I thought the group might be interested in a new tool that I recently bought on eBay: HEAVY DUTY 5500 LBS Auto Strut Coil Spring Compressor Air Hydraulic Cars Truck | eBay This works extremely well to compress the strut springs on my Highlander Hybrid. I did the rear struts this past weekend, with 100K miles on the odometer. Earlier last year I did the front struts and paid a local shop $30 per strut to remove the coil springs from the old struts and install the new struts and top strut mounts with the existing coil springs. So if you are working on a truck or SUV, I recommend this tool highly. The Prius springs are easy to compress and a compressor like this is not actually needed. I had used simple compressors which worked well on the Classic and 2G Prius: Sears.com
I paid $100 bucks for my two fronts to be swapped out. Probably took the guy 20 minutes. Lol But doing the alignment again was free at least. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Hi Patrick, how is this compressor working for you? link no longer works... wondering how your unit looks. i found a 5500 lbs on the bay, but funny tho, the 6600 lbs is cheaper than the 5500 lbs. at the moment. the other thing is i see a report of the main square tube bending under use but user didnt specify his vehicle, so hard to discern relative force required. altho he hints its not a compact car. is yours the same as the 6600 one available now? (link) i have the old style long bolt compressor but the bulge in the middle of the spring isnt allowing me to compress fully. and im dont feel comfy pushing it to the max. other units like this or this HF unit is about the same price... so the one you have seems safer... what do you think? i'm about to change the boots on my gen2 and gen3 prius 2,two s... Thank You.
Yes, the physical appearance of my strut compressor is the same as the photos in the eBay link you cited. The compressor has the two sizes of the black spring seats, so that you can use the compressor on a variety of vehicles. Further, I paid $149.95 in March 2019, so the current price of $110 is amazing. Note that this weighs 70 lb and is more than 3 feet high, so once you put it together it will need a permanent position somewhere in your garage. The Prius weighs around 3,000 lb, so I would say that one spring needs to be compressed with the force of around 750 lb. Good luck with your choice.
Thanks for the comments Patrick. i'll try the schwaben knockoff and see if thats good nuff since space is a premium for me.
I bought one similar to Patrick's few months back, pretty red and heavy! But had to do some modifications to make it work, so that's is what happens when you didn't do any research, bet and win the auction @ $49.. LOL Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Y'all are making me feel super inadequate for even having the set that's been in my tool chest forever, which looks exactly like this one: Should I be throwing that right in the trash and offering daily prayers of thanksgiving for having survived?
Nevertheless, that particular photo looks a bit staged to have about every tool visible in the frame being used contrary to instructions....
I don't like the tool in the photo because it does not have safety pins to secure the spring to the tool. My original post showed a link to a Craftsman tool which I used on several Prius struts/shocks without difficulty. What I liked about that tool was that it had safety pins. I bought the larger spring compressor tool because the Highlander has thicker spring coils, which the Craftsman tool would not work upon. I recall in the distant past when I was a graduate student and my roommate had a Mercury Capri (the German import, not the Mustang clone). He was working on his front struts with a compressor tool that did not have safety pins. The tool came off and impacted the garage wall at very high velocity.
The hooks and wing nuts shown in the photo come with the tool; I think they are intended to serve the same purpose as pins. I think it did not come with hooks for the lower (two-jaw) pieces. A sufficiently circumspect person could add some, I guess.
It sure did and does okay... I have one of those in my garage somewhere... Bought it way back when.... Collage days... Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Toyota updated their tool a few years ago to reduce the risk of such accidents. From their S-3002 bulletin: “Prevention of Parts Flying Off: Stopper pins and upper support stopper wire help prevent the spring and upper support from becoming detached and flying off in the event that workers fail to follow proper procedures during coil spring compression work.”
