so today me and trey.hutcheson (great guy btw) were changing my springs on my 04 sedan to unrevised z springs.. and we got all the first three done with really no problems. then on the final spring (front left) the sway bar end link, was cross threaded when the factory put it in.. i know for a fact that this had never been touched by the previous owner.. so we got it half way out.. not im just stuck there cause we cant get it back in, or get it out.. and even if we did get it out, there would be no way of getting it back in.. so now i got to order the end link from infiniti, get them to drill out the old sh1tty one that they messed up, and get them to install the new one.. im just going to get them to put in the new spring also while they are already in there.. this is going to cost me in the neighborhood of a hundred or so.. just because the factory couldnt properly put the bolt in.. and considering i only paid 50 for the springs, its annoying to have to pay double just for them to install one!!!

and and until that end link comes in, im driving around with my sway bar end link half in/half out...

and 3 springs are changed, and one isnt.. so my car looks goofy cause its like an inch higher on my front left tire compared to the other three..

 

Why are you removing the end link?? You can install the front springs by sliding the strut spring in. There is a DIY on here. But yeah I think you should change the bad end link. I doubt it that the factory did it.

 

It is somewhat easy to strip the part of the end link bolt that prevents the other side from spinning. I have personally done it. I am not exactly sure how it is done but if you can't get the bolt to turn and you put enough pressure on it then the other side has a chance of breaking loose, then you are truly and completely screwed.

It is nearly impossible to remove from that point on, especially if you are a moron like me and put loctite on the bolt. I had no choice but to get it off and spent hours doing so. My arms hurt for several days but at least I got it off without handing over any cash.

I also suspect something else happened and the factory is not to blame but we will never know. Be careful while driving, your suspension is certainly not going to be predictable, take it VERY easy and be mindful at all times. Pretend that you are driving a grasshopper that might jump in any direction at any time.

 

??? you have to remove this before you remove the bolt holding the strut up...

 

Post a pic, when I did mine all I unbolted was the three pillow mount nuts and one bolt holding the strut. then you push down on the spindle and slide the strut and spring out. Its little tricky but saves so much time.

 

I would venture to say that this is operator error and not factory error The reason I say this is if the bolt was cross threaded, it would have pealed off all the bolt thread when the nut was placed on. This would have been obvious from the start of the project. What most likely happened is some dirt or debris had gotten into the outside thread and when you tried taking the nut off, the debris lodged between the thread and nut. As you turned the nut, the thread becasme damaged, worse and worse, until it completely cross threaded. This is a common problem and is why I prep the threads and nut with a rust eater and hit everything with a wire brush. Air tools are also key. With hand tools, you please too much steady torque on the nut.

I have to ask as I'm confused by your post. It sounds like you said you got the nut off, but the endlink won't come out of the mounting hole. Did you guys make sure to jack up the entire front end to take all the torque off the suspension? If you don't and have only one side jacked, you're putting a lot of torque on the endlink because the sway bar is engaged and getting the endlink out will be extremely hard and you will almost certainly damage the threads trying to get the link out.

 

haha yea we did.. the two guys I did it with are very familiar with what we were doing (im not really).. me and trey changed his whole suspension last week and the other guy has a car shop... we were using an air gun that had an 80 gallon tank running around 100 psi.. we (pretty much they, as i didnt do much) didnt do anything wrong.. trey has changed his suspension more than once, and this is the way he has always done it. its a direct follow up im pretty sure of dieselx's... i mean i cant tell you everything about it, as i wasnt doing the work.. they were.

but i just called infiniti today and i ordered the end link. its 35$ for it, and they couldnt give me a qoute on how long it will take to take the old one out ( i guess they can only drill it out) and install the new one. he said their hourly rates run from 85-120... and he said he has no clue how long it will take. i asked if they will do booktime, and he responded with "there is no booktime for this".. so yea. the springs costed 50 total. this is a nightmare right now. im scared everywhere i drive my car. and it looks sorta goofy if you look closely..

o and the guy at infiniti said its common for these to be cross threaded on the G sedans. he said im not the first guy to call in and get this replaced.. so yea.

WISH ME THE BEST OF LUCK.. the money that was going towards a MD plenum spacer is now going to getting a correct end link that should have been correct in the first place!!!

 

This is a very long story.

We had already replaced his rear springs, and replaced the spring for his front right. We had a bunch of issues getting the rear-left suspension to line up. When we finally got it all back together Saturday night, Dominic(my friend with the shop) had to leave for a prior engagement. Bradley and I left and came back the next afternoon.

We jacked up the car and put it on jackstands. Opened the hood and broke loose the three 12mm bolts attached to the strut tower. Using a 17mm impact socket plus impact gun I loosened the 17mm nut holding the topmount to the strut. It's much easier to break that nut loose while still on the car.

I then removed the 12mm nuts holding the speed sensor line in place. Put the jack under the lower steering knuckle, raised it a bit to relieve tension on the lower control arm, and removed the lower 17mm bolt that connects the bottom of the strut to the lower suspension member. I had a hell of a time backing it out all the way though. It's a 4.5 inch bolt, threaded all the way through. I couldn't get the suspension unbind to allow me to remove this bolt cleanly.

After I finally got that bolt out, I tried to remove the bolt that connects the sway bar end link to the suspension member. I noticed that the end link was a bit cockeyed. It wasn't completely vertical. This is my third suspension swap, and I haven't had this problem yet.

I used PB Blaster on the end link, then I broke loose the bolt retaining the end link. From there I used a 19mm open ended wrench between the endlink arm itself and the socket through which the bolt was threaded to break it loose. It was still at an angle. No matter how we tried to line up the suspension by using the jack, we couldn't get it to line up. We were stuck like this for literally 2.5 hours.

The end of the bolt that passes through the socket and faces the front of the car has a torx cutout, but I can't remember the size. We used a torx head on the other side to back out the end link bolt in like 10 seconds. Not on this side.

We looked at how the end link was still under tension, and determined that we couldn't correct it. We tried to break loose the 17mm bolt that connects the end link to the sway bar itself, hoping to relieve the tension that way. No go. Couldn't get an impact on it. We even tried a 1/2 inch drive socket wrench; still no good.

We then decided that we could probably back out the bolt. It would be worthless afterwards, but we could always replace the bolt and re-thread the socket if we needed to.

We tried to back it out, and because of the angle of the end link, we could never get it out all the way. Using the torx head, we just ate away at the inside end of the bolt. Using the 19mm open end wrench, I actually broke the welded head of the bolt from the bolt itself. I could twist the head all I wanted, but the bolt would not turn in the socket of the suspension member.

We decided to bolt everything back up(which was difficult because of the tension of the endlink) and let Bradley get the dealership to fix it. There is no other option at this point but to physically cut the endlink and drill out the bolt.

Its unfortunate. I don't entirely know if it was like this from the factory, or if the car might have experienced some sort of trauma to cause the end link to go so far out of whack. But the suspension has never seen a tool. Each nut and bolt head were pristine with no impact marks whatsoever.

On that subject, one of the bolts holding my front swaybar in place was cross threaded from the factory. I bought the car with 4 miles on it, all of which I put on the car during the test drive. I've been driving the car with only 2 bolts holding the front sway bar on for over 30k miles without a problem.

Bradley, let me know how it goes. And also call around. Try calling Walker Morgan in hoover; he's gotten me out of a bind before, and cheaply I might add. His website is http://www.mpfab.com/.

 

^^^^^ haha wow.. trey is amazing.. the whole time he was doing that, i was protecting my ac line from my popcharger.. so yea there's EXACTLY what happened.. thanks for the flawless right up trey. i really appreciate you helping me out!!

 

Should of got coilovers

 

lol i wouldnt want to buy them from you though.... unless i was considering it be a project for christmas... they maybe would be here by then. not sure though

 

It all comes in good time.

 

^ROFL iv heard of your slowness VQ... lol


Sorry i wasnt any help the other day, brad. You called me while i was in colorado and i just had no idea.

 

haha yea well that was with the front left strut.. my stock strut was a pita to take out...

 

o trey btw, infiniti couldnt get me a book time, as the guy didnt know everything they had to do.. he said they would charge anywhere from 85-125 hourly.. that other guy that you mentioned up above is only 70 per hour... i think ill be going with him. the end link arrives on wednesday at crown. hopefully, ill be able to get pick it up after school and take it to that guys shop.. if he is available