I just bought an '04 and the previous owner installed 18" wheels on it. He had it lowered but put the stock springs back on when I got it. Now, the rear has about a 2 finger gap while the front has a 4 finger gap. Is this normal for a car on 18" rims that is on stock suspension?

 

the springs look very similar, so he may have reversed the front and rears when he installed it

if you can stick your head down there and check, i know that there are little color marking on each spring, and certain colors should be in the front and some in the rear. i think it was like yellow front and orange rear but i don't remember

 

in theory if he switched them wouldn't the front ride extremely low and the rear extremely high?

 

I'd check on this too. Seeing how running 18's wouldnt change the ride height (with the right tires), this is probably the reason why.

 

Ive got 35 series tires on both front and back

 

iirc, the front springs are the slightly shorter ones. so if he put the shorter ones in back then the back will be lower (two finger) while the front will be higher (4 finger)

 

The springs are installed reverse. Swap the fronts to the back and vice versa.

 

that's what i said....

 

^^ i think you said " the front extremely low and the rear high" but i meant that the front will be higher (4 finger gap) while the rear is lower (2 finger gap) so it is backwards from what you said and it is the problem the op is stating

 

Ok so I checked to see if I could find any markings on the springs and found a blue and orange dot on the spring that is currently on the driver side front