Pre & Post Facelift Spring / Strut Changes?

[bete noir]

My son has a 1995 Ibiza 1.4 CL. Recently he bought some Spax lowering springs for it, and we made sure we ordered those for cars up to 12/95 (ref. S034009). This reference is marked on the springs themselves, so I am pretty sure we got what we ordered. When the springs were fitted, the mechanic said that they didn't seem to be seated properly, and he questioned whether we had bought the wrong springs.

Having since jacked the car up to have a look, the bottom of the spring can be moved around on the seat, which unsurprisingly doesn't sound great if you try to drive the car

I am a bit stuck as to what to do to resolve this, so a bit of advice would be much appreciated

First off, the (most) stupid question: is it correct that the springs have the smaller diameter coil at the bottom? I cannot see how it would work the other way up, but I thought I had better check.

There are no rubber spring seats, but from searching on here I think this is normal?

What are the differences between the <'95 and '96> springs and struts? Is it possible that the car has had the later struts fitted at some point, and this is why the springs are not seating properly?

Cheers,
Martin

 

[ibiza_95]

the spax springs dont 'fill' the shocks then fitted, they move around because theyre shorter than the original springs... cant remember from fitting mine but they seated fine on mine and mine was same car same springs... itll fail an MOT for the springs not filling the shock so cable tie them to the struts to stop them moving around

 

[jenk]

No change in the chassis to what I know, just different panels.

 

[bete noir]

cable tie them to the struts to stop them moving around

I like the sound of that fix very much (simple and cheap). Thanks for your help.