Tanabe spring - paint wear

[hystria]

hi everyone, I will need your help to understand what really happened with my Tanabe springs. On the front springs, at the lower part of the spring exactly where the coil starts separating from the shock base - you can check yours by only looking at this point without removing anything. Take a look on the pic, it shows similar wear on both springs. I've had them for less than 2 months installed by myself with much care and properly seated. If it is not that much, people who have the NF210 would you like to check yours to see if you have similar paint damage... Your comments/feedback of yours are much appreciated as at this moment we are communicating with Tanabe about the issue. See the pic below - the springs are shown up side down, thanks for your reply

[spkrman]

wow what is causing that?

[Black Yaris]

Did the installer forget to put the rubber cusions in between the spring and the strut?

[cleong]

Might be because the ends of the coil spring has been hitting the coil itself. Have you been hearing noises from your suspension when it hits the bigger bumps? That'll probably be it. You could try looking for spring protectors, I think that is what they call it. My workshop fitted some snug fitting rubber hoses on the first one or two coils of each of my springs to help prevent it from making too much noise.

[largeorangefont]

Originally Posted by echo_hrs

It looks more like corrosion to me, have you been driving in winter salt?

Cheers

Corrosion. You live in Canada, this is to be expected. A little bit of wear through the paint from friction, (normal) combined with some road salt and moisture started lifting the paint.

[hystria]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!

Tanabe provides rubber cushion to be put - as they explain on the installing instructions - only on the REAR springs where the coils have less gap between. However, from this experience, it should be strongly suggested to also install it on the front springs.

Originally Posted by cleong

Might be because the ends of the coil spring has been hitting the coil itself.

It was not hitting the coil itself, but the shock plate where the spring is seated. This part of the spring where the paint lift is at the end of the section that is permanently seated on the shock plate. It hits the shock plate every time the cars goes over a bump, thus the paint got hit every time, it cracks up and peel.

Corrosion itself doesn't attack paint, at least not within two months. The rest of the paint on the spring is in like new condition. However, largeorangefont got a point. There could be some dirt/sand accumulating on the shock plate, the paint coming in contact with this could have been wearing at a faster rate.

[Black Yaris]

Are these the springs you have for sale?

[hystria]

Originally Posted by Black Yaris

Are these the springs you have for sale?

Yes, the springs were still on the car when I put them on sale. Now I'm waiting to see what Tanabe has to say about it

[IllusionX]

this is what happened to my eibach's. the OEM ones has a rubber/nylon cusions on the front springs. they eibach's didn't come with any. from the friction, it does start rubbing off like that.

[hystria]

Originally Posted by IllusionX

this is what happened to my eibach's. the OEM ones has a rubber/nylon cusions on the front springs. the eibach's didn't come with any. from the friction, it does start rubbing off like that.

Interesting feedback, however I didn't notice the rubber cushion on the OEM springs ? Quite sure the OEM paint is of better quality thought, there is no trace of wear whatsoever.

[d4w1]

Tanabe NF210 has pacific instructions on your front coil springs. That you must use your old rubber bumpers from your stock shocks. But they need to be cut down 15mm-25mm depending on your vehicle load. If any one wants to purchase a new set of Yaris hatchback Tanabe NF210 coil springs at a excellent price never mounted in the factory box let me know. I decided to purchase Toyota's TRD lowering springs. The TRD parts do not void your warranty.

[Nimble]

That's not the problem. All these answers just confuse the hell out of people that are trying to figure out what the problem is.

First, the stock springs have no sort of rubber cushion on the BOTTOM from the factory. I thought that was weird. When I installed my Tanabe's, they just sit directly on the metal strut bottom, which is obviously going to be a problem with paint wear. I thought about custom fitting a rubber spring pad, but didn't want the front to sit too high. If mine starts to wear through the paint though, I'm doing it regardless.

The weirdest part is the the rear springs have a upper and lower factory spring pad, and the Tanabe springs come with rubber protector material to be wrapped around the rear lower springs. If I was smart, I should've cut the 2 pieces into 4 and wrapped some on the lower front springs. Oh well, I could do that later without removing the springs, just jack it up and wrap it around carefully.

If anyone can find a factory replacement front, lower rubber spring pad, that would fix this problem for good...and probably make the ride even a bit more soft.