Hi, I have these two genuine front coil springs for a 1996 Legacy. They seem to be the same style, but they have different paint dabs on them. How do I know which one is the left and which one is the right? From a post on legacygt I think it has to do with the spring rates.

 

Hi, I have these two genuine front coil springs for a 1996 Legacy. They seem to be the same style, but they have different paint dabs on them. How do I know which one is the left and which one is the right? From a post on legacygt I think it has to do with the spring rates.

 

i went to opposedforces.com to see if they differentiate left from right. i couldn't get to the lego or outback pages, some error, but on the impreza page, the springs are the same, no left or right.

 

just make sure you orient the new spring the same way the old one was.

Edited September 18, 201015 yr by johnceggleston

Thanks for the info. I'll also see if I can find the box from these springs. I got them like four years ago and I could swear at the time they had a different part # for left and right on the front, but now it seems they list the same part #. If there is a difference it would have to be the rate, because the springs look identical. It seems I remember seeing a note somewhere about the pink and green paint dots but I can't remember where it was or what it said....hm maybe I am getting old!

Alright let's see originally they were

 

20331AA020 front right

20331AA030 front left

 

Now to figure out which of those is which with the pink/green.....

Ok let's see, I found scrawled on a box near the springs

pink=30

green=40

 

So I'm assuming the one with the pink paint identification is 20331AA030

and the one with the green mark is 20331AA040

Let's see I found the original packing list. Wow it was from 8/29/2005.

 

It says I got

20330AC030 COIL SPRING (this is the pink)

20330AC040 COIL SPRING (this is the green)

I wonder if the difference has to do with the extra weight of the battery being on the driver's side? (in the US) Sure seems like a small detail for them to have two different p/n's for.

 

Nathan

since they have different part numbers, i'm surprised they don't twist in opposite directions.

 

maybe the springs allow for the weight of the driver? or torque of the engine?

I'm not sure why they would have had different rates for driver vs passenger. It couldn't have been very critical since now they list the same part number for both sides. Heck maybe both sides were the same spring with just that paint being different for some reason. I went with the higher part # spring to be the left hand side which seemed to be consistent with other soobs I researched that had different part #'s left and right.