Coil Spring Rubbing Frame

I’ve been a lurker here for quite a while, managing to diagnose and resolve several issues on my 2014 TRD Off-Road 4x4 thanks to several threads here.

Several weeks ago I took a friend of mine up on the offer to take a stock 3rd Gen set of struts off his hands (he put on an aftermarket lift not long after he bought it new) and we put them on mine (210k miles).

Over the course of a couple of weeks following I began to notice a rubbing sound when I would go over humps in the roadway. I looked in the passenger wheel well and found the coil spring is now rubbing the hood of the frame where it lives. After staring at it for a bit I noticed the coil spring is no longer seated in the “hat” assembly (photo attached). Everything was fine when we finished the swap so I’m a bit puzzled how this transpired.

I’m not the most well-versed in suspension components so forgive my ignorance but any ideas as to how this happened and what I need to do to resolve it?

 

I think the spring might be upside down, what does the bottom end of it look like?

 

Uh, that’s not right. Let’s get some more photos. I too think that the spring is upside down.

 

Somethings not seated correctly up here

 

Here’s the bottom of the passenger from the rear of the wheel well and then also the driver side for reference.

 

Correct, that’s what I meant by not seated in the original post.

 

Well then take it back apart and try again

 

The top hat bushing has an ID ring that rides inside the coil.
It looks like your spring is sitting on the ID lip?

Only time I seen that happen is on reassemble.
Did you have the coils off?

 

Still need more photos. Show the shock bolted to the LCA. Show the LCA. Did you hit a curb too hard and your way out of alignment? Broken shock mount? The coil looks pushed way too far back that it would just not be seated on the top hat.

 

That’s the thing, we didn’t. We took the set assembled as they were and put them on mine. Also as far as I remember it looked correct when we finished. Is there anything in particular that could’ve made it jump out on to the lip? I have done nothing since then outside of normal highway driving and taking speed humps slowly. Could it have anything to do with alignment or the LCA being warped, etc? I may be grasping at straws here.

 

Photos as requested. I agree, it’s odd. Like I say above I don’t recall it looking unusual once we finished.

 

@Superdave1.0 might have an idea.
He’s done a bunch of lifts and bushings.

 

Hard to say what happened without taking it out and taking it apart. Some good info here already. I would just buy a new top hat assembly and have that one reassembled.

KYB makes a decent top hat/strut mount assembly. Part #

$29 SM5640 - Mount Kit

SM5640.

 

I wouldnt disassemble it without a new mount kit in my possession. You just need the insulators and rubber cushions.

 

What is this? Looks like a rock or something stuck between the spring coils?

 

The rubber insulator piece that sits toward the top of the coil (I don’t know the name for it) has become dislodged with the shifting of the coil.

 

Thanks for the insight. I’ll investigate.

 

Extremely unlikely, but there is a chance the coil spring has broken. The spring looks really bound up.

When you swapped in the coilovers, did you install them on the same side that they were removed? Driver side and passenger side?

Not only are the left and right side different. The coils will bend/arch/conform to the location they are in. If you change that, then the coil will be fighting itself to conform to a new position.

 

Yes, we matched them up to the original position of the colored dots. On visual inspection the spring appears whole.

 

You're going to have to compress the spring and move it over so it's sitting around the upper mount correctly. If the metal is bent you might need a mount.

Who knows how it moved but it did. Just move it back

If you don't have a spring compressor try doing it the sketchy backyard way where you put a floor jack under the LBJ, take the nut off the top of the shock and lower it down. Position the spring correctly and jack it back up.

I don't recommend that method