Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Having purchased a second hand Pajero LWB 3.2L Diesel apart from going to the agents for servicing I'm looking over the vehicle myself.
Removing the rear wheel yesterday I was looking at the springs. they seem fairly new (paint is still black and no signs of rust). The Paj has done nearly 230,000 Km.
The spring coils are not spaced linearly but 'bunched' to one end. The 'bunched' end is against the lower arm.
I imported the Haynes manual and the diagrams seem to indicate that the 'bunched' end should be on the top (i.e. against the upper chassis) - but perhaps if they are 3rd party this might be the way they were designed.
So I'm in a bit of a quandary as to whether the springs are 'original' or 3rd party and whether they have been installed correctly.
The vehicle had aluminium suspension lifters fitted when I purchased it but I had them removed by the agents because I felt the body roll was more than I liked - and the handling suffered (I drove a brand new 3L petrol 2008 Pajero overseas for 7 years - LHD why I didn't bring it back with me).
Even with them removed the Paj's suspension tends to creak a lot at times - hence why I'm doing some investigative work myself.

Thanks for any guidance!

The standard coils are progressive rate, so they are not evenly spaced. Mine (Gen 3, very similar to 4) has the bunched coils at the top. They are not too difficult to remove and replace if you have a trolley jack and a ratchet strap (and a 22mm socket) See this link for a good description, the ratchet strap tip is a life saver:
https://www2.pajeroclub.com.au/forum/sh ... hp?t=30279
There are rubber isolators at the top and bottom, the bottom ones on mine were worn out, that may contribute to the squeaks

Thanks Rvanhuys!
I'll have a good look at what's going on with the springs and see what can be done - preferably by myself as the dealers charged me R3,500 just to remove the 3rd party spacers that the previous owner had installed.
There's also a 'knock/clunk' at low speeds when going over slight bumps - but only when starting to move forward. Seems it could be the stabiliser links and bushes (as per what I've read on the internet). So I'll check that out too at the same time.

Thanks once again.
Cheers.