Coil spring snap on 406 Hdi

I have a 1998 406 Hdi estate and my offside soil spring has just snapped, luckily when I was pulling into a driveway at about 5 mph! RAC guy said that suggested that he could see no other damage to the tire or brake lines. I am 'reasonably' technically minded and have the car sitting at home.

  1. Can I remove the shock itself by jacking the car up and then take it to a garage to replace the coil? Or just drive slowly to the garage (literally about 200metres away!) and get them to do it all (I don't know how big the job is).

  1. Do I need any specialist tools to remove it other than spanners/ tourque wrench etc?

  2. Should I remove the other front shock while I am about it and get that replaced?

  1. Can I buy the shock online? My concern is that I might get stiffed by a garage and I don't want to pay a premium. I have no idea how much they are...

The car has 112k miles on it.

Thanks in advance

Reply to
Dave Angel
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My offside coil snapped a couple of months ago when it was parked (1999

406HDI - 118,000 miles when it went). I did not repair it myself but we use an excellent one man business. He took off the other coil and showed me where it was also starting to go so both were replaced. When the o/s one snapped it took the CV joint gaiter and the anti roll bar vertical link with it. The car was also undriveable because the spring had dropped and would not permit the wheel to turn. Incidentally, it was only the coils that had to be replaced, not the shocks.

Fortunately I am a member of Britannia Rescue and they took the vehicle to my repairer at no cost.

The whole repair came to just over £360.

General opinion seems to be that sleeping policemen have a lot to answer for.

This link

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is to GSF and has prices for coils and coil compressors (I understand that one is required).

Reply to
Keith Willcocks

Mine went the other day as I was reversing out of a parking space (fortunately at home). One of my neighbours is a mechanic so he replaced it for me for £120. I associated the clonk as it snapped with the brakes sticking so I actually got about 200yds down the road before I twigged it was a bit more serious than that. It did melt the name off the inside of the front tyre but apart from that no damage was done. The guy who replaced it for me said he had to use hydraulic spring compressors becuase the replacement spring was so long and had to be compressed down so far. I have no idea whether he was spinning a tale or not.

Reply to
malc

Your guy is right. You need an hydraulic type not the cheap and nasty things you get in Halfords. And definitely do both sides.

Reply to
Nigel

Oh, he didn't nor did he recommend that both be done. Handling doesn't seem to have altered, leastways not the way I drive the car.

Reply to
malc

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