A leaking damper was the reason to replace the complete struts on the back of the Carina-E. Replacing only the damper would lead to more costs (90 Euro per piece, plus extra small parts) en more effort (pressurizing when dismantling the strut, etc,etc). Although a local garage offered to do it for only 240 Euro's, a special offer, I decided to take up the job myself.

Requirements:
* ring wrenches (19, 14, 10), 4-way wheel wrench
* dremel multi tool
* allen key
* wd40 magic lubricant!
* grease, vaseline
* spare nuts M10 fine metric
* a few bricks, some lumber

The following websites can be useful for preparation. There are very regular posts on this for, by very skillful people, and the reaction time to questions is very fast. It can prevent you from running into unexpected problems and helps you exchanged useful tips and experiences:

My topic at the toyota forum of Problemcar
The German Toyota forum

Especially useful was the Haynes bible, which is definately worth buying. A little less handy, but still quite valuabe is the 'vraagbaak' of the Carina-E from Kluwer.

Start with removal of the rear wheel, and keep the wheel wrench around because you'll be needing it later on again...

Inspect the damage, and althought this is a gas filled damper, there is still quite a bit of leakage... Besides the original dampers were still mounted on the car, and the rubber around the telescope completely deteriorated. Replacing this rubber can be extremely costly. As I managed to get complete struts, I didn't need to overhaul them fortunately.

The damper is connected to the anti roll bar using a small metal link. In this link, there are two ball joints, covered by a rubber ..., with integrated bolts. At one of the fora at the top of this page, it is claimed that the metal of the bolts is relatively soft and the nut can be extremely tight. The bolt needs to be held with an allen wrench but it soon turned out the wrench could not hold it and the bolt was rotating along with the nut. Holding the bolt at the back side wasn't an option either because of the circular and smooth surface. It is quite likely to damage the protection rubber cover as well. To save the bolt as much as possible I chose to grind of the nut.

After having made various cuts, just outside of the flesh of the bolt, it is possible to carefully tap off small pieces of the bolt, using a hammer and a small screwdriver. Be very careful not to damage the bolt!. The front cut was made to have an extra grip on the bolt with the screwdriver.. Pay attention here, the bolt is of the type 'M10 fine', that cannot be obtained very easily. However a well sorted auto parts shop should be able to help you out here.

Next the flexible brake hose can be removed. The bolt isn't very tight and the metal hose can be deformed easily to create more space for the other bolts.

After that the supporting bolts can be loosened. You need wrench number #19 for this, but a 4-way wheel wrench can do the job much better as it allows for much higher torques. I needed both my hands and feet to release the nuts. Especially on the right side there is just not enough space to rotate the wrench. Tip: when refitting the new strut, make sure to mirror the bolt, with the nut at the side of the bumper. There is a lot more space there...

Leave the bolts in for a while, because the axle needs to be supported. There is room to improvise a little here. After that the axle support bolts can be removed as well.

The last step is removing the three nuts on the top of the damper. For that, according to the Haynes manual, the whole back seat has to be removed. However I could suffice with removing the side cushions of the back support. To do so, you need to loosen a hidden that is located between the back seat and the back support. Fortunately it is not very difficult to push back the seat a little and loosen the nut.

The side cushion can be shifted upwards and removed, after the seat belt has been disconnected. When this is done on both sides, and the seat supports are down, the ... can be removed and three mounting nuts will be visible. The protection cap from the damper (I don't know what this is for) can also be removed.

The damper is now disconnected from the chassis. It is quite easy to remove the axle from the damper and put it onto an inprovised support. The strut can now be removed completely.

The difference between the old and new (used) strut is clearly visible. Acctually, only the spring is still okay, and even that can be questioned. The rubbers have deterioriated completely. If you can live with a used strut then I wouldn't recommend wasting time and money in buying a new damper and new rubbers. I bought the strut at C.A.R toyota-parts in Nijkerkerveen, The Netherlands, and I'm very satisfied with the quality.

Mounting the new strut is exactly the opposite from removal. Pay attention to mirror the bolts from the axle connecting the strut to benefit from it next time (what next time?). Grease the bolts and use vaseline to prevent rust and the rear suspension is again fit for some time!

1. Introduction
2. Inspection of the damage
3. Disconnecting the anti roll link
4. Loosening the bolts
5. Removing and replacing

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