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- 1). Place a wheel block in front of one of the front tires and apply the parking brake.
- 2). Move to the back seat of the Camry and remove the lower rear seat cushion by pushing inward (towards the rear of the Camry) and then upward to unclip the rear cushion retainers. Remove the lower cushion from the vehicle.
- 3). Remove the retaining bolts from the upper seat cushion with a ratchet and socket and then lift it upward to disengage the clip retainers. Remove the upper seat cushion from the vehicle.
- 4). Remove the center brake light panel by pushing in on the center of the retaining tabs and then unplugging the tabs from the panel. Remove the rear dash panel to access the upper retaining nuts of the rear struts. Use a ratchet and metric socket to remove the upper strut retaining nuts.
- 5). Break the lug nuts loose on the rear tires with the lug wrench and then hoist the rear of the Camry with the service jack. Support the rear suspension onto jack stands and then remove the lug nuts and rear wheels.
- 6). Spray the lower strut retaining nuts and bolts liberally with penetrating lubricant. Spray the stabilizer bar retaining nuts attached to the struts with penetrating lubricant.
- 7). Disconnect the rear ABS brake sensor wire (on Camrys equipped with rear ABS brakes) from the strut assembly, using the ratchet and a socket to remove the retaining screw.
- 8). Remove the stabilizer link nut from the strut assembly by holding the lower link with a metric box-end wrench while loosing the lower stabilizer link with another box-end metric wrench.
- 9). Hold the bolt head of one of the two lower strut retaining bolts with a box-end wrench and then remove the nut with another wrench. Do this for both lower retaining nuts, but do not remove the bolts.
- 10
Support the cross-member bracket with the service jack until the bolts move freely in the holds of the strut assembly. - 11
Remove the bolts and then position the strut inward, away from the rear wheel knuckle. Remove the strut assembly. - 12
Place the strut assembly properly into a coil spring compressor and then tighten the compressor to release tension off of the coil spring. Do not over-tighten the coil spring. - 13
Hold the upper support rod with a wrench and then remove the strut/spring retaining nut with another wrench. Remove the strut cartridge from the coil spring as well as the insulator and top bumper. - 14
Place the new strut cartridge up through the coil spring and then align the insulator and bumper onto the top of the strut shaft. Align the bottom end of the coil spring to the lower cartridge bracket hollow seat. Thread the new replacement upper/strut/spring retaining nut onto the upper shaft of the strut cartridge as far as you can and then release some tension on the strut compressor. Tighten the nut to 36 ft-lbs. with a torque wrench and socket. - 15
Remove the strut assembly from the coil spring compressor and reinstall to the knuckle by reversing the removal procedure. Torque the upper tower nut to 30 ft-lbs. and the lower strut bolt nuts to 188 ft-lbs. with the torque wrench. Repeat the strut replacement procedure for the opposite rear suspension. - 16
Replace the wheels and then tighten the lug nuts snug to the hubs. Lower the Camry. Tighten the lug nuts to 80 ft-lbs. with the torque wrench, in a star pattern.
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