Road Spring?

Sounds a bit steep, but at main dealer rates, it's what I'd expect.

Yes, very.

The coils may be held together by the weight of the car at the moment, but all it'll take is a hump or pot-hole for the snapped parts to become displaced which will severely affect the suspension geometry on that side of the car.

If it happens in the wrong place you'll be lucky to maintain control of the car - highly likely that you'll end up off the road, or even rolling it.

Thanks Steve. I'll get them replaced - although I'll get a couple of quotes for the work first. The vauxhall springs only lasted 50k miles :o(

It's can be really unpleasant when they do come apart. But you'll get it done for a lot less than that almost anywhere else

I got a quote of =A3101 at a local garage for the work. Just got my car back from the dealership who serviced it. Hope I'm right in thinking the "road springs" are "coil spring", which are the curly whirly things that make the car bouncy. I've inspected the curly whirly things, and the seem okay.

One of them has a bit of plastic coating missing, but it's not cracked... I'm confused.

Jack it up till all the weights come off & then you can normally see the crack. Alternatively try your local MOT garage.

£50K is ridiculous. Most springs last the life of the car. Anyway, are you talking about the fronts or the rears?

I suggest you ask the garage which particular spring is broken, first. I also don't see the need to replace both at once. Theoretically, yes. But there must be millions of cars going around with one spring different to the other. Are you sure they don't mean the shock absorber?

Rob Graham

50k is the mileage not the price (the dealership isn't that bad ;o) )

It's the offside rear coil spring. I've even got the part number

9118378. I said to the service bloke Vauxhall must be doing crap parts that don't last, he said it's surprising how many cars need coil springs replacing with the increase of speed bumps (not that I go over many, and I go over them slooooowly).

I think they sell the springs in sets of two.

Maybe I've got a lemon of a car (or dealership). After 40k miles, it needed the primary and secondary timing chains replacing (which cost a small fortune). Mind you, it was making a nasty noise before they got replaced.

Seems like I'm not the only person with coil spring problems...

I'll bite the bullet and get the dealership to get them replaxed.

Yes, I assumed that! It's just that my cars are nearer 200K when I get rid of them (in fact 235K for my Renault Savannah) and I've never had a broken spring yet. Nor have I known anybody who has.

Are the springs the same both sides, i.e could you do just one and keep the other in reserve in case it happens again to either side? At least even if you had to buy both you wouldn't have to pay the cost of doing both.

Rob

I have a car sat on the drive with a snapped spring at the moment.

I'd never replace anything safety critical so that each side was different - always replace brakes / suspension and, to a lesser extent, tyres in axle pairs.

Just had my Vauxhall Astra Coupe serviced at the local dealership. They found that the road spring is broken. They also said they need replacing as a pair, and that it's going to cost £198.

Trouble is, the car seems perfectly fine - no noise and drives okay. What are the symtoms of a broken road spring? Is it dangerous not to get a broken one replaced?

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If this is anything like the old Cavalier, I'm sure all you have to do is undo teh shocker, and lower the arm till teh spring is free to come out. Can't see it taking all that long, and the springs should be quite cheap, so

200 quid sounds a bit steep to me.

Yes. We speak as we find.

Well, yes. OK.

Interesting about brakes. Although I know that you should replace pads etc on both sides, when I haven't obeyed this rule I have never on one single occasion found that the braking was different one side to the other. If I had, I would have replaced the other side too. I wouldn't have waited until I was doing 70 on the motorway to find out.

And another thing. Occasionally I've had a pad wear to the metal, i.e. no friction surface left. What difference has it made? None. Only a grinding noise. Never understood that.

The message from "Rob graham" contains these words:

Often hear of Astras breaking springs. Dunno why - perhaps GM ain't got the hang of 'em yet.

Yup, that's the idea of chains. Was it done under warranty?

Peter

You'd have found that, at higher speed or under much harder use of the brakes, more head would be generated, and the metal grinding against metal could get hot enough to weld themselves together. Then things would get interesting.

Peter

So have you often had to replace brake pads for one side but not the other? i.e. one side not worn out enough to warrant replacing when the other side is? Don't you find that a bit odd?

Peter

Usually they crack at the very top or very bottom and you only see it once the car is jacked up and the wheels off the floor.

The message from Conor contains these words:

You forgot the "Milking the sap" surcharge.

That's possible. However, my point was, if there's no friction material left how come the brake seems to work just as well? If you've got front discs and one is not working properly, you can feel the other pull the car over. But not in the case of a worn-out pad it seems.

Rob