406oc.co.uk

Hi,

Please, I am looking for advice on how easy (hopefully) or difficult the job is to replace the offside front suspension strut and drive shaft?

How many hours garage labour are we talking here?

Thanks in advance

David

Are you talking about a new strut or second hand complete with spring?
If a new one the spring will have to be removed and fitted to the new strut or a new spring fitted which will take more time.
Personally I would say a garage would charge about 2 hours to replace the strut and driveshaft.

My Mechanic pal says we can do a swap for a second hand one (already found a Scrappy with one)... He's not done a 406 before and was wondering how hard it would be?

He is limited on tools, no lift/ramps, no spring compressors... But he feels it would be easy enough... also, mentioned topping up gearbox after the drive shaft removed? he wasn't sure if that would be necessary. Is this making sense?

I'm just not sure whether I should just get it to the garage and get it sorted by them... Probably easiest that way

If it's a complete strut going back on that part is simple enough.
Undo the bracket holding brake lines to the hub, then the drop link. release the clamping bolt behind the hub and jiggle/persuade the hub off the strut.
Undo the 3 torx bolts at the top and it's off.
Not had the driveshaft out but should be straightforward enough.
Good practise to change the seal in the gearbox and ideal opportunity to fit a new bottom engine mount.
Refilling the oil I believe is a FAFF, pretty sure there's info on here about it if you search.
I swapped both struts on mine with a jack, axle stand, socket set and a tickling stick in just over an hour.
Hardest bit is if the hub won't release from the strut, a big hammer helps!!!

406's aren't known for eating driveshafts, are you sure it needs changing?

I think it just needs a new boot, but he doesn't have the CV splitter and said that it is easier to change the drive-shaft?? I'm no expert, I've not done anything like this in over 17 years... So kind of lost touch!!

I trust him and he does seem to know his stuff.

If you follow what I wrote in here you will be fine....viewtopic.php?f=10&t=20950

Take the whole strut off from the bottom ball joint and top 3 torx bolts...it will be much easier to split the strut from the lower hub unit.
You will need to top the oil up...take out the air filter box and fill it from a plastic nut at the top of the gearbox....personally I would drain the gearbox and refill with 2 litres of 75w80 oil.

So it all sounds quite feasible then?