Tool purchase advice

Once I’ve saved up some dosh after the recent round of renovations, I’m going to attempt changing the front struts. Everything I’ve read implies that extracting the top drop link bolt will not be nice. Therefore I’m going to make sure to have all the necessary tools before starting . Decent impact wrench seems to be an important thing for this job.. what do you all recommend? I already have a lot of DeWalt XR tools, so it should be from that range. Anything else? Daily dosing with penetrating fluid until the time comes?

Never had a problem with the drop links. Which are you referring to - front or rear?

Front… lots of yt vids of pristine California cars pretty much coming out by hand, then lots of posts here about grinding despair and swearing

I had to cut my top drop link bolt. Angle grinder, but I had to be very careful not to touch the spring carrier on my C4S suspension. If yours is a C2, that will probably be a bit different. If you're doing top mounts or shocks, strut nut sockets are invaluable.

Yeah, it's a C2, and mine is a C2 which spentt 20 years in Scotland so every fastening is corroded solid!. I think I'll invest in a DeWalt DCF899 after watching this video .. . Lots of bang for the buck it seems.

A small angle grinder allowed me to cut off any rusty bolts that wouldn’t undo with heat. The ABS sensor will most likely snap in its housing if you try to remove it and is a pain to drill out. The b’stard bolts on mine were the one that clamp the shock to the hub assembly, eventually they came out but the shock was still seized solid in the assembly - heat, hammer, Plus Gas, repeat and it eventually gave way. Impact guns are great but if a bolt is really stuck a large breaker bar and impact sockets usually do the trick after a few heat/cool cycles. Most importantly I use lashings of anti-seize aluminium grease (or Copper slip) on reassembly, you’ll thank yourself next time you need to undo it (and curse Porsche for not using it on the assembly line). Good luck and post your Man vs Bolt stories.

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I think your bolt is the one I'm talking about ... goes through the hub assembly from the drop link, clamping the shock in place.

The bolt which clamps the shock to the hub carrier is an absolute pig thanks to galvanic corrosion. Many have to weld a tommy bar to the 16mm head of the bolt and get medieval with fire to get that one to break free. Not a job I'd want to do again! If the ABS sensor works, leave it be. It will not come out without destruction. I have the same Dewalt Impact gun shown above and it's worth every penny. Didn't even break a sweat undoing hub nuts and laughed at pulling the front bearings. Fabulous bit of kit. Best penetrating fluid I've ever used is Bulldog BDX, but it will only go so far. Another brilliant tool I have is an induction bolt heater from Amazon, this has saved my bacon more than once, but again, has its limits where galvanic corrosion is concerned. Also, you'll need a thin, long and wide jaw ball joint separator tool. I ponied up for the expensive KS tools one that people recommend, but I found it still a little too short to be effective so eventually machined out an old Machine Mart 'Clarke' one I had from years ago, which worked perfectly, once I'd milled the guts out of it. Definitely voided the warranty.

I may be lucky, as it looks like both front drop links have been changed in the past 10 years .. not too much obvious corrosion and the rubber is in perfect condition. I'll get an impact wrench anyway, because it's a new toy ...

Definitely get an impact wrench. I use a Milwaukee M18, which is great, but I'm sure the DeWalt is plenty good as well.

I recently got a Milwaukee M12 FC1WF12G3 and it's great. Wish i had invested in one last year whilst doing front suspension. Got 3 speeds and a tighten speed so not to over torque the nut. I went to my local garage to see what they used and they gave me a demo on various Milwaukee impact wrenches. Small and lightweight with plenty of torque.

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That looks like a decent bit of kit and the right blend of capacity and size / weight. I chose the DeWalt because I was simply after the highest torque capacity available at the time that wasn't air driven. The 950 Nm of the DeWalt is pretty awesome and after decades of bouncing on the end of long scaffold poles and destroying lifetime guarantee breaker bars, I didn't want to leave anything to chance. The only thing it has ever failed on was a huge 2" hex head end cap on a 1960's air compressor that hadn't ever been undone. That required some intervention by Mr Archemedes.

I wanted to go down the Dewalt route as all my cordless tools are Dewalt and i have many batteries and chargers. I simply liked the feel and weight of the Milwaukee and yes, another battery and charger for the garage. I just got caught in the moment of trying various Milwaukee impact tools and chose this one. Having not tried a Dewalt, i can't compare so i can only speak from being chuffed with my impact wrench

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Yeah, once you commit to a battery powered brand, it's tough to move away. I'm sure that's all part of the marketing strategy. Mines a good few years old now and I don't think that Milwaukee had quite penetrated the market here in the UK back then, compared to their presence today.

I have just discovered battery converters! I have a, or was, a brilliant 20v parkside impact wrench which suddenly stopped working and I couldnt find out why, I am just about to buy another impact gun and a right angle wrench and after the demise of the Parkside impact wrench have decided to go ebay cheap. To do this i need to buy a battery adaptor so that my 2 big parkside batteries can be used. I find it a minefield. I am not looking for extra long term reliability as I doubt any product will last so want something that will do the job for a while before needing replacing as the batteries will outlast the wrench.