Yeah I just took some pics from above and came to the same conclusion. I figure I have a 25% chance of having got them both right so I'd better pull and check.

Any idea what is the downside of having them wrong?

 

Thanks very much indeed for posting this. I'll drop them and examine....I think I've an issue anyway as aside from measuring ride height using factory approach I'm convinced one spring is fatigued from my basic measurements. So I'll go back and examine and also install using this stream of posts

 

Can one of you who has the mount exposed take a picture from directly above? I'd like to see how/if it is assymetrical.

Thanks!

 

im not sure - I'm chasing an issue with how the car is sitting at back and I'm convinced it's spring related. This has led me to query this. I'd have thought if the car is sitting correctly by factory height measurements it isn't critical short term but no doubt would cause wear eventually. That's conjecture though.

Its fairly easy to remove I suppose. I'll be measuring more carefully this time. Will post during week what I see in case it helps for comparison.

i think I understand the "ballpoint " direction reference - hopefully obvious once out.

 

My car corner balanced and aligned well, so I'd imagine it probably has to do with the lumps hitting the stop as a bump-stop and so having it wrong doesn't impact how the car actually sits. I'll have to drop and examine mine in the next few weeks as well.

 

I couldn't wait and took them out. This is my left looking towards front of car sitting next to wheel hub. You can't see but on right if picture lower down is "R" and higher up is "L". So the right side of picture is towards cooling fan and the "L" is nearest ball joint. The "fat" part of mount is towards front of car. As far as I can tell this is all correct.

 

My right side is symmetrically the same. I do have one issue I can see. The springs have moved and aren't at the end of the travel in the top mount. How do you lock these on the rears? You don't put a hole in the rubber for a wire do you?

 

I don't see any asymmetry in the mount in these pictures. They look perfectly symmetrical. Can you see any in real life?

As for the springs, can you add a picture to show what you are talking about?

 

Well, not good. I'm sure I missed this point when installing the new suspension a few weeks ago. My guess is the chance of getting this right by pure luck is very small...

Any ideas on the symptoms of incorrect installation? The car feels great most of the time, but in higher speed corners the back end is definitely unsettled. I was assuming this was worn engine mounts (96K miles), but maybe this is not the case.

 

I missed it as well but I don't notice any bad handling characteristics. Car feels super stable in all conditions - straight line or cornering. I'm wondering if its a bump stop, so it may only come into play if you bottom your suspension out.

If you are feeling unstable in high speed corners its probably more likely an alignment issue or could be your worn engine mounts.

 

Hi, I should add to be clear - from side mine look like this in relation to the wheel hub (sorry pic went to top ).

so thick part at back. This makes sense as the inner tower is higher at back I think (towards front of car).

 

for the spring issue mine weren't seated at end of travel:


You can see at end of spring it isn't "home" - it has rotated. I'm going to mark the spring and put a tiny mark on shock so I can check this. I'm not sure how you'd lock this. The front I locked with wire. With koni certainly the springs are under no pressure when car raised.

for symmetry - I think the cushions on top might be slightly different. But barely.

 

side on its more apparent (?) see you to my eye (I could be wrong) the steel top piece is more elongated to rear perhaps. I think you can see this in that early diagram which was posted on the right hand drawing. Very slight .

 

Thanks for all the pictures. It does appear that the assymetry is primarily (maybe entirely) in the spacers under the top mount. Still worth getting it right, but without the spacers it seems like the orientation may not matter as much.

As for the springs. When I pulled mine to replace the shocks, the springs were tied to the top mount with a couple of zip ties. So you may want to try that, it could help the springs stay in place.

 

Thanks. I think I will have to go in and take it all apart again - not sure I can live with it probably being installed incorrectly.

The engine mounts need replacing, regardless, so here's to hoping all of the above sets things right.