I had my car serviced today and one of the things was ticked red and amber on the Vehicle Safety Report, it was for Steering/Suspension commenting that both my front coil springs were broken.

I have a 1996 GS300 Sport and believe the springs are shorter than the normal GS, so would like to know the correct part number(s), price and what they are like to change?

Please can anybody help?

Hi,

The main dealer will know for sure if you call them and give them the chassis number etc of your car.

Im surprised to here both fronts are broken

Myself id be thinking of replacing the rear springs as well to give the car a fresh ride all round.

Good Luck.

Chips..

contact TDi and get some eibachs they will do nicely about £214 if i remember correctly

Hi,

legendswraith is that £214 for set of springs all round or just the fronts?

Chips..

So was I, especially after the car didn't need a B service which saved me £200. There goes that money!

all round that is, Mark may well correct me as it was about 12 months ago i bought them i am assuming the sports front suspension is the same as the normal GS though bar the coil length

That's not a bad price if it's for all four.

I believe that's the case with the Series I Sport, they're lowered simply by using shorter springs.

How easy were they to fit? Were any special tools required like spring compressors for example?

I had a look at the springs today and sure enough they are both broken at the bottom on the smallest coil, about 2-3 inches of spring has snapped off. The passenger side was a clean break and the small part was loose so I removed it without any force.

It looks like they have been broken for a while, there is too much corrosion at the break point for it to be recent, yet they hadn't been noticed on previous services or MOTs. That said on initial inspection I couldn't see the breaks and it was only because I was looking for them that I saw them, otherwise they were easy to miss.

The breaks might explain the intermittent creaks that have come from the front of the car since I've had it.

they are easy to change you just need a socket set 14mm for the top mounts i think, 17mm for the anti roll bar links and 20 oddmm for the bottom of the shock (might not be accurate as its from memory) you do need compressors to get the springs on though.
After the first corner it took me about 30 min a corner to change the springs and rebuild so its not too gruelling

[quote name='legendswraith' date='Jul 9 2006, 10:11 AM' post='364932']
[quote name='eMJay' post='364908' date='Jul 9 2006, 12:17 AM']
I had a look at the springs today and sure enough they are both broken at the bottom on the smallest coil, about 2-3 inches of spring has snapped off. The passenger side was a clean break and the small part was loose so I removed it without any force.

It looks like they have been broken for a while, there is too much corrosion at the break point for it to be recent, yet they hadn't been picked on previous services or MOTs. That said on initial inspection I couldn't see the breaks and it was only because I was looking for them that I saw them, otherwise they were easy to miss.

The breaks might explain the intermittent creaks that have come from the front of the car since I've had it.


they are easy to change you just need a socket set 14mm for the top mounts i think, 17mm for the anti roll bar links and 20 oddmm for the bottom of the shock (might not be accurate as its from memory) you do need compressors to get the springs on though.
After the first corner it took me about 30 min a corner to change the springs and rebuild so its not too gruelling
Will say that the tangs that you tighten the anti roll bar links against are made of chocolate so be wary of bending them if you do that its either new links or improvisation

I still haven't sorted out my front springs, but need to soon and was wondering if it's worth replacing all four at the same time or just the broken front ones and should I buy OEM or after market?

I'd swap all 4 IMO
This is what i'm thinking of doing to 'freshen' up the ride.
Thankfully i've not got your problem of the snapped springs.

Regards Craig

OEM or are there any aftermarket alternatives that are the same ride height as Series I Sport OEM springs and offer any benefits like cost, performance, etc?

aftermarket springs would be a better bet, and change all 4 too. will be cheaper than buying from lexus.

you might want to get some which are a even bigger drop as that will improve looks as well as improve handling.

Is that wise? Surely it will mess up the geometry etc and lead to unnecessary tyre wear. If not though, how low can you go before it does?

Any aftermarket recommendations?

I'm probably going to change all four springs, but should I go with OEM parts or are there any aftermarket alternatives you can recommend that are the same ride height as Series I Sport OEM springs and offer any benefits like lower cost, better performance, etc?

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hi
i have owned a gs300 sport for almost ten years, do not lower the suspension any lower, i cant see how you can theres not much clearance under the front arches now and u will have a ride even harder and noisier .You will not be able to adjust geometry correctly and if you think the tyres wear fast now think again.The creaking noise mention is not caused by broken springs, my car had the same noise but the springs where not broken, they all have it even from new, you would have thought lexus could have sorted it by now considering they had a recall on it in 99.The car looks nice lowered with big wheels ect but i was more for comfort so i had the springs changed back to normal gs300 and 16" gold alloys.The tyres now last at least 20,000 miles and now can get out of it after a long journey without being shaken to pieces.ah and since i have not kerbed it once, dont know why i was always kerbing the big wheels.the big alloys also buckled very easily.all this sporty stuff very pretty but pretty useless when it comes to praticability.unless you drive like a madman and need strait line cornering the normal set up seems good enough .one more thing, those skinny fat tyres dammage easily on pot holes ect and do not cushion the impact from the road to the wheels ect causing buckling and bearing dammage. one word of caution do not drive over 60-70 mph in heavy rain with those wide tyres,even with good thread because they are so wide the weight of the car is spread over a wider area of the tyre surface causing it to run lighter on the road.thus the tyres are unable to move the water away fast enough and causes aquaplaneing, trust me i know it happend to me quite often,scares the **** out of you. Never happened with normal tyres.
hope this could be of any use to you, regards alan

Thanks Alan! I don't want it any lower than standard but just wondered if there were any cheaper aftermarket springs that offered the same factory ride height.

I got the part numbers and prices for the OEM Sport springs from Lexus:

• Front: GBNGA-SP002-F £240.60 + VAT
• Rear: GBNGA-SP002-R £240.60 + VAT

They said only the broken ones would need replacing and not all four and just the springs, no bushes etc. They quoted 2.4 hours labour just to do the front.

Does anybody know anywhere else I might be able to get the OEM parts cheaper?

hi,

yes i have four perfectly good sport springs for sale, call me on 07775688367 or email me on a.trevor@btinternet.com

I did know that. Lexus informed me that Lexus UK also replaced the shocks as well as the springs.

Apparently it's not unusual but doesn't happen very often. They are both broken on the very bottom coil.

The front springs came today and they are black Spax ones, Spax part number S043004.

My Dad and I fitted the new springs yesterday, which saved on Lexus' £276 labour charge, but today I noticed the front looks higher than it did before, i.e. there's more clearance between the top of the tyre and the edge of the wheel arch than I remember. I assume this is normal with new springs being as they haven't suffered 11 years of use plus they don't have any sag. Please put my mind at rest that I don't have the wrong springs, the part ordering was in the hands of Lexus and no one else I tried could source Series I Sport springs.

The front's ride height has been bothering me for a few weeks now so I decided to phone Spax and this is what they said:

• The part number I've been given, S043004, is lowered by 25mm but is for cars up to 1993 (although the first Sport came in 1995 )
  
  
• The correct part number for a 1996 Sport is S043001 and is also lowered by 25mm.

They couldn't really tell me the difference but suspect it's to do with the amount of force and weight they're designed for so could it be that S043004 is too weak for the Series I Sport, hence snapping, and why would this part number come after S043001 but be for earlier years?

I don't know what to do now.