Hi Jimmy I'm good thanks. I would say that it'd be OK to do the swap and drive around gently for a couple of days until you can get it booked in. The handling might be all over the place so be prepared for that, but you shouldn't do any damage provided you get it sorted quickly.
The swap is not difficult, here's a quick how-to, going from memory.
Tools needed:
Assorted spanners & sockets: 10? 12? 14, 17, 19, 22.
Ball joint splitter
Spring compressors maybe
Front
With the car still on the floor, slacken the three nuts on the topmounts each side holding them to the strut tower - usually the same ones an aftermarket strut brace fits to. Don't remove nuts yet.
Slacken the wheel nuts, jack car up & remove wheel. You can do this one side at a time.
Slacken the two bolts holding the strut to the hub carrier, don't remove yet.
Remove castellated nut on tie rod end to strut casing. It should have a split pin through it, straighten and pull out, then remove nut. Remove rod end from strut casing using splitter. You can in theory hammer this upwards but the rod end is a bit soft and you can easily damage the thread by bending it. A splitter is about a tenner and worth buying imo.
Remove bolts holding brake lines to strut casing & get lines out of the way.
Remove strut to hub carrier bolts, being careful not to allow the hub carrier to slop outwards as this can disengage the driveshaft from the gearbox.
Strut will now be loose at the bottom, so hold it while you remove the nuts from the topmount and remove.
Re-fitting is the reverse of removal, fit it to the topmount first, then bolt to the hub carrier, then attach the track rod end.
Repeat on other side
Rear
Best to do both at the same time, as the rear suspension is not completely independent and you need to use the travel to get clearance to get the struts out.
Remove boot trim, ie the stiff carpet around the strut tops. Loosen the two nuts at the strut tops and remove them. Need a socket with an extension and a bit of 'wobble' to it to get it on the nut and turn it from a slight angle.
Jack the car up and remove the rear wheels.
Under the car, remove the bolts holding the bottom of the struts to the rear trailing arms.
Remove the struts. This can be easier said than done, as (especially with OEM ones) they can extend which makes it difficult to get them to clear the bracket on the RTA.
I've messed around with spring compressors to help with this, I wonder if a load of cable ties applied while the car is on the floor with the wheels on would be able to keep it short enough to help it out.
Re-fitting is the reverse of removal
Err I think that's it really, it's not complicated but can be a bit of a pain getting bolts off, rod ends at the front, and the rear struts out of the RTAs.
I've probably forgotten loads of stuff so proceed with caution & commonsense and use this as a guide only :lol:
HTH anyway - good luck with it mate
