OK, this is a new one on me, does anyone else know of this happening?
On Monday my wife picked me up and said she had heard a very loud clunk while driving. I did a quick check under the Sport, but didn't notice anything unusual. However, after entering my condo complex I was going over a speed bump and heard a loud crack and clunk from the right rear side. The back end sagged to the right and the steering began to pull hard to the left. I looked underneath and saw that the leaf spring on the right rear had broken.
The frame was not sitting on the axle, but it was close. Fortunately, there's a shop close to my home that does suspension work (Big O Tires, in Newark, CA) so I was able to slowly drive over there Tuesday morning. They confirmed that the leaves had snapped and needed to be replaced. Also, the Reflex shock on that side had blown out. To maintain a consistent ride, I had both the left and right leaf springs and shocks replaced. Total cost, just over $800.
The vehicle is only 12 years old (~150K miles) and has never been used for off-roading. Given the low age and relatively benign driving conditions it has been used for, I am very surprised to have experienced this kind of failure. Most on-road vehicles never need have their leaf springs replaced, even after 20+ years. That mine failed this early just shocked me. Has anyone else has this failure or did I just get the 1 leaf out of 100,000 that will fail early?