How to Replace Front Struts 2009-14 Nissan Murano

Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years!

Hey, everyone. Sue here from 1A Auto. Today we have a 2010 Murano in the shop, and I'm going to show you how to do front strut assemblies. If you need this part, or any part for your car, click on the link below and head over to 1aauto.com.

I have the vehicle somewhat supported. I'll take a 21mm socket, and I'm going to take the lug nuts off with some weight on the tires. I'm just going to break them free. This has a wheel lock, so I've got the wheel lock-key lined up.

Now, I'm going to raise my vehicle on a two post lift. You can use a jack and jack stands at home, and we'll take the tire off. Now the vehicle's in the air, and I can just take the lug nuts off by hand. Take the tire off.

19mm wrench on the inside of the factory link, and 18mm socket on the nut--See if we can break it free. Same on the top: 19mm for the inner to hold onto; 18mm socket on the out. Break this free.

Remove the front break flex hose pin, because you're going to need to get this block pin out of here. I just use a pry bar or flat head screwdriver, and then throw it on the floor. Remove the hose that way.

Now, you're going to want to take your ABS sensor wire out of the strut tower. These are just rubber bushings. Just work them right out of that little bracket. There's one on this side. 21mm nut and 21mm for the head of the bolt. I'm going to break this bolt free. Same on the bottom--21mm and 21mm. I like to keep them so I know that was the top. I'll line it up on my lift, or put it on my cart the same way.

It's a little oxidized in there, so now I'm just going to take a little hammer and tap it out. There we go. Here we have the top and the bottom. They're identical length, so now we now it does not matter which way they go.

Now we're going to lower it down, and we're going to take the strut mount nuts off. Once you have the hood up, you can come over to where the top of the strut tower is, and you can see: one, two, of the strut tower mount bolts. The other one is in here, so you're just going to grab this little plastic door, and just pull on it to the side. If you look inside there, there's a rubber boot--that's the third mounting bolt. Just going to pull that boot out. Just grab it with your fingers, peel it back, and now you can see all three mounting bolts.

With a 13mm socket, I'm going to take the inner one out first, then probably this one last, because it's easy access. It's probably the easiest one to get to, and one of the reason is because I have to hold the strut up, suspended up, with one hand, so I want to make it as easy as possible.

So, you can see these bolts. They're bolts and not actual nuts, and they go through the strut mount to the strut tower, and they're exposed on the other side. So, definitely spray them up to get some of that road dirt and any rust off of them. You sure don't want these to break. Well, I thought they'd be a lot longer for the time that took. That's two. Last one's right in here.

Now, remember this is the last bolt that holds this strut up, so when you know you're getting close, you're going to have to reach down for the fender well and support that strut. You don't want it just falling down, it could pinch the CV boot, the brake line, the ABS sensor. Okay. There is the strut.

We have our brand new strut assembly we ordered from 1A Auto, and it is identical almost exactly to the factory one that we just took out of our 2010 Nissan Murano. The brackets are in the exact same spot. We have the flex hose bracket, the two ABS sensor bracket, and then the sway bar link bracket. Coils comes with the actual seating boot on the bottom of the housing. New bumpers and they've sealed. They roll around each other. New strut cap and new mounting bolts.

If you need this part, or any other part for your car, click on the link below and head on over to 1aauto.com.

I'm going to take the mounting bolts that come with the strut. Make sure you take them out of the strut cap first. Then we're going to place it up in and reverse procedure. We're going to mount these first before I mount the bottom. The reason for that is the strut has got a good amount of weight to it, so you might think, "Well, I'll hook it onto the knuckle first and then put it up there."

Well, this is probably close to two pounds, if not two and a half to three pounds. This is a lightweight aluminum suspension. The weight of this could pull the CV shaft out of the joint. Not out of the axle, but the joint internally here could just separate. So, to avoid any possible other damage, I strongly recommend putting it up into the fender well, bolting it up, and then continuing down below.

We bring the strut in. You can rest it on the tie rod end if you need to. Now, I'm going to try and line this up, and then stand up and put at least one bolt through. If you're short stature, like me, I gotta take a break because that was tough. I use my body a little bit, put my arm into my hip, and hold up that strut. Like I said, it's not lightweight.

Once you have one started from there on, it's pretty easy. Let me get the other three at least centered and started. Same 13mm socket, just like the factory, and we can bring these right up and bottom them out. Then we're going to torque them to factory spec. Torque specs for the upper strut mount bolts is 22 foot-pounds.

Now, we're ready to put that boot back in, and you can see it's just a flex rubber and it's got that lip on it. So, you just guide it into the steel, make sure it goes in the lip, and then seat it all the way around. Once you have the boot down in there, you can replace the plastic to the shroud. It just snaps in. There's two eyelets: line them up, and then snap in.

Now, we have the strut in position. The ABS wire goes like this, but it goes behind it. Just re-angle this around right into position. That's it. Take the rubber and seat it right into the bracket.

Okay, so the key to struts, even if they don't have adjustments, like this does not have an adjustment, the key is to, once you get the lower bolt in, that's in, most alignment people will ask you if you did do your own struts. You need to get an alignment after to get it as close to factory settings is to push this strut all the way in, like that. If there is any movement to it, it is when you tighten it to make sure it's pushed all the way in. This has zero movement, but if they are slotted and adjustable, make sure you push it all the way in.

We're going to put the flex hose on. Line that up and there we go. There's a little hexagon, and there's a cut out right here, a downward spike like. We're going to take the spring, they call these a flat spring, like up the actual little slotted area. I just take a small hammer and I just tap it on.

I'm just going to bottom these out and then torque it to specs. Tighten up the bottom one. I'm going to torque the lower strut bolts, mounting bolts, to the knuckle, and that is 101 foot-pounds. Top one.

Just line up the link and put it through the strut housing, and I think you can start from that if you want. I'm going to put it through the actual sway bar itself. Might have to pry it. Just wiggle it around. That's the nut. The new sway bar link is an 18mm socket on the nut, and a 20mm wrench on the inner side. We'll just snug them up, then we'll torque them to factory specs. The specs is 58 foot-pounds. Here we go. Now, we'll snug the bottom one up. Now I'm going to torque it to the 58 foot-pounds.

Now, we're going to remount the tire. Put your five lug nuts on. I like to start with the bottom one, that way I can snug it in and hold the rim steady. Here we go. Even though I'm still doing it by hand, I always, I always do everything in a star pattern. Just becomes a good habit, and keeps the rim snug up against the hub. Now we can lower it and torque it to the specs.

For a 2010 Murano, the wheel torque is 80 foot-pounds. I'm going to put my wheel lock key on and start in a star pattern. Start on the bottom. One more time. Ready to go.

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