I am in the process of doing front end suspension work on my 2001 S40. Struts were worn for a while, one of coil springs broke, which prompted the repairs. Replaced the struts with Monroe OEspectrum and used Lesjofors springs. Also used new strut mount bearings and upper strut mounts. The mounts I don’t recall the brand but were made in Sweden.
Assembled my new parts. Put them in the car and realized the springs are rubbing on the strut tower when I turned the wheels. Both sides rubbing. I drove it like this for a couple hundred miles. Now I went back to change the control arms, tie rod ends, sway bar links. Driver side I got back together, spring is still rubbing on strut tower.

The passenger side I can’t not get back together. I can’t get both the strut holes to line up with the knuckle.

I can get them lined up if I unhook the ball joint from the bottom of the knuckle. But can’t get the ball joint back in then. I can remove the strut from the tower get everything connected but can’t get the strut back into the mounting holes.

If ball joint is attached to the knuckle and the strut is mounted loosely I can get one strut hole to line up with the knuckle. I can do top or bottom but I cannot get both as the spring keeps hitting the strut tower.

So my basic question is why is the coil spring hitting the inside of the strut tower? I believe the springs are reversible and there is no top and bottom. Maybe I was shipped the wrong springs? The label on the box indicate they are correct. And looked identical to the one I took off the car. They are seated at the correct positions on the bottom of the strut and the rubber piece under the strut mount.

I’ve seen things on the internet about having to drill new holes for your strut mount to get your wheel alignment correct.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is my daily driver and it needs to get inspected.

Thanks for the reply,
It is definitely the spring touching the strut tower wall closest to the engine. There is a bracket in the engine bay that holds the power steering lines, I believe. The bolt comes through the strut tower wall and is secured by a small nut. The coil spring is touching this bolt/nut and part of the tower wall to the left. When I get the bottom bolt in, the top one sticks out away from the car. I have tried everything to get it to line up with hole. I can get it very close, about an 1/8” away from lining up. But I am fighting against the spring touching the tower wall. I have tried tapping the knuckle, prying with a punch, using the punch as a drift/slave pin. I can’t get the top bolt in. And if I did the spring would still be touching the tower wall.

I’ll double check the strut mount to make sure it’s correct. I will also try to get some pictures to show what I’m dealing with.

Got everything back together. Springs are still rubbing. But it’s at least drivable until I can correct that. Thanks for the replies.

Upper spring seat. Should I try replacing this? Is it possible for these to bend on a harder angle than designed, from driving with worn struts?
Are the springs reversible? Or is there a top and bottom? I can’t seem to get the top mount perfectly perpendicular to the strut. I have checked, multiple times. I have compressed the spring and made sure the spring is seated properly. But it always comes out on an angle.

I put the old spring on and it goes in fine. No rubbing. So the spring must be out of spec.