My 17-year-old grandson just purchased a 1991 Toyota in excellent condition. According to a mechanic he took the car to, all it needs is new brakes (“warped rotors”) and new struts on all four wheels.
My grandson is intelligent, thoughtful and handy with tools. He says he has access to special tools for the MacPherson struts, courtesy of Trak Auto. He thinks he can fix the car himself, but I’m afraid that only a professional should take it on and have voiced my opposition to his parents, even though I don’t know what a MacPherson strut is or does. Jarod recently bought a very detailed Toyota repair manual.
Does anyone know how hard it is to replace (1) warped brake rotors and (2) bad struts on an old Toyota?
He will need to do a complete wheel alignment when done with the regular nuts and bolts operation. On FWD, doing all four wheels, he is going to need access to a pro’s shop.
'course, he could get it close and take it somewhere. Certainly “do-able” for a shade tree mechanic w/ experience.
These jobs don’t require particularly high skill levels. However, I would have some qualms if he hasn’t done this before unless there is some expert guidance available. If he has a factory-type manual, intended for professional mechanics rather than for do-it-yourselfers, it may assume the reader has certain basic auto repair knowledge. Although it’s not that hard to do it right, it’s also not that hard to do it wrong if you’re not familiar with some critical details.
It could be a great learning experience, and my general leaning is to encourage him to try. However, since these are safety-related jobs, I think it would be very wise to have someone involved who can be relied upon to make sure it’s done properl
Oh yeah–a MacPherson strut is a suspension part, a supporting strut that has the shock absorber (damper) contained within and the spring attached. The special tool needed is a spring compressor, as the spring is taken off the old strut and attached to the new one. A compressed auto suspension spring is potentially dangerous, hence the importance of having the correct tool and knowledge.
A Haynes manual is probably the book he has. Replacing the rotor on my 89 corrola was amazingly simple, and the rotors are relativly cheap. When working with this, as a general rule things should be done in pairs. You don’t just replace one rotor, you replace either both front or both rear. same with brakes, tires, shocks.
The struts on my wife’s 92 corolla were a gigantic pain in the butt. Rusted on bolts were the norm, and Toyota crams so much stuff into such a small area bloodied knuckles should be expected. I had a hell of a time getting the compression tool to fit up right, and ended up crafting home made tools to help. For a first timer, I’d recommend he find someone who has tackled this before and supply a copious amounts of beer as payment.
No additional alignment work was needed after the struts were replaced. Mark all connections being removed with a white grease pencil. I don’t recall even having to touch any of the main suspension components other than the struts. It was at least 5 years ago though.