Thanks for the replies- I've got them ordered now thanks to Mike.
Car is booked into a good mechanic-
any idea how long it takes to change both of the springs?
Also needs its cv joint outer gaiter replaced- I've no idea how big/hard a job that is
Rear springs take less than 30 seconds each side to replace. But you need to drop the Rear lower wishbone arm where the spring sits into. That needs to be done on both sides obviously, and takes 5-10 minutes to take off and 5-10 minutes to put back on.
So total. 10-15 minutes each side.
The CV outer gaiter is on the driveshaft that goes into the hub. you'll see a bolt in the middle of your hub. I think it's a 24mm bolt (It's been a while so don't hold me to that, but pretty sure it is) and can be a bit of a ball ache to take off sometimes..
Then you take take the bolts off from the other end of the driveshaft, and take the driveshaft off
There will be metal clips around the cv boot. Take these off.
Then you can basically cut the old cv boot off.
Be careful not to disturb the end of the driveshaft (Cv Joint) too much, because the bearings are sitting in there. If the bearings fall out, or anything is damaged in there, you may be in some bother and spending more time/money than you expected.
Now, if the Garage has a CV boot cone, then you won't need to take the CV joint off (Which is less work, and pretty much nothing can go wrong
But if they don't, then you need to take the CV joint off the end of the driveshaft (It's clipped into the grooves of the shaft)
Put the driveshaft into a vice, and lightly, with a soft end hammer, or small hammer (make sure you're holding the CV joint as you don't want it to fall on the floor). Hit it right in the centre, where the centre of the CV joint is clipped onto the driveshaft, as this is the strongest bit. It should come off without too much effort.
Slide your new CV boot on. Fill it up with grease
And then repeat the process backwards
Takes 30 mins to 1 hour... maybe a bit longer if there's complications
Hope this helps
