Broken Coil Spring

Buzby · Post by **Buzby** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:12 pm

Ive just had a front coil spring snap on my tdi

. It broke right on the last coil at the top, also killing the top mounting. Funny thing was I drove it 5-6 miles none the wiser, not realising what had happened I pulled up outside the house and was treated to a clatter of the spring piece and ball bearings from the mounting falling to the ground. Where the spring has broke there is rust on the face of the break.

Looks like a slow limp to my local garage next week to get it sorted, as its too far to my vw dealer. Do you think I should have both fronts done, as the car has only 34,000 on the clock. (seems like a low mileage for a spring to break).

Anyone else had this happen..?

pip_polo · Post by **pip_polo** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:30 pm

exactly the same thing happened to me, is an excuse to lower the car..

mine snapped and left a sharp edge, this was cutting the ball out the bearing and litrally firing them when i was turning, hit a few cars in tesco with it.

it's not a hard job to sort it, cost me Â£80 including parts to sort it and replace all springs with shorter/sport ones.

Torq-Al · Post by **Torq-Al** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 4:04 pm

I'd go with pip_polo on this one. If you'd planned to lower the motor, now is a good time to do it!

On the other hand if you want to stay standard then change the pair, much the same as any suspension/wheels etc. Do an axle pair to keep it sweet.

Can you not complain to VW to see if they will provide towards replacement? Seeing as you have relatively low miles, how old is it?

Buzby · Post by **Buzby** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:14 pm

Agreed It's a good excuse to lower it..

. I've had a closer look at the broken piece and to me it looks like theres a bit of fatigue in the steel hence the rust. I would take it to vw but my dealers about 18 miles away against 3/4mile for my local garage, and i dont want to damage the car too much because the spring is now resting on the body not the top mount

I might stay with vw springs as I find the ride stiff enough with the standard springs and 16inch wheels (im gettin older

).

chewy · Post by **chewy** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:26 pm

vw do a 30mm lowering spring, check out vag parts

https://sslrelay.com/s74326199.oneandon ... shopscript

pip_polo · Post by **pip_polo** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 8:31 pm

thats a decent pic

mine had rusted the whole end, but i did have it snapped for 2 days before i could get into a garage lol

the end that snapped of nearly hit a car that was overtaking me on the motor way

would've done some damage

RUM4MO · Post by **RUM4MO** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 9:42 pm

Yup been there done that etc etc. My wifes car was just over four years old with about 40,000 miles. The O/S spring broke at half height as I was reversing out of the garage on New Years Day so I could not even reverse up the driveway - just sort of ploughed up the gravel on the drive! Same as you - evidence of rusting at the break point - also lost the bearings, you should expect that when the support below it suddenly disappears as there is nothing to keep the bearing assembly together - the balls didn't look too good anyway. In fact the spring is still somewhere in my garage - both halves got intertwined and they still are! As I have said already, all these cars are just built using Skoda parts - and the Cz people seem to be getting off with using very crap steel. Replacements, if bought from VW will probably support this - check the product details on the wrapping - what can we do to stop this? - probably nothing as lots of car marques break their coil springs, seems like there are very few spring manufacturers so their products turn up all over the place! The really rotten thing is that when you use tapered springs and then some coils at either end breaks then the larger diameter main section coils either pass over the top mount or over the lower cup on the strut.