Well done to you so far, if you can wait landrover north staffs can order you the lower spring rubbers to arrive Tuesday morning that’s if you order Monday before 2pm. Plus in stock?
Or you could just cut an old inner tube and use that? I’d prefer the proper ones but it’s your call,
Yes the rear suspension bushes are quite taught and moving them beyond what they are designed for is a little tricky, that is why I prefer my method of removing the inner arch cover and allowing the strut to lean outward on the bushes as that way the drive shafts don’t become a problem and you can easily twist the whole strut upwards without error.
Everyone works differently and an easy solution is sometimes always best especially when working on your driveway,
Once upon a time I could have bought a cheap 2 post ramp with a free installation cert plus a 5 year service contract but I bought a Honda Black Bird mc instead, didn’t ride it much 105 mph in first gear and then five gears following the 1st, should’ve bought the ramp.
Any further issues I’m here as well as all the others!

Thanks again,

I've assembled the strut without the anti squeak rubber. I've seen that plenty of people don't fit them and most other cars with the same system don't use them.

My only minor concern was that the top plate didn't seem to sit one hundred percent straight in top. Did you find that too?

I've tightened the nut down on the top before releasing the spring clamps. I'm pretty sure I've aligned everything correctly. I've got the the studs aligned with the drop outs in the rubber piece. I've got the two closer studs at the rear. I've got the bottom of the spring in the little dent in the seat. I can't see that it can go any other way but it is just slightly filled on the top four to sorting pressure and the top rubber being thicker at that point.

Is that normal? I didn't notice that it was like that when taking it off and can't tell from any photos I took. Will it sort itself out once reconnected to the car tomorrow?

My phone number 07770 907348, call after 1pm if required.

I've not had chance to fit the strut back but it still doesn't look quite right to me.

Is this right, does it settle properly once reinstalled?

It have I got something wrong?

I'm pretty sure everything went back on the same way as it was taken off the old one. It doesn't look so bad on one photo but the other photo makes it look really wonky.

Click image to enlarge

Hi, well I think something isn’t right as the 2nd photo doesn’t look correct, is the spring the right way up? The spring end must locate in the strut dish while the other fits onto the top rubber in the locator I’m just looking at my old spring and strut, the plastic spring cover fitted to the spring is strut end, what I would do just to be safe is to remove the spring and start again, the whole assembly should be in a straight line
If in doubt ring me, I’m out all day and home at 5.30ish if you can wait?

Iv just looked again and yes the spring is right way on round the top looks like the spring isn’t in the rubber correctly kicking the spring out of true plus the gaiter isn’t located or secured to the lower strut ring which makes the whole assembly look bad- optical illusion sort of thing.

Thanks for the replies,

Yes the dust cover doesn't help, when pulled down it won't stay there.

Previously when the weight of the car was on the dust covers were all the way down but when you Jack the car up they would pull off the bottom.

Although the dust cover isn't helping it still isn't perfectly straight.

I've ordered the rubber anti squeak bit that I would have been missing so will be taking it apart to fit that. It turned out to be a land rover only part at £1.04+vat direct from land rover.

Ordered a couple of those plus pinch bolts.


As far as I can tell though it is all seated correctly. I'm putting the spring on with the compressors still on. Then I'm putting the top part on with the studs aligned in the city is and the studs in the correct orientation. I'm tightening the but and all looks straight but when I release the spring compressors it then looks like the above!

No problem, what I would check is that the spring fits snugly into the top rubber, if I remember mine although now two weeks ago I made sure the end of the springs both top and bottom fitted snug into the seats, and when I dropped the spring down over the strut with the top nut fitted I pulled the gaiter down over the bottom fixing, then slackened the compressors evenly allowing the spring to seat correctly. Just be careful though with the compressors. They call em widow makers in the US.

Well progress on this became slow as I've been stupidly busy at work. Finished earlier tonight, so took the shock apart and rebuilt it.

This time I used a new rubber on the bottom. If anyone does this in the future I'd recommend buying these as the new ones must be twice as thick so even if the old ones aren't torn like mine they will have been squashed thin.

My local LR parts place couldn't get them from anywhere except landrover direct but I'd have to wait until their next big delivery as otherwise I'd have to pay a silly delivery price.

Phoned the local land rover main dealer, £1.04 +vat each and in stock the next day. So picked up a pair of those.

So I rebuilt the strut with the rubber in place and this time I prised the two rubber bits apart at the top (I'd left these as one so as not to disturb them or rotate them) I found that they were slightly out of alignment. I presume this happened when the spring compressors were in and I was trying to get it off the car.

I put them back into alignment and refitted. The top was still slanted and not perpendicular to the piston.

I took off the passenger side strut and found that the top isn't meant to be perpendicular, the old one from the other side was also at a slant.

So I replaced the first shock onto the Freelander.

All went well but ended up with one issue. The new drop links didn't come with nuts! I've replaced loads of droplinks before and never had them come without nuts!

So now I've got to order some replacement nuts to finish the job 🙄

I've put a couple of plain M10 nuts on for now but really need the shouldered ones and I presume they were luck nuts originally?

Well you have been busy and glad you found something with the top rubbers, I do think though that the spring sits in the top rubber a certain way like the lower strut spring dish mount so when you release the spring compressors the whole assembly is inline
Regarding the nuts, what I do if sometimes the nuts are difficult to obtain or I forget to order them is to use engineering thread lock which when I clean out the brake pads instead of replacing the 13mm bolts on the rear callipers is to use the thread lock which is recognised as suitable in the trade. I always paint the ends of the threads or the bolt heads against the casting if access is able to show its torqued up (yellow touch up) or tyre chalk.
New nuts or bolts with some sort of lock is far better but sometimes you have to use other methods.
Hopefully your all ready for the rebuild, let us know how you go.

This weekend I’m replacing the handbrake shoes and retaining clips/springs ordered from Rimmer brothers
On call with work so it’s an on/off job, next weekend is the nearside front strut and spring which will be the final chapter as then all four corners are brand new,

Warm spring time jobs are auto gearbox oil flush, new coolant radiator and thermostat, same time last year was egr and cooler, now there’s a story.

It does look better and more in line now, the dust cover looks better. The top definitely needs to be at an angle though,

If I can hurry up and get the shocks on (wire brushing and repainting the entire inner wings slowed me down!) then I have discs, pads, shoes etc. To replace as well plus new calipers as one had a damaged seal on the piston.

I then have a service kit for the Haldex unit.

At some point it needs an MOT which hopefully won't lead to more work!

I'm thinking that the front shocks may also need replacing soon.

I also want to tackle the glow plugs, but they can wait until the weather is warmer.

Yes, all your future workload sounds familiar I’m the same waiting for the warmer climate, can’t wait.
If you require any assistance ring me.

Very kind of you to offer,

Hopefully things should start to come together this weekend. Did a little bit of power work tonight (drilling the brackets off the old struts, wire brushing them and painting them etc). Painted the underside of the top mount too.

The old strut is now apart and I'll put it together in the morning when the paint is dry.

The old one on the driver's side was kind of better, it did return slowly when pushed, whereas the other just dropped to the bottom. It was however much crustier, the top of the piston was down. The body of the strut was pretty corroded too.

I guess they've not done too bad. From the labels they are original Land Rover Struts. Made in Aug 2009 if I'm reading the date code correctly. Done 175,000 miles.

Busy day today.

Struts finished off, droplinks replaced, brake discs replaced, brake shoes replaced, brake pads replaced, brake calipers replaced, arch liners put back, bled the brakes, tow bar swan neck painted and towing hook painted.

Just been for a test drive and all seems good, except for the handbrake, so need to adjust the shoes out a bit. I kind of knew that would be the case as I was playing it Safe.

Whereas I could sit on the boot opening before and bounce up and down to get it bouncing, I can barely even move it by jumping up and down now! Much firmer.

I couldn't hear the noise at all either so fingers crossed it is all good.

Excellent news, I bet your well pleased with the work too that in a way you’ve saved a fortune apart from the parts etc, some people who aren’t well gifted with the skills to work on vehicles pay a huge price for someone to fix em.
I just can’t wait till the warmer climate, so what was it in the end making the strut assembly look mis aligned?