RS-R lowering springs install overview and feedback

I'm not going to go into specifics on the install but I'll mention a few things that I ran into along the way.

The front was pretty straight forward the only somewhat pain was removing the cowl and wiper tray to get to the strut tower bolts. If you see a small black 10mm bolt remove it. There's like 12. Once that was done the rest was pretty easy.

Don't forget to plug the wiper harness back in!
Compressing springs is always somewhat of a PIA. If you have access to a wall mount compressor use that, otherwise get a set of ratcheting combination wrenches. You can get the spring compressors started with an impact on one side but depending if you got lucky on how the spring bends when it compresses you won't be able to get the impact on the spring compressor bolt head after adding the top hat and will need a wrench.

Rear:
This was supposed to be the simpler half but required a few more bolts loosened than I planned.
First remove the end link at the bottom where it connects horizontally to the control arm. When I installed sway bars on my Rav4 I did this and vowed never to undo the bottom bolt again because in the RAV4 it was in a crazy bind but it made lowering the control arm much easier and was surprisingly easy to realign the bolt to go back in on the Sienna.

The biggest pain was the bolt that connects the LCA to the hub. You have to get this bolt out. I had to use a pickle fork to pry the bolt out. No matter how much pressure I tried to relieve by jacking up the hub with a floor jack it wasn't enough for the bolt to just slide out. When putting it back on I found that the LCA wants to naturally pull to the rear and not align with the hub and tension rod. I used a ratchet strap around the LCA and tension rod to help pull the LCA forward. While I jacked the LCA up with a floor jack I tightened the ratchet strap. This allowed everything to line up and the bolt to go in relatively smoothly.

I did the whole swap in about 4 hours. Not including the alignment required afterwards. Your Toe settings will be out but you do gain a bit of camber which is good.


Driving impressions:

Disclaimer: I do have the Hard Race rear sway bar installed. It helped body roll marginally. Nothing crazy.

It is noticeably firmer than stock on some bumps. Mainly large dips. Smaller stuff isn't really any different than the oem 25AE XSE springs. That said it definitely isn't uncomfortable. I prefer a firmer sportier ride because of the added control it gives. It has lessened body roll to the point where it isn't noticeable anymore which is exactly what I was hoping for.

One of the biggest plusses that I'm really happy about is braking. When I first got my Sienna I noticed how much earlier I had to brake because if I braked to hard it felt like you were falling forward and it was uncomfortable. Now the vehicle stays level even when braking hard and makes it feel like it's stopping much more effortlessly. The brakes on the Sienna are pretty good, it's how the suspension handles braking that made them feel overwhelmed.

Since the market doesn't feel like sporty wagons should exist under $70k or be larger than a small size sedan, I'm now happy with my sporty van. I now feel confident in how it will handle turns. I'm not having to plan corners perfect at speed so that any last minute correction doesn't send it wallowing around. With the springs and rear sway bar it handles any last minute correction with poise and confidence.

Aesthetics:
The drop is perfect! The wheel well is now 100% symmetrical all the way around the wheel. It has the same space on the top of the tire to the fender as it does on the sides. I feel like if you live below the Mason Dixon line this is how the van should come. The front lip has still cleared all the curbs I've come in contact with so far and I have a 17° grade driveway that I do not scrape on.

Before:

After: