[flexinator]

Soooo... I bought a used set of V1's for my xi and thought "what a great deal". I did save some cash, but bought a lot of headaches. Turns out the nut for the rear strut on the bottom is special and included in the set, but not included in the set sent to me. Also, same goes for the top nut for the front shocks... so my car is on jack stands in a friend's garage awaiting me to find proper fasteners... hopefully tomorrow. Here are my tips for anyone else trying this project DIY on an XI....

Watch the ecs tuning video, its very similar to the xi, but not exact. For the rear, the video is great, but preset the spring perch to where you want the height before installation... very tough to do once installed because the perch spins in the well after install if you try to change it.

For the front, I left the brake caliper and rotor on... it wasn't so bad. After I removed everything, i dropped the control arms, the drive shaft slipped out of the differential?(not sure if I am explaining this right) and wouldn't allow me to pivot the control arms back up to get the shock back into the wheel well. I had to rotate the shaft and shimmy it around, but eventually it slips back in and all is well. A good thing to know in case it happens. As for the shock itself, it is marked L for left and R for Right. The little nub on the back of it goes into the space in the knuckle and seats at the bottom. If you don't take out bolt that holds the knuckle closed, the shock won't seat all the way in. When you put the shock together, use the little washer (if your caps are steel)...(this is in the instructions)... but at the top after you have everything together like the ecs video, don't forget the metal spacer and paper gasket or whatever before you put it through the top.

The little details above would have saved me a few hours today. The video on ECS is great, but is missing a few details. Also thanks to the guy who sold me a used kit without the most important parts... I won't flame you here... but you do get what you pay for so I'll buy the $4 worth of fasteners and the time it takes to find em.

Good luck!