This weekend I'm replacing the front strut mounts on my girl friends 04 cavalier. Does anybody have any links or how to's? I've replaced suspension before, but have never worked on a cav before. I'm assuming it's straight forward, unbolt the struts/spring/mount, remove from car, compress springs, remove mounts, replace with new mounts, release spring, bolt back up in the car. Anything that may cause problems, ball joints, hard to reach bolts, etc?

nope, you pretty much got it. its pretty strait forward once you get in there and look at it

If Im reading you correctly , you are only changing the strut plates, correct? The turney things on top. If so and you dont want to get an alignment you have to take the whole spindle assembly out with the strut, those two large 13/16 head bolts that attach the strut to the spindle are slotted for wheel alignment purposes, If you take it apart there and you have to drive it to get it alignment you may chew up the tires on the way to the alignment.
And when you take the old strut plate off, pay close attention to how it is positioned, the plate has an offset cam type device made into it. It adds to the steering return geometry and if you get its alignment out, the spring will rub on the inside of the strut tower and the steering wheel will not return correctly. If you get them out of alignment you may be on your own. there was a guy on here a while ago and he had the plates out of whack and no local shops would help him , no one on here knew what to tell him. I didnt see the post again, I dont know what happened with it.


01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e

In stock trim, there is no camber adjustment. So complete removal and reinstallation of the front struts is acceptable. The only adjustment is in the steering rack and tie rod ends. As a precaution you can always use a paint marker to draw a ring around the bolt heads to leave a witness where the bolts were originally.
When I installed my Eibach spring kit, i found in was better to remove the two pinch bolts at the upright first. Then remove the three bolts at the strut tower. If you remove the strut tower bolts first, the lower A-arm can't swing down far enough to allow the upper bearing plate to clear the fender ( because of the sway bar endlinks) allowing access to the large single nut retaining the coil spring.
As a precaution you should schedule an alignment, but once all is reinstalled and double checked for torque, it'll be safe to drive. I was lazy and drove my car for better than 6 months before my alignment. And upon checking it out, everything was still fine, the toe was perfectly fine.

Thanks guys, I did the job yesterday, took about an hour per side, everything went smoothly, took it in for an alignment afterwards and the alignment was actually still fine, but they did find the rear toe was out, guess she hit a pothole or two... I appreciate the advice, definitely was easier than I anticipated, plus she is very happy now that she doesn't have to live with the god awful rattling/clanking sounds.