if the front springs are under compression, such as stock ones, i found it easy to jack the car up, put it on stands, remove the wheel, and place a jack under the control arm, below the strut. i then stood in the front of the car and removed the top bolt holding hte strut assembly together. from there i slowly lowered the jack, controlling the decompressing spring. nothing popped out, and i was able to remove the front springs without any problems.