Broken Springs, All makes of Cars

In message , tic writes

After the second front coil spring was discovered broken in about 18 months on my Mk 2 Mondeo I asked in disbelief to see it in the workshop, as the handling seemed ok. It was broken near the top.

I asked the service guys (the ones in overalls) if they thought speed bumps could be a cause, and they shrugged and said "Wear and tear".

I've had the Mk 3 Mondeo nearly 5 years and no broken springs so far, despite the ever-increasing number of tank traps.

I also think it's speed bump related. Searching through the MOT history for my BMW online I discovered that it had a set of rear springs at 36k miles. Does seem to happen more and more often.

Having said that, the only coil spring I've ever had go on a car was on a 1985 Mercedes 280TE - it's common on those.

sleeping policemen/speed bumps are dangerous and I'm sure have contributed to deaths (damaged tyres/suspension resulting in crashes away from the ruddy things)

H>> In message , tic

In the snow and freezing conditions a week or two ago, my SAAB broke a spring going over a speedbump, there was a bang and then clunking from the broken bit. 2 days later the other side did the same. Weird, it was just the bottom coils, or 2/3rds of them anyway.

I blame speedbumps, exacerbated by the cold :)

Bloke at work's Rover 75 behaved oddly while reversing a couple of weeks ago. Thinking it was just the snow holding him, he struggled backwards for a few more yards then got out to find one nearly new tyre ripped apart by the jagged end of a broken spring.

I'm sure I read in Mondeo Forums that the Mk2 was well known for breaking springs .Over the last three MOT's my Mk2 has had springs replaced on at least two times and ,same as you,I was not aware of it . Over the years I have had many cars ,Avengers,Sunbeams,Sceptre,etc etc and I did not have one broken spring on any of them.

My brother suffers from this on his various BMWs over the years - but usually rear ones and he tows a caravan.

In message , Usenet Nutter writes

My last experience of a broken spring was on my dad's 1936 Morris 8, which he had overloaded with a home made "boot" box on the rear, to take us from Manchester to Poole on holiday around 1948.

Hit a verge somewhere in the Midlands and a leaf broke on the NS rear. He was fortunate that the friends we were staying with new a repair shop which fitted a new leaf.

In those days leaf springs could be repaired by any blacksmith. Who would also re-set them to the correct height. I dunno if coil springs could be repaired - but it's cheaper just to replace them anyway.

Yeah, but in a week it'll be flat.

(Then a week later it'll be a 4" deep hole.)

"Duncan Wood" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

...and better quality repairs.

It really is noticable around us that the failures of the surface are at the edges of patches, joins between tarmac sections, and other places where the surface is not contiguous.

tic pretended :

In my driving career, I have had three break. Two cart type springs in the dim and distant, plus one coil about 15 years ago. The later was just the last part of the bottom turn and went un noticed for several days, the only sign was a graunch noise on tight turns. None at all since the introduction of speed bumps etc..

Dave Plowman (News) has brought this to us :

The only way to repair a leaf spring is to replace the broken leaf and rebuild it. There is no way to repair a broken coil spring other than replace the complete spring.

Mercedes say stone chips hitting the coil spring and chipping the paint causing corrosion and fatigue of the spring causes them to break!!!

if that were an actual problem then mercedes would plastic coat the springs

A broken leaf can be welded and re-tempered. Or a new one made up. Blacksmiths used to do this pretty quickly. Certainly didn't have to wait for a spare part to arrive from the makers.

It's probably possible but not economical.

mercedes springs seem to be extra long...

I've had the original springs _and_the subsequent replacements break on the rear of two Previas now. Current car is on its third set.

Speed bumps & potholes don't help, but let's face it, modern cars are much biggers and heavier than those of yesteryear, and they tend to do far higher mileages too. Couple this with the components being computer-designed to a spec, rather than over-engineered to last. It's hardly surprising that they break.