I replaced the front shocks over the weekend. My techinfo ID wasn't working so I just reassembled everything from photos I took as well as googling torque settings. Basically everything is back together BUT now that my techinfo ID is working, I see my springs are installed "backwards" meaning the lower end of the coil is supposed to point to the rear (see below) - mine are at the front.

Id rather not tear it all apart again. Any thoughts if it makes a difference? Thanks for any feedback.

 

Is the spring seat and bottom of the coil completely flat? I'm guessing no, if that is the case then I wouldn't drive like that.

 

The lower tail of the spring should fit the profile at the bottom of the spring perch on the shock so it butts up against that little ledge, so in that respect, the direction the spring tail is facing is dictated by the shock, the springs will be wound the same, not backwards to each other.

As long as the spring is properly seated in the shock you should be fine, I can't imagine what difference it would make having the shock/spring assembly on the wrong side from the manual's recommendation.

 

Yes, the bottom of the spring is perfectly set in the “divot” - I made sure of that as I uncompressed the coils. I think it is just the top plate that is 180 degrees off, thus the bottom of the spring is on the front not the back. The new top plate did not have a divot (the old one had a divot worn into it) as it is just flat rubber all the way around. To fix this I would need to remove them, compress the coils, rotate the top plate, and reinstall. The thought of recompressing and uncompressing the coils is where my laziness threshold kicks in.

 

I have swapped front coils about 5 times in 4 different Toyota/Lexus trucks, and never have I worried about which side is which. 10s of thousands of miles and no problems. I am not sure why they would have specific direction, other than some slight hight difference for driver lean? Doesn’t effect my alignment either.

 

Thanks to all for the replies. I think I am going to leave it this way and just keep an eye on it to see if anything looks amiss over time.