Replacing rear strut assemblies on a 1994 Corolla

[Mark]

I’m wondering if I can remove the rear strut assemblies without opening the brakes lines. All of the videos I’ve seen on the subject involve opening the line at the point where the brake hose joins to the copper line that goes to the rear wheel. It looks to me as if all I would need to do is to remove the clip that locks the brake line assembly to the strut without opening the brake line, which I’d really rather avoid doing. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

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[Its me]

Sadly, this wasn’t one of Toyota ‘ s “simple to work on” designs… you can do the fronts without opening, but not the rears… while you can cut them out with a cutting wheel, you still have to open them to mount them PROPERLY to the new struts…(you can make a slit and do it a hack way, but I don’t recommend a hack way for brake lines) and it is much easier to open them when mounted to the old strut… The clip you see just holds the line in place and will have to be removed no matter what.. the old line end piece (where it goes through the mounting hole on the strut) sometimes needs brushed with a wire brush in order to fit properly in the new strut (it is designed to fit in only one way).. thus may need to be cleaned.. You definelty want to loosen the brake line before you remove the clip and it may take a light little love tap to knock the line through the mounting hole on the strut(after you have removed the clip) Also, if you pinch the rubber line before removal you can save yourself a bit of the mess, but since you have the wheels off, a quick bleed only adds a few minutes to the job…

Karl

[Gary]

I have a corolla hatch and I slit the mounting tab so that I can slide the line into the mount. The clip seems to hold it in place just fine. If this is the first time you’ll have to disconnect the lines. My car is running on lower springs so it eats a set of shocks every 2 years and I pile milage on it to. So cutting a slit in the mounting tab just made sense to me.

[Author]

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