Dusty256]

well finally finished major part of replacing worn out suspension parts on my 2009 journey .

back struts where a major pain , wish I had taken videos but basicly yo have remove the the back inside liner and open up two access places on the inside wheel wells. bottom was not to bad but you have to do a bit of moving things around to get the struts out ...

front struts where pretty easy except having to remove the plastic cowling on the windshield. bottom part super easy two bolts that hold the strut a plate holding brake line and abs sensor and sway bar link .

replace front sway bar bushings and links also which where super easy .

wish I had made videos

car really rides like a new car (well except for the noise from the tires being cupped on the edegs) .. well worth the effort . total cost was around 250.00

letting my neighbor who works for dodge take in in over the weekend and do a four wheel alignment .

one note the struts up front do not have adjust points , looks like the adjustment is on the lower control arm so I did do mess with the alignment too much but he is trading me work for the alignment so what the hey.

guess I will just put up with the tire noise till I get new ones

[JohnnyRevs]

great that you can do all that yourself - I had to change a front-top shock mount and bearing - not an especially tough job in itself but my problem was undoing the 18mm nut on the drop links for the sway bar.  It's worth giving these a thorough clean-up and lube before undoing. Also found that a narrow 18mm open-end spanner would have helped (if I had one) to hold the balljoint on the drop-link in place - I wasn't comfortable using the torx bit as I thought it would spin out. It held out for me in the end.  Took me over half-a-day to do this job because of that darned balljoint.

 

Found this video on Youtube to be helpful in outlining the procedure...