Just finished this on a 06 outback. Original struts at 170K. My wife wants to get 250K out of it so I guess we'll put some $$ in it. Its a pretty easy job, but I was not able to free the drivers side bolt it was so rusted on. Working on the garage floor there was not enough room to get any leverage on my breaker bar. I took it to the place that changes my oil and he used 30" breaker bar and a 2 ft cheater bar and working in his pit was finally able to break it loose. Also, when the old strut comes out the rear suspension rises about 4 inches so the new strut mounting hole does not line up. Working alone I was not able to lever the suspension down and line the bolt up at the same time. Finally I used a bottle jack to compress the strut up to where the holes lined up. It took a few tries to get them to line up as once there is compression on the spring you cannot move the hole horizontally. But now installed the old Suby rides much better; no rear dancing when I hit a bump. The back is noticably higher than the front. But tomorrow I am going to put the fronts on so it should even out. Very satisfied. I hope the struts will go to 250K. The local Firestone store quoted $1200 for all four struts, I am in for less than $400.
I had the hardest time getting some of the shock bolts loose. It literally took some serious creativity and massive elbow grease to get the job done. What I ended up doing was use a breaker bar on the backside and have someone position their foot on it so the bolt wouldn't move, then for the front bolt I took my socket wrench and positioned it in a horizontal fashion, then took another jack and aligned it up to the wrench then slowly jacked the wrench up, in order to get the necessary pressure to loosened the nut. I know this can be not good on the wrench, but I was able to break it loose after hours of trying to get it by hand. But once I got those loose installing the quick shocks was easy. Another tip when trying to lower the arm to align with the rear shocks, I used a scissor jack between the arm and the rubber bumper (as mentioned in the video) to slowly lower it down to align with the hole. It took multiple attempts to get it aligned. But once everything was put back together my car now rides super smooth. Very good purchase.
I too had a hard time with that lower 19mm bolt at bottom of each shock, until I figured out a trick that worked great for me. I used two breaker bars, on the bolt head and the nut. But since I was on jack stands rather than a lift, the real trick was positioning first breaker-bar on the bolt head, so that the bolt rotated that bar's handle down into my garage floor, as I turned the nut with the other breaker bar. The garage floor "held" the end of the inside breaker-bar, which stopped the bolt from rotating farther, allowing me to finally break the nut free from the bolt (with a 24" breaker bar and a 12 point socket due to limited swing arc.) I also sprayed the nut with penetrating oil several hours in advance, which might have helped a little. If that hadn't worked I was going to see if maybe a swivel socket could reach the nut with an impact wrench. (Other videos used an impact wrench on the bolt while holding the nut with a wrench. I couldn't get it to budge that way, perhaps my cheap impact wrench is not up to snuff.) Thanks for the tip on aligning the holes back up when ready to put the bolt back in, using the scissor jack. Service manual says to use the scissor jack between the rear link and sub frame. HOWEVER I can't figure out how to make that work on the passenger side, because the subframe has something in the way right above the rear link... I think it's the fuel filler tube (or something else I don't want to crush.) So I used same technique as another poster: I wedged a wood block to position the shock's lower bolt hole horizontally aligned, then lifted it from below with a bottle jack (straight up, against the coil spring). Multiple attempts to get a wood block of close enough thickness. I briefly also tried using a pry bar to align the hole as in video, but working by myself I couldn't make that go far enough, and I was afraid if the pry bar slipped again then it might slam the brake line.
I ordered the rear struts from 1A Auto and just completed the drivers side on my sons 2008 Outback. I had to buy a small bottle jack at the local hardware store to compress the shock about 1.5” so I could get the lower bolt thru the shock and into the mount. The video was very helpful and will be ordering the front struts in a few weeks.
Just did this repair. And, because 1A Auto posts these useful videos, I chose to buy from you. So keep the vids coming, please! My 2008 Outback is the most unreliable hunk of crap, and rated a "1/5" stars for reliability by Consumer Reports. I'm gonna need to continue to replace a ton of parts on it to keep it on the road.
Wow I have a 2008 outback and other than gas, oil, brakes and air on the tires nothing ever goes wrong! It's like a sweater or pair of pants, dead reliable
If my bolt is not coming loose even with a torque gun what would be the best advice 1. Sprayed PB 2. Repeated 3. Even heated it up with a propane torch. Does it matter if it's propane compared to butane? THANK YOU 1A AUTO
Propane is hotter than butane I thought, usually it should do the trick. Next step up is oxygen/acetylene torch... be careful with that one... Last resort? Use a nut cracker and brake the nut on the one side, drill the bolt out if it still does not come out...
Getting rears and fronts for my flagship The Galaxy Express 999, a 2006 Subie Outback. The easiest car to do stuff on, more than these front wheel drive beer cans that I can't stand!
Just did it in the driveway yesterday. Use the jack with a block of wood to pump up the strut after the top bolts have been reinstalled to align the bottom bolt hole.
I got the rear and front struts replaced on my '02 Subaru Outback Wagon VDC, but there are still squeaking sounds which were still there before I replaced the struts. Do you know if it is the bushings on the control arms and stablizer bar?
+Make It Work We wouldn't be able to diagnose an issue like that here, you may want to have a local mechanic take a look at it. Thanks for checking us out! 1aau.to/m/Shop-1AAuto-c
In the list of tools used, you mention 17mm wrench. I didn't see you mention any 17mm nuts or bolts in the video though. Is a 17mm wrench really needed or was that a typo? Great video BTW.
So you need to show this using a floor jack....not many DIY folks have a lift. Reason being, I supported the hub as you suggested and once I pounded the bolt out of the strut assembly it released cause it was still compressed. Thank goodness I did not have my hand or wrist in harms way because I would have been injured. Also, for your sway bar link instructional video...that it bad too ! There is a 5mm Allen socket at the end of the bolt which is supposed to hold the bolt on place while you undo the nut...needless to say, that poor design leads to the 5mm Allen socket rounding over on the first turn of a bolt that's been on for 16 years no matter how much deep creep yu spray on it. Ended up having so cut the old sway bar links out both front and back. Also as a precaution to other folks, not a lot of room for the cut off wheel so be careful !!!
My 97 Outback did 400,000km without needing shocks replaced. My 08 outback only has 220,000km and the shocks are leaking oil and knocking all round. The Build quality between the two models is really disappointing.
I'm normally very positive about the videos that 1A Auto does, but this one is disingenuous and makes the job look much easier than it actually is because they resort to using a whole car lift that do-it-yourselfers don't have. From under the car the dude in the video had an easy time getting a socket on one side of the 19mm bolt and a wrench on the other and getting that bolt loose, but as others have mentioned, we're trying to get cheater bars on the socket wrench from beside the car while also trying to hold on to the other wrench that's holding the backside of the bolt from rotating. On their video for replacing the front struts, they use a floor jack just like we do, so it's an accurate representation of what we'll face in our driveways. 1A Auto should pull this video and re-do it using a floor jack so that we get a true picture of what it will take to do this job. Of course, they might sell less replacement rear struts by being more honest because people might see that it can be a really tough job with that 19mm bolt rusted on. . . .
@@1AAuto But I don't know how this would be done in practice in a professional environment. I suppose the shop would have to use their alignment rack, if one is available, to raise the car with its weight on the wheels. With a DIY job, I just crawl under the car and tighten it the best I can, then drive up on ramps and finish with a torque wrench. But that is not an option for a production shop.
√ *Watch the Video*
√ *Buy The Part at 1A Auto* 1aau.to/m/Visit-1AAuto
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I have a 2004 outback limited or outback sedan, you got a link for a video to the back of an 04 outback sedan rear strut assembly replacement 😅
Just finished this on a 06 outback. Original struts at 170K. My wife wants to get 250K out of it so I guess we'll put some $$ in it. Its a pretty easy job, but I was not able to free the drivers side bolt it was so rusted on. Working on the garage floor there was not enough room to get any leverage on my breaker bar. I took it to the place that changes my oil and he used 30" breaker bar and a 2 ft cheater bar and working in his pit was finally able to break it loose. Also, when the old strut comes out the rear suspension rises about 4 inches so the new strut mounting hole does not line up. Working alone I was not able to lever the suspension down and line the bolt up at the same time. Finally I used a bottle jack to compress the strut up to where the holes lined up. It took a few tries to get them to line up as once there is compression on the spring you cannot move the hole horizontally. But now installed the old Suby rides much better; no rear dancing when I hit a bump. The back is noticably higher than the front. But tomorrow I am going to put the fronts on so it should even out. Very satisfied. I hope the struts will go to 250K. The local Firestone store quoted $1200 for all four struts, I am in for less than $400.
I had the hardest time getting some of the shock bolts loose. It literally took some serious creativity and massive elbow grease to get the job done. What I ended up doing was use a breaker bar on the backside and have someone position their foot on it so the bolt wouldn't move, then for the front bolt I took my socket wrench and positioned it in a horizontal fashion, then took another jack and aligned it up to the wrench then slowly jacked the wrench up, in order to get the necessary pressure to loosened the nut. I know this can be not good on the wrench, but I was able to break it loose after hours of trying to get it by hand. But once I got those loose installing the quick shocks was easy. Another tip when trying to lower the arm to align with the rear shocks, I used a scissor jack between the arm and the rubber bumper (as mentioned in the video) to slowly lower it down to align with the hole. It took multiple attempts to get it aligned. But once everything was put back together my car now rides super smooth. Very good purchase.
+Justin Mcgee Thanks for the tip! We'll pass this info along to our production team.
I too had a hard time with that lower 19mm bolt at bottom of each shock, until I figured out a trick that worked great for me. I used two breaker bars, on the bolt head and the nut. But since I was on jack stands rather than a lift, the real trick was positioning first breaker-bar on the bolt head, so that the bolt rotated that bar's handle down into my garage floor, as I turned the nut with the other breaker bar. The garage floor "held" the end of the inside breaker-bar, which stopped the bolt from rotating farther, allowing me to finally break the nut free from the bolt (with a 24" breaker bar and a 12 point socket due to limited swing arc.) I also sprayed the nut with penetrating oil several hours in advance, which might have helped a little.
If that hadn't worked I was going to see if maybe a swivel socket could reach the nut with an impact wrench. (Other videos used an impact wrench on the bolt while holding the nut with a wrench. I couldn't get it to budge that way, perhaps my cheap impact wrench is not up to snuff.)
Thanks for the tip on aligning the holes back up when ready to put the bolt back in, using the scissor jack. Service manual says to use the scissor jack between the rear link and sub frame. HOWEVER I can't figure out how to make that work on the passenger side, because the subframe has something in the way right above the rear link... I think it's the fuel filler tube (or something else I don't want to crush.) So I used same technique as another poster: I wedged a wood block to position the shock's lower bolt hole horizontally aligned, then lifted it from below with a bottle jack (straight up, against the coil spring). Multiple attempts to get a wood block of close enough thickness.
I briefly also tried using a pry bar to align the hole as in video, but working by myself I couldn't make that go far enough, and I was afraid if the pry bar slipped again then it might slam the brake line.
I ordered the rear struts from 1A Auto and just completed the drivers side on my sons 2008 Outback. I had to buy a small bottle jack at the local hardware store to compress the shock about 1.5” so I could get the lower bolt thru the shock and into the mount. The video was very helpful and will be ordering the front struts in a few weeks.
Excellent clear description..I like that guy..he is in other 1A fixit videos and is very clear..
Hate to be critical, but when you are installing the lower strut bolt, you should have the torq wrench on the nut not the bolt
Great video. Made it look simple & to the point. Gotta take care of mine over the weekend.
Just did this repair. And, because 1A Auto posts these useful videos, I chose to buy from you. So keep the vids coming, please! My 2008 Outback is the most unreliable hunk of crap, and rated a "1/5" stars for reliability by Consumer Reports. I'm gonna need to continue to replace a ton of parts on it to keep it on the road.
+Raul Endymion Thank you for your feedback and your business! We are happy to help.
Wow I have a 2008 outback and other than gas, oil, brakes and air on the tires nothing ever goes wrong! It's like a sweater or pair of pants, dead reliable
Nicely done, and clearly explained. Thanks.
+maneki9neko Thank you! We love empowering our customers and showing how to perform DIY auto repairs with our high-quality auto parts. 1AAuto.com
If my bolt is not coming loose even with a torque gun what would be the best advice
1. Sprayed PB
2. Repeated
3. Even heated it up with a propane torch.
Does it matter if it's propane compared to butane?
THANK YOU 1A AUTO
Propane is hotter than butane I thought, usually it should do the trick. Next step up is oxygen/acetylene torch... be careful with that one...
Last resort? Use a nut cracker and brake the nut on the one side, drill the bolt out if it still does not come out...
excellent video, thanks for posting✅😎 i am replacing my rear struts in a few days
+buzz kirschner Thanks for checking us out! 1AAuto.com
Is 46 ft lbs correct for the 19mm bolts? That doesn't seem correct when compared to the 122 for the fronts... @6:47
Getting rears and fronts for my flagship The Galaxy Express 999, a 2006 Subie Outback. The easiest car to do stuff on, more than these front wheel drive beer cans that I can't stand!
I have an 06&07 outback easiest car ever to work on. I love that Subaru labels everything
Are the torque specs the same for an 08 Legacy?
Can this be done with a floor jack and jackstands?
Just did it in the driveway yesterday. Use the jack with a block of wood to pump up the strut after the top bolts have been reinstalled to align the bottom bolt hole.
Yes
I got the rear and front struts replaced on my '02 Subaru Outback Wagon VDC, but there are still squeaking sounds which were still there before I replaced the struts. Do you know if it is the bushings on the control arms and stablizer bar?
+Make It Work We wouldn't be able to diagnose an issue like that here, you may want to have a local mechanic take a look at it. Thanks for checking us out! 1aau.to/m/Shop-1AAuto-c
In the list of tools used, you mention 17mm wrench. I didn't see you mention any 17mm nuts or bolts in the video though.
Is a 17mm wrench really needed or was that a typo?
Great video BTW.
Can this video help me switch my shocks on my Impreza even though it’s an outback? I’m not sure how similar the two are. This is my first foreign car.
The process is the same. If you have an outback sport your rear strut will look like your front struts.
So you need to show this using a floor jack....not many DIY folks have a lift. Reason being, I supported the hub as you suggested and once I pounded the bolt out of the strut assembly it released cause it was still compressed. Thank goodness I did not have my hand or wrist in harms way because I would have been injured. Also, for your sway bar link instructional video...that it bad too ! There is a 5mm Allen socket at the end of the bolt which is supposed to hold the bolt on place while you undo the nut...needless to say, that poor design leads to the 5mm Allen socket rounding over on the first turn of a bolt that's been on for 16 years no matter how much deep creep yu spray on it. Ended up having so cut the old sway bar links out both front and back. Also as a precaution to other folks, not a lot of room for the cut off wheel so be careful !!!
+jackie cove Thanks for the feedback!
Subaru should be flogged for not giving the Techs an strut tower access cover, oh and the rear caliper brackets in the Rust belt....that's fun!!!
My 97 Outback did 400,000km without needing shocks replaced. My 08 outback only has 220,000km and the shocks are leaking oil and knocking all round. The Build quality between the two models is really disappointing.
How important is it to torque the bolts to 46 ft. pounds?
+Thomas Barss It is very important to torque them to the spec they are designed for. 1aauto.com
I'm normally very positive about the videos that 1A Auto does, but this one is disingenuous and makes the job look much easier than it actually is because they resort to using a whole car lift that do-it-yourselfers don't have. From under the car the dude in the video had an easy time getting a socket on one side of the 19mm bolt and a wrench on the other and getting that bolt loose, but as others have mentioned, we're trying to get cheater bars on the socket wrench from beside the car while also trying to hold on to the other wrench that's holding the backside of the bolt from rotating. On their video for replacing the front struts, they use a floor jack just like we do, so it's an accurate representation of what we'll face in our driveways.
1A Auto should pull this video and re-do it using a floor jack so that we get a true picture of what it will take to do this job. Of course, they might sell less replacement rear struts by being more honest because people might see that it can be a really tough job with that 19mm bolt rusted on. . . .
+Sigurd Panke Thanks for the feedback! We'll pass this info along to our production team.
The bolt going through the bushing must be tightened down with car weight on the suspension.
+xandervk Thanks for the feedback!
@@1AAuto But I don't know how this would be done in practice in a professional environment. I suppose the shop would have to use their alignment rack, if one is available, to raise the car with its weight on the wheels. With a DIY job, I just crawl under the car and tighten it the best I can, then drive up on ramps and finish with a torque wrench. But that is not an option for a production shop.