nile13

Thanks, Darin!
Kelly, they are $11.53 a pop from Sunset. Unfortunately they already packed all my previously ordered stuff in te box, so I'll wait to get them. Let me know if you try and how it goes.
BTW, I was curious about something. Is there a Porsche dealer in HI? I had a customer that was transferred to Hawaii and had to sell her year-old Audi because there was no dealer there. That was a financially painful bummer.

kkim

Thanks. I'll check that # against the front struts I've not installed, yet. Did they offer you a choice of struts or was that the only type they sold?

kkim

Depends which island you're on. If on Oahu, they have dealers for most of the car makes. If on the outer islands, like I am, very few foreign car dealers. There are no dealers on Kauai that sell european cars... not even VW!

FisterD

That was the only one they had, and they work great.

JPS

Wait, am I reading this right? FRONT struts were 15 min? I read the DIY on Robin's site, and have avoided it to the point of getting smacked on the head from my not so peppy front hood. Is it really infomercial "Just that easy"?

kkim

YMMV

FisterD

It probably took all of 20 minutes. Robins site says you need to remove some things, I can't remember what, but I just removed the old shocks. One at a time and installed the new without removing anything but the shocks.

kkim

Darin-
just checked the new struts I got in the mail. same # as you posted.

Thanks, I'll go give it a try.

Chris W. - '96 Targa

Ok, truth be told, since I dropped one of the retaining clips down into the abyss by the inner fender, it took 10 min. longer to go to Lowe's, find a C-clip that would replace it, and get back home and put in on.

But other than that, yes, about 15 min. of actual work.

-Chris

kkim

Just changed the front hood shocks and it is definitely easier to do than the rear. Took me about and hour... and that was stopping to talk to a neighbor for about 15 min. who came by.

To me, the most important tool to have is a screwdriver approximately as long as the shock with a blade that will fit under the clip.... that and a long magnetic retrieval tool.

Propped the hood open with a broom, removed the plastic panel that runs along the entire width of the trunk and took off and replaced the shocks one at a time according to Robin's site instructions with the exception of not taking anything else off but the plastic panel mentioned above. If you have a long enough screwdriver as I stated earlier, you don't have to remove any wires, clip or covers.

Nice to have a hood and trunk lid that will stay up by themselves.

nile13

Kelly, I read Robin's instructions, but have a few questions for you.
Is there a clip on the bottom? Does it need to be re-installed witha new shock? Which clip gets lost in teh abyss? The top one? Or the bottom one that might not be needed any longer?
Actually, if you have a good picture of the old (and new?) shock, I'd love to see it.

kkim

Yes there is a clip. It looks just like the ones shown on Robin's site.

No, new shocks come with new clips already installed.


I think it's the bottom one he is talking about. Top clip is right there and easy to remove. Bottom one needs the long screwdriver to remove and is a spring fit over the ball socket.



Attached is a pic of the shocks that I removed. The new ones I put in were identical... even had the same part numbers. The clips are shown off the ball socket.

kkim

tools needed to do the front hood shocks.

FisterD

Mike,
The bottom (ball end) of the original shock has a wire type clip. It's like a small piece of wire that clips around the ball end to hold it in place. The new shock has a flat type clip. It's like a small flat clamp wrapped around the ball end.
When removing the old shock, you need to stick a long screwdriver down to the bottom of the shock and pry this spring clip off before you can remove the old shock. I assume this the piece that needs to be retrieved via magnet.
When installing the new shock, simply pry the flat clamp towards the top of the ball (away from the shock body), and it will open the clamp inside the ball end. Install the ball end over the shock mount, and push the clip back toward the shock body, and it will lock over the mount.
The top portion is even easier...remove retaining clip w/needlenose pliers, and pull out the mounting pin, install by reversing this procedure.
I would recommend having a buddy help you, to hold the hood,and move it up and down, to align the holes to reinsert the top pin.
Hope this helps.

kkim

Darin,

On my old shocks, the bottom clip was the flat type. Seems like there are a few different types of front struts being used. Perhaps your PO or mine had these shocks changed somewhere along the life of these cars prior to us buying them.

Attached is a picture of my Official Porsche front shock changing static helper.