Front coil spring broken on nissan sentra '94

See the local junkyard. They'll probably sell you the whole strut assembly with spring installed for less than a new spring and that's much easier to install. BTW I've never seen a coil spring break unless someone heated them to lower the car.

It's not that big of a job unless you're not too handy with tools.

It's not a bad job if you have mechanical aptitude and some tools. You need a spring compressor. You can rent or borrow these at most parts stores. You should change them both to keep the car level and you might was well change the struts while you're at it.

Would it be easier/cheaper to get whole strut/coil assemblies? Would I need spring compressor if I get the whole thing to replace? Never have done it before, so I have no idea what should I expect...

Good idea BTW - Is there an easy way to check the strut on the junkyard?

It broke on the parking lot, where the car was NOT moving. It was parked with wheels turned pretty heavy - I jumped into the car in a rush and probably the impact of more than 200lb from the side did it... the spring cracked completely, I see white surface of bare metal. It broke near the bottom of the spring, like 1/2, maybe 3/4 of the first turn near the wheel.

One more thing, I know it sounds little crazy what you read next, but.... The car seems to be still "drivable", I tired to drive on the parking lot, turn wheels - no aparent problems except nasty grinding noices, probably the parts of the spring work on each other... The body is not lowered, the rest of the spring seems to hold very well. Sould I try to drive it (v. slowly) to the nearest shop or I *must* tow it? Would I risk further damage to the suspension driving it on the road slowly to the mechanic? It would be less than 2-3 miles on side streets...

The easiest and cheapest way is to get a used strut with the spring already on it as someone else mentioned. You won't need the compressor for that and since it's used it will hopefully be about the same ride height as the original.

Jack up the car, remove 6 bolts, compress old spring, compress new spring, install new srping, tighten the 6 bolts, get an alignment.

That's it.

The strut and spring are seperate if bought new. If you buy used it's one unit.

Should take about 5 minutes and cost about $10 to have done.....

When's the last time you had *anything* done on a car for $10?

I guess you missed the sarcasm...

Not really, just the easiest/cheapest way to change the spring out

You be the judge on how nasty these noises are and what else they could be damaging.

Right... In the real world, I called Nissan dealer and got estimate for this job, and it takes 2 hours of labor ($188 USD) + $240 parts. And this $428+tax is for one side only!!

The problem I am facing now is that there is no coil spring available at the dealership nor anywhere else. The dealer can order one for me and it will arrive Friday, but how the heck can I live on suburbs without a car so long... Other places do not have the spring, and they have to relay on nissan dealer to order it for a job...

I have jacked up the car on the parking lot, took the wheel out and inspected the spring - it really looks like only one turn is broken off. Now I am thinking of reusing the old, broken spring. What do you think about the idea of compressing the spring to remove the broken part and release the reas to play a role of a whole spring in this place? Will it work? I know the missing turn on a spring means it will not push as well the car up as the whole spring, but in the situation I have to wait a week for a new spring I could at least use the car to be independent on the road...

That's why I suggested used. Like I said I've -never- seen a spring break so IMHO a used spring is just as good as a new one.