Ford focus Mk1 LOUD bang

consumers_revenge

Hi,


Wondering if anyone can give an insight please. I'll ring the garage in the morning.


Car did 350 miles last week no issue, been driving it earlier and on the way back we went round a small left hand incline and heard a MASSIVE bang from underneath. Got out couldn't see anything on the floor, all tyres good ( though poss blowout ) and bounced the shocks all seemed ok. Slowly drove home and put on the drive.


Have been underneath and pulled everything that might be loose ( DIY ) and visual inspection cant see anything. Just moved it off the drive to get other car out and 2 more bang ( quieter this time as I was only about 3/5 MPH ). Seems to happen on braking or on a full lock. If car is stationary I can do lock to lock and I don't get a bang just a very low 'klunk' which might just be some play. The steering wheel before all this did feel a tiny bit 'sticky' when you move from dead centre to slight right before this but has done for the last 500 miles.


All the springs look in tact?


Any thoughts please? This will be a garage job regardless.


Thanks,


CR

angrycrow

I know you have looked at them but a broken front coil spring best fits the symptoms. Could be broken right at the top inside the turret which would be difficult to see. Expect to pay £100 to £150 a side.

consumers_revenge

Judging by the noise I was kinda hoping that's what it was and not the steering rack as that would write the car off.


Will the garage be able to diagnose that quite quickly?


Would it be safe enough to drive to the garage slowly like that you reckon?

consumers_revenge

Do they have to be replaced in pairs? opinions differ.

Joe_Horner

Yes a garage would be able to see a broken spring easily and quickly. They can have the car in the air and get in underneath with light which makes things a LOT easier to see than crawling under on your back!

By the book you should have them done as pairs because springs can sag over time so swapping one can leave the car's handling unbalanced. There's also the possibility that if one's failed the other may be close, but that doesn't necessarily hold up because a lot of snapped springs are caused by damage that happens to one side only (pot-holes, rust etc).

Bear in mind that any car that's been driven with mostly a driver only in it will have a mis-match anyway after a few 10s of k miles because the o/s has more weight on it. Back in the days when springs didn't break regularly it was quite common to see old cars, especially those with larger drivers, leaning to the right when stopped

Whether or not a garage would be willing to change just one (cos it's safety innit) is another matter, of course.

arcon5

Just change the broken one if its that. It's unusual nowadays to replace them in pairs - especially on an old car like yours, which I'm presuming it is if you've put steering rack as a bye bye car.

molerat

Jack up one front corner, steering on full lock away from that side and it will be easy to see if the spring is broken.

mcjordi

Im going with spring aswell.. sounds exactly like what happened on my mates mini and he had snapped the drivers side spring.. shouldnt be overly expensive to fix.. if you know anyone handy with the spanners you can get a replacement strut from a breakers for around £20

AdrianC

arcon5 wrote: »

Just change the broken one if its that. It's unusual nowadays to replace them in pairs - especially on an old car like yours, which I'm presuming it is if you've put steering rack as a bye bye car.

Mk1 Focus is going to be at least 12-13yrs old now.

I'd also guess at a spring.

consumers_revenge

Twas drivers front sprint.


Cheers all.

consumers_revenge

108 to fix in the end. Can live with that.