New front coil spring failed after 3 months - no impact

badfelafel · 16 August 2018 at 10:22AM

Hi - had a front coil spring replaced around 3 months ago.

Car drove fine until on a flat country road on holiday - no impacts, no potholes, on the flat at 15mph, heard a very loud ping. We didnt know what it was from or why, it was completely unexpected. Had not hit any potholes or speed bumps.

Turned out the spring had broken. It was right at the top.

Garage has replaced it but says it is due to impact. (It is the same garage that fitted the spring).

We had just driven hundreds of miles with no impact at all (nothing more than rough ground, not hit anything, no bumps at speed at all).

What else would cause a newish coil spring to fail at the top?

Would be grateful for any advice, thanks!

sevenhills · 16 August 2018 at 10:32AM

badfelafel wrote: »

Hi - had a front coil spring replaced around 3 months ago.

You should not be charged for it, if its not of merchandisable quality.

[Deleted User] · 16 August 2018 at 10:42AM

How are you going to know exactly how smooth the roads are all the time. Round my way they are awful. You may not have ploughed into any really deep pot holes , but the smaller ones are all over the place. You have to ride a bicycle to see the true state of the UK roads which you cannot properly see in a car . Also there are speed humps all over, especially in 20 mph limits.
Only a new original makers spring will be top spec.All the aftermarket ones coming from Chinese sweatshops will be made of inferior steel. If you have nt paid full price for it you will have got a Chinese component

badfelafel · 16 August 2018 at 11:17AM

Houbara wrote: »

How are you going to know exactly how smooth the roads are all the time.

Roads were not smooth, but thats how roads are, I'd have thought a new spring should last more than 3 months on typical roads - only an actual impact should break it?

Richard53 · 16 August 2018 at 11:31AM

I drove up my (fairly rough) driveway, same as every day, parked the car and went to bed. In the morning, started reversing out and the spring went - no impact that I was aware of. My mechanic says he sees a lot of broken road springs these days, and he puts it down to low-quality steel compared to 20 years ago.

wgl2014 · 16 August 2018 at 11:34AM

Springs are designed to deal with repeated impacts, that's how they work! Whilst an unusually high impact could cause damage you would know about it.

Whilst modern cars with lower profile tyres and stiffer sports suspension do seem more prone to snapped springs 3 months is well below a reasonable lifespan.

Bear in mind that when the steering is turned the top of the spring should also rotate on the top mount bearing, if this is seized the spring will be subjected to force in a way it's not designed to. Get your garage to check these (although really they should have done when replacing the spring last time around).

badfelafel · 16 August 2018 at 12:21PM

So I spoke to the garage. The mechanic wouldnt let me speak and kept saying in his experience it is due to an impact. He drove his daughters car into a puddle which had a pothole and did £200 damage.

Eventually I said to him will you let me explain what happened, and told him there was definitely no impact.

He did not agree, and said everyone nowadays is trying to get something for nothing.

Then he kept repeating that it must have been due to an impact as springs do not fail, how else could it be explained. I told him that it was not an impact, so must have been supplied to him with a defect. He did not agree again and told me the story about his daughters car again.

Thing is, there really was no impact, no bangs, nothing. It was at the end of a holiday up north - many rough roads, but dog, wife and 3 kids in car and driven carefully the whole way. I would know if there had been any bangs or impacts with pavements, potholes or speed bumps. But there was nothing out of the ordinary.

He has offered to let me pay and then he will contact the manufacturer... But I suspect if I pay that will be the last I see of the money.

Richard53 · 16 August 2018 at 12:32PM

Can you get hold of the broken spring? When mine went (see above) I examined the broken ends and it was clear that the spring had cracked half-way through some time before. About half of the cracked surface was showing rust signs. For me, the damage was done some time before and reversing three feet on full lock was the last straw.

Ganga · 16 August 2018 at 1:10PM

I would certainly ask for the old spring,even if you cannot claim anything back at least the garage cannot do this behind your back after you have paid for it.

badfelafel · 16 August 2018 at 1:32PM

He has offered to send the spring to the manufacturer - after I pay - but I wouldnt expect anything to come of that.

There was no bang, no impact - I'd have expected something if I'd hit something enough to break a nearly new spring

Joe_Horner · 16 August 2018 at 1:41PM

Regardless of what he claims, springs do "just break". They're highly stressed items which, in modern cars, are made with the absolute minimum of material they can get away with. A slight fault in the bar stock, a mistake in the tempering process, slight damage before they're powder coated, can all leave them too weak or too brittle for the job they have to do. In fact, it's pretty amazing they don't break more often!

"Impacts" are a fact of life for road springs. As someone else commented, its what they're there for. A properly engineered and properly manufactured spring should be able to cope with anything that doesn't cause other damage (tyres, rims, suspension arms etc). They may fail over time from repeated lower level impacts, but it's their job to be better at absorbing one-off bumps than the rest of the car.

The main difference between modern springs and those old ones that seemed to go on forever isn't the state of our roads (otherwise classics would also be routinely breaking springs & they're not). It's that modern ones have been engineered to the limit of what's "ok" and - just like driving "at the limit" - when you engineer something like that there's no safety margin left when real world conditions meet theoretical specifications.

That said, you're likely to have a hard time arguing the case with them unless you're prepared to pay out considerably more than the cost of replacement in order to have metallurgical testing done.

Personally, I'd swallow the cost of another replacement but I'd also get it done elsewhere. This garage has given you no reason at all to continue using their services so, if you're going to have to pay again, pay someone else.

New front coil spring failed after 3 months - no impact

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