I've been tinkering with my ride height this evening. I've adjusted it as I want it, but the lock nuts on two of my coilovers are seized solid, so I haven't been able to tighten them up.

I've given them a generous dousing in GT85 and tried to heat one up as best as I could, but I only have a glorified hairdryer style heat gun, and no joy shifting them.

Anything else I could/should try?

 

Got a impact wrench?

 

If your talking about the large ride hide adjusting nuts, a good way to get them loose is hold the coilover spanner on there make sure its locked in place, and then just tap it with a hammer till it turns. Always worked for me.

 

If like most coil overs you are referring to the lock rings on the body and it's those that are stuck and they won't budge with the "C" spanner then that truly is a bugger.


I keep looking at mine and thinking they should be greased with water resistant grease , being Ali. They will corrode in time and swell and get stuck , along with the problems of fine threads and dirt ingress

In the past I been down this road on bicycle shocks , get mud and dirt in them and they can be absolute buggers to move again , lots of lube like you have used and just keep fiddling with them until hopefully they move , you almost need to use the lube to wash the dirt out , you could also try some white spirit as well. Assuming we are talking lock rings and "C" spanner try tapping the spanner with a hammer and hopefully you might break the bond and get things moving.

Have close look is there any white powdery like deposits around the thread if so that is evidence of corrosion. Be careful if that is the case so easy to tear off these fine threads once you get corrosion in them.

 

If they are really stuck like my old civic coil overs were, then the way I got them free was using a flat round punch and hammer on the raised parts of the lock ring, hitting in the direction to undo.
I would recommend doing what the previous two guys have said as that worked for me on the three other corners. Also this technique will cause damage to the lock rings and potentially could crack one so use as a last resort - mine were off the car and soaking in plus gas for weeks!!

 

Thanks folks. I did try with the hammer but I didn't have enough hands to hold two spanners (one to stop the strut turning and one on the lock ring) and hit one with the hammer.

No white residue that I could see though, so that's positive. The two near side shocks were fine, so hopefully that's a sign that the other two are just a bit gammy rather than corroded.

I'll just keep on spraying and tapping until I make some progress. Is there a particular penetrating fluid that's better than the rest, or is GT85 or WD40 as good as anything?

Cheers,
FB

 

Plusgas is the best stuff.

 

Plusgas available at your local motor factors , b and q , Halfrauds etc etc

Or as I said try white spirit,.

 

Thanks. Will give them both a go........

 

I've got the same issue with the NSX's caster cups - no amount of heat gun/freezing spray will break the bond. It's not helped that they're cup-shaped, so one cannot even get a Stilson on them easily.