You dont necessairly need spring compressors either....You may want to go rent one from pep boys, they give your money back when you bring it back.
But if your not going to use one...stand on the spring/strut with your foot while its on the floor and lossen the nut.
Do you have a DIY guide??
Here's one if you dont have one: (thanks MEX, for this)
FRONTS:
1) Open the hood and locate the top of the strut. In this picture the owner has already installed an optional strut tower bar which connects the 2 strut towers in the engine bay to stiffen the chassis and get better steering response.
2) Loosen the 17mm nut in the center of the strut. you do NOT want to remove this nut completely. You can try to use a socket wrench to loosen it, but after awhile the strut will begin to turn with it. Once this happens, you'll need to slide a 6mm hex key into the top of the nut to keep the strut from turning and a 17mm wrench to turn the nut. If it's rusty and hard to turn, you can spray on some WD-40 to loosen it up a little. Stop turning it once you have about 3 or 4 threads showing on the nut. See the pic below:
3) Now lets move down into the wheel well and work on the bottom of the strut. There are three bolts down here we need to remove. (4 if you have ABS). Let's begin with the brake line.
4) Remove the brake line with a 12mm socket. If you have ABS, there will be another 10mm bolt just over to the left you'll need to remove.
5) To remove the strut from the rotor, remove the two 19mm nuts shown below. It's easier to loosen the nut first, as the bolt itself won't turn until the nut has been loosened. These nuts are torqued VERY tight, you you'll need some muscle. Best tool to use is a [socket] wrench with a long handle for leverage.
6) Once the nuts have been removed, you will be able to pull, or hammer out, the bolts. BUT, you don't want to remove them yet.
7) BTW, you should find a good place to store the nuts and bolts you remove so you don't lose them
8) Moving on now to the tie rod. This is one of the most difficult parts to work with when removing the front suspension.
9) First, remove the cotter pin going through the bolt. It's there to keep the nut from falling off should it become loose when driving.
10) Once the pin is removed, use a 17mm socket to remove the nut.
11) Now for the tricky part. You need to lift the tie rod out of the strut. This can't be done simply by lifting up on it. The easiest way to remove it is to first hammer the end of the strut arm where the tie rod sits. You'll want to give it about 20-30 good whacks. After you're done hammering, try lifting or tapping the tie rod bolt from the bottom and see if it comes up out of the strut (see animation below). If the bolt does not come up after a few taps with the hammer, then don't keep trying. You should not have to hammer that hard to get it out. Continuing to hammer will warp the threads on the end of the bolt and the nut you removed earlier may not go back on easily, if at all.
If you need to use more force to hammer that bolt out, a trick that will prevent the bolt from warping is to hold a thick piece of soft wood underneath the bolt. Rather than hitting the bolt directly, hammer up on the wood. This will reduce the force being put on the end of the bolt. You could also put that 17mm tie rod nut near the end of the bolt as another precaution to protect the threads.
Now if you DO manage to warp the threads, all hope is not lost! Once you're finished with the install and you try to put the 17mm nut back on, it will turn the tie rod bolt as you try to screw it on, thus making no progress. To prevent it from turning, you will need to put LOTS of pressure on top of the tie rod as you screw it back on. I've heard of people wedging a piece of wood on top of it, but I find the best way to go about it is with the OEM jack. Just set it on top and raise it until you have it wedged down really good (see pic below). If that doesn't work, just wedge it more and more until it does work. If you give up, the part runs about $40 at honda dealers. Hopefully you won't have resort to that though.
12) Another way to go about removing the tie rod is with a 'tie rod separator', available at any auto parts store. Just wedge it between the tie rod and the strut and try with all your might to pry it out. Hammering the end of the tie rod separator helps wedge it in further. As you're trying to remove it, you may notice some grease leaking out of the rubber boot on the tie rod. As long as it isn't torn badly you'll be fine-- a tie rod separator will not tear it badly. An air hammer will, as i found out the hard way months ago.
13) You can see the difference between a good tie rod boot:
14) Now go back to the strut tower and start removing the three 14mm nuts.
15) Remove all but one (doesn't matter which nut you choose to leave on). You can loosen it but you don't want to remove it entirely yet. That will be the only nut keeping the strut from falling.
16) Now go back down to the bottom of the strut and start pulling out the top bolt. If you need to, you can hammer them out, since there are no threads on the inside. Once you pull out the top bolt, you'll notice the rotor begin to fall forward.
17) I recommend you use a tire to catch it once you remove the last bolt. if it falls too quickly, you'll break the CV joint. Just let it rest on the tire for now.
18) Now you're ready to remove the assembly from the car. Go ahead and remove the last 14mm nut on the top of the strut tower and make sure you catch the falling strut at the same time. When you work it out, be careful not to snag it on the ABS / brake lines.
19) Before you disassemble the strut, you need to mark the top and bottom to insure you line them up correctly when putting them back together. If you're working on a 2002+ model, the top mount should already me marked with an L or R (for left and right) and an arrow pointing in the direction it should be facing when it goes back on the car. If the top and bottom are not put together correctly the bolts will not line up in the strut tower, so this is important. If the marks aren't there, just use white out or something.
20) Now for the scary part. Taking apart the strut. That 17mm nut on top, the one that we first loosened in the beginning, is the only thing keeping the strut from springing apart (no pun intended). Some say you should always use a spring compressor when doing this. In fact, I say you should always use a spring compressor, but as the writer of this DIY, I am telling you it's not necessary with the 2001+ Civics, as long as you have someone sit on the spring, or as I did it, stand on it with my foot. It doesn't spring out like you think it would (I've tested this on 6 cars already). Below you will see a video of me removing the 17mm nut and the strut coming apart. I was probably only applying 70 lbs. of pressure to the spring with my foot, so it's much more effective if you sit on the spring and remove the nut. Even though I have deemed it safe, you should have the spring aiming away from anything that it might cause damage to just in case it's under a little more pressure. And if you have access to a spring compressor, then don't be a man. Use it.
Once you put on your new springs, just follow these directions in reverse. You may need to compress the spring in order to put that 17mm bolt back on the top of the strut assembly, unless you have 4 strong hands. If you are installing coilovers, make sure you use the factory bearing ring! Without it you will get nasty clanging noises every time you turn. On the 2001 models, it's a plastic piece with grease on it, on the 2002-2003 models it will be a metal ring attached to the spring cap. Careful when prying it off the cap or you'll open it up and release the ball bearings inside.