Do you have a Haynes manual? I think they have some pictures in there.

 

In my experience, if you have lifted and secured the car, and with the use of a 2nd jack, you can just undo the bottom control arm bolt, undo the lower Strut mount and slowly lower the jack until the spring falls out.

 

That bolt is seized on my car. I have the '00 - '04 haynes manual and I don't see a picture of them with the spring compressor on.

 

Susspension work uses the impact gun alot! Bust out the impact gun and impact that bolt loose!

 

That bolt is seized on my car. I have the '00 - '04 haynes manual and I don't see a picture of them with the spring compressor on.

Mine was seized as well when I went to do the suspension. We tried every impact we could find on it and none of them could hack it. I was able to finagle the spring compressor with spring to get the new springs in without having to get the bolt out.

Also depending on the spring you can just use a pry bar to pull the control arm down which allows enough space to get some springs in without a compressor.

 

I was able to remove my rear springs with these, but it was NOT easy. I wish I had just bought new LCA's by the time I was done.

http://www.lislecorp.com/tool_detail.cfm?detail=1199

 

I was able to use an internal spring compressor with a pipe in between the bottom hook and the bolt to keep the rod from threading all the way through and hitting the bottom of the car. PITA, but my bolt was seized as well. I was getting close to knocking the car off the jackstands using a breaker bar.

 

That's the only way I think I might get it to work, with the bolt in between. Seems a little risky though.

 

You may as well just cut the bolts off and get new ones. they are going to need to be loosened anyway to align the car.

 

FYI: If any of the bolts are seized to the metal sleeve running thru the rubber bushing, they are transfering torsional forces to the rubber that it was not designed for. This will eventually destroy the rubber bushing.

If you have a bolt that is seized as described the best thing to do is replace the bushing while you have the suspension apart. This may mean replacing the LCA's which is the easiest method.