rear strut broken? need help replacing

[billsif]

i was driving my 91 corolla the other day and when i got off the highway and started to drive home at slower speeds, i felt and heard a terrible rubbing/scraping sound coming from the trunk of the car. i pulled over and looked and the plate that the bottom of the spring sits on by the one rear tire was sitting right on the tire and rubbing against it. im assuming my strut is broken and will need to be replaced. the entire area is very rusty and i dont know if this is a job i can do myself (disconnecting brake line which is fairly brittle looking, compressing the spring, accessing the strut mount?) i dont have a manual right now but before i buy one i was wondering if anyone had any advice.. on an older rusty car would it make more sense just to take the car some place and have this work done? im guessing they would want (and it would be a good idea) to replace both rear struts.. how would i access the struts, is there any danger of the spring bouncing off or any other parts if i try to remove it myself? whats an average price to pay for the parts and for labor? ugh.. thank you.

-bill

[tashirosgt]

First, let's make sure you have a broken strut. It would be one heck of broken strut if the plate on which the bottom of the spring sits is rubbing against your tire. Normally that plate is part of an assembly that is bolted to the heavy casing that holds the hub for the tire. Did the strut brake into two pieces between the bottom plate and the place where it is held to that casing by two large bolts? Maybe it was the strut mount plate that broke instead. This holds the top of the strut to the car body. These are viewed by taking out the back seat.

[cheesep]

You should put the back end of the car on jack stands and remove the wheel to really see what's going on. Before you do that though you could remove the back seat back/corner panel to see the top of the strut. Have an assistant push the corner of the car down and up and watch to see if you can see something moving that shouldn't be (or something not moving that should be). Compare it to the other side.

Replacing struts on a 91 is not a bad job. Only basic wrenches and sockets and a set of jack stands are needed. Your biggest challenge will be removing the large, rusted-in thru bolts on the bottom bracket.

You should do the rears as a pair. You don't have to open up the brake line. the brake line bracket just bolts to the strut. You'll see.

You should get a Haynes manual but enough information for this job, including torque specs is available at;

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...3d8016bd55.jsp