Yes, that’s the correct way to do this. You need to remove the strut assembly from the car to disassemble it.

The strut comes off the car, the spring gets compressed, old parts removed, new parts on. Plan a half day for both sides, I'm only fixing the right side, since that's the side with the bad strut. That’s fine. It’s “ generally accepted practice “ to renew struts in pairs, so once done, drive it arou...

gnalan, I agree with what everyone else has said. I checked and I do have a decent boot also.
volvolugnut

I haven't had a chance to pull the wheel off and check everything that's been suggested yet. Should I just go ahead and pull the strut assembly out and give it a good look over, or is it something that can still be done with it on the car? Just curious, volvolugnut, where are you located? If you ta...

I have an old (functional) LSM for a non-front-fog light equipped P2. Let me know if you still need one.

On turbo‘d P2’s the IAT is not built into the MAF. It is on the outlet side of the intercooler, just before the air goes into the intake plenum (pipe). It is also referred to (on turbo’d cars) as the MAP sensor or BPS (Boost Pressure Sensor). Your initial indicated temp at MAF seems abnormally high....

Get one of them digital kitchen probe thermometers. Stick the probe in the intake air stream after the MAF. That will give you something to compare the readings to.

Quick way to tell if the IAT is in the MAF. Disconnect the MAF see if the IAT reading changes. Yes the car will run with the MAF disconnected.

The air preheater hose from the air heater shroud over exhaust heats the air. Disconnect and plug the vacuum hose over to the air cleaner and enjoy a better running car all summer. You might need it in the winter for throttle icing prevention and it has some positive impacts on faster warm up and lo...

gnalan, I check the struts this morning and they are not very good. Very minimal resistance to motion in up and down. I don't think you would gain much using these struts. Sorry to get your hopes up.

Someone else have a decent strut?

volvolugnut