Bl00dy coil springs.......

[teamster1975]

That's rough luck
They're not really that hard to do, just make sure you've got a decent pair of spring compressors!!

[Welly]

STOP!!!

They are dangerous if handled wrongly or with cheap tools.

I would get a garage to do it. Many a tale of people being mashed in the face by a wayward spring/shocker I would leave well alone if you're not experienced.

[DaiRees]

Is this another French thing? I rarely hear of springs breaking but we've had a few on here haven't we? And my mate nearly speared his Laguna into a barrier on Christmas Eve when a front spring broke at speed and ripped through a tyre.

[Welly]

It's more common on Poxhalls I understand. And quite a few BMW's get snapped springs.

There's probably only a small handfull of spring manufacturers which cross over to different car makes so maybe its parts bin luck?

[steve_earwig]

Reports of front coil springs breaking usually during low speed manoeuvres (seems confined to 1997-1999 cars).

[steve_earwig]

Changing the spring shouldn't be that much of a mare, I remember the first time I did it I had the thing wrapped up in a big old towel, just in case. I think the important thing is to make sure ALL the compression is taken off the spring, so it's free to move about. Spring compressors are, of course, mandatory unless you want your head to be a new shape.

Fraud Fuckos 1998-2004: Reports of front springs breaking on 1999-2000 crocuses: bad news because it untwines and tears up the tyre and front brake pipe. Further spate of coil spring failures on 1998 - 2001 cars over 2006 to early 2007.

Mundano 1996-2000: Reports of early front coil spring failures on 'R' and 'S' reg cars, now also coming in on earlier cars.

Fester 1995-1999: Lack of use can lead to failure of coil springs.

Mazola MX3 1991-1998: Recalls - front suspension coil may fail and puncture tyre. front springs of 108 cars built May/June 1995 may rust and fail. Springs to be replaced.

Mazola MX5 1989-1998: Rear springs of Mk 1s prone to breaking.

Clito 2001-2007: Reports of coil spring failures on 3 year old 172s.

Vauxhell Osmega 1994-2003: Spring failures now increasing on models built in 1997.

What can I say? It's this or go and play mud pies outside in the dark.

[locoboy]

mine decided to snap mid afternoon sat on the drive doing nothing!

I heard a metallic clang and thought some idiot had cought my gate, went outside an there were no other cars about.

Thought nothing of it until i got in the car to take the dog out for a walk later that evening and noticed my car was leaning a bit, tried to move it off the drive and had all manner of horid noises so took the front wheel off and the spring had snapped the bottom coil off and then dropped down the leg and wedged the sharp broken end into the cv boot and when i drove forward that was the nasty noise.

Got a secondhand leg complete with spring, disk calliper off ebay for £60 delivered, took caliper and disk off and replaced with mine, easy refit job and cheaper than component parts too.

Upon refitting i wet about bleeding the brakes after having removed the caliper and my foot went right to the floor and the underside of the wheel arch was covered in brake fluid, the spring had nicked my brake flexi too!

My front tyres were only 2 weeks old too, so all i can say is the big man was looking down on me that day!

[mjb]

I class suspension springs as the same kind of DIY job as repairing a CRT telly/monitor. I know they're safe to do if you're sensible and/or experienced, but I'm too aware of the potential for death if you make a mistake to dare go near them myself!

[steve_earwig]

...repairing a CRT telly/monitor

and remember kiddies, those big fat capacitors can store a hell of a lot of power!

Steve Earwig, trainee astronaut and degaussee.

[V6Exec]

The problem is the springs are "pig tail" style.

One of my springs went overnight, got new ones fitted for quite a bit of the folding (also had new disks and pads fitted at the same time).

Turns out on of the guys in the office had a problem with his people carrier not feeling quite right. After my experience, he checked his. Straight springs, snapped, but not the same type of failure as I had.

[teamster1975]

...repairing a CRT telly/monitor

and remember kiddies, those big fat capacitors can store a hell of a lot of power!

Steve Earwig, trainee astronaut and degaussee.

Brings back fond memories of a workshop at silver reed. Watch out for the HT lead on the back of the tube!
I remember about 10 years ago I was repairing a fax, I had the covers off, finished my repair & picked it up to turn it round. My arms promptly tensed up and I threw it over my shoulder I completely forgot about the unshielded fuse on the back! It burnt a hole in my little finger!

[mjb]

Best one I did was replacing an internal fuse in a computer PSU some 10 years ago when I was a student. Opened it up, spotted the blown fuse in its holder, threaded my fingers through the mess of wired and heatsinks so I couldn't drop the thing even if I really wanted to, and OUCH!

See, I'd made sure there wasn't a kettle lead plugged in, but for some reason (I was probably hung over) I completely failed to notice the mains cable trailing out the side of it from where I hard wired it to the PCB after deciding £3 on a kettle lead would cut into my beer budget too much (heck £3 would get me 4 pints back then!)

Hmph it's getting to the point £3 barely buys me one beer nowadays (current price of Stella in my regular haunt is £2.70) God I feel so old

[teamster1975]

Best one I did was replacing an internal fuse in a computer PSU some 10 years ago when I was a student. Opened it up, spotted the blown fuse in its holder, threaded my fingers through the mess of wired and heatsinks so I couldn't drop the thing even if I really wanted to, and OUCH!

See, I'd made sure there wasn't a kettle lead plugged in, but for some reason (I was probably hung over) I completely failed to notice the mains cable trailing out the side of it from where I hard wired it to the PCB after deciding £3 on a kettle lead would cut into my beer budget too much (heck £3 would get me 4 pints back then!)

Hmph it's getting to the point £3 barely buys me one beer nowadays (current price of Stella in my regular haunt is £2.70) God I feel so old

You plonker
I remember the students union bar at farnborough tech (spent a lot of time there! ); a pint of fosters was 90p!

[mav]

you guys should try gettin into an officers mess on an RAF base now then.
you can get a round in for 5 or 6, and still have change out of a 10er

not quite the coil spings, but just above them:
what size torx screw is on top of the suspesion mount, and what do they attach to the chassis
have aquired me a strut brace, and dont seem to have the right size attachment to remove them