Hi all, I'm getting ready to paint the car, and I was pulling the front left fender off for repair, and I noticed the last 3 or 4 coils on the front springs are collapsed to the point that they are touching. My first thought was that the last guy might have heated up the springs to lower the car (I know that's not the right way, but I've seen it done before), but it doesn't seem super low in front, so I'm not sure what's up. Has anyone else seen springs collapse/fatigue that much on these cars? It only has 72k miles, but it did sit for a while. I can take some pictures in the morning if you aren't sure what I'm describing. I haven't driven the car a ton, since it wasn't running when I got it and it was snowing by the time I got it going, but the ride didn't seem rough at all on the few trips around the block I made.

 

I think a photo or two would help.

There are some aftermarket springs with progressive rates where the bottom couple of coils have a very low rate and behave a bit like what you’re describing. Do you know if these are stock springs?

The stock ride height is quite high by modern standards; a couple collapsed coils on an otherwise stock spring might escape notice because it would be a visual improvement — but only if both sides were the same.

This would be the first I’ve heard of stock springs simply failing on these cars.

 

Here's both sides. As far as I know these are stock springs. They kinda look like a progressive spring, but the bottom coils aren't just closer, they're physically touching, couldn't even slide a piece of paper between.

 

Shocks may have been changed. Stock in 94 (and other years) were orange deCarbon shocks. Don't recall any Bilsteins (?), unless they were part of the 1LE option. But I thought the 94 1LE shocks were revalved deCarbons.