Toyota Repair: Raise the rear end of a 96 Camry


Question
Hi, we have a 1996 Camry LE (5SFE-2.2L, 4 Cylinder, automatic trans)four door sedan and the back of the car rides extremely low. Just going over a speed bump, even at a crawl, and the car exhaust pipe hits the top of the speed bump. Also, whenever there are 3 average size adults riding in the back seat, the car rides extremely low and it looks like the bottom of the wheel well will hit the top of the tire. I know the coil springs must be replaced, and since the car is old, I am going to replace the struts as well. I am wondering if new coil springs and struts will raise the rear of the car enough so that when the back seat is full the car doesn't ride so low. Is there anything I can put on the end of the new struts/coil springs to add to their length? Perhaps a Coil spring shim or spacer?  I have checked and neither coil spring looks broken, and the exhaust pipe on the bottom of the car seems to be mounted securely. Will new coil springs raise the car up? Would coil spring shims/spacers help the new springs?

Answer
Hello, it sounds like the springs are weak and need to be replaced, you can get complete strut/coil assemblies from most autoparts stores or online, there is no need to add any additional spacers etc if the springs are replaced with the original quality units.