406oc.co.uk

How compressed do they have to be to be able to get the damn things off ?

The front springs are inordinately long, and do take a LOT of compressing
At one point we had 4 compressors on one of my springs trying to unsuccessfully do it
If you can, see if you can borrow or hire a hydraulic spring compressor
Makes the job a pleasure to do
Otherwise it's a case of struggling and risking your safety due to how much you need to compress the spring
I've done other cars before, but the 406 is a right PITA for this job compared to others

Hi
When my coil spring snapped a couple of years ago my spring compressors couldn't compress the spring up enough on the other side to get the washer and top nut on the strut. So I bought new struts and springs and new bearings (mine fell apart) and top mounts took all the bits to the garage and they made the legs up for me only cost £37. There were 2 other garages here i went to and their spring compressors do 90% of cars on the road but they couldn't do a 406!

This might be the cheapest option and to be honest if you are not confident doing this its better than a fatality because like its been said before the springs are very long at least 600mm if i remember correctly. Once you get the built legs legs back from garage you can just fit them yourself and save yourself some dosh.
Hope this helps.