Coil spring problem

kip02

kip02

kip02

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Joined
18 Jul 2004
Posts
790
Location
Stockton on Tees
It all started on wednesday when I was driving back from picking my sister up from college when there was a really loud bang and thud from the front of the car. A little worried I pulled over checked round the car and couldn't see anything so just wrote it off that i had hit something on the road that I hadn't seen.

Till I had noticed that over the last couple of days that there had been a metallic rattling noise coming from the drivers side near the headlamp/wheel that would come and go and only become noticeable when driving over rough road surfaces.

So armed with my jack today I had a look to see what was up. I jacked the car up to find nothing wrong, took the wheel arch out thinking that it was the ballast for my headlight that had come loose and was vibrating against something but that was solid.

The next problem I had was that no matter how high I jacked the car up to get the wheel back on the car it still was not high enough. I got my dad to try and he spotted what was wrong straight away that the coil had some of it snapped off and it wasn't going up with the car but staying hanging down.
The part that has snapped off has some rust on it.

My question is how severe is this and would I have done any damage to the car as I've driven it about 150 miles since?

I phoned the AA out and they're getting a flatbed tomorrow to come and collect it and take it to the garage to have a look at. Would like to know what to expect when it gets dropped off there tomorrow is it something that happens all the time and simple to replace and is it reasonable to happen on a car that is only 2 1/2 years old?

Just for reference the car is a Fiat Grande Punto 1.9JTDm Sporting.

Couple of pics:
img0090ej5.jpg

img0095sn9.jpg
 
They will just replace it, you can get it done for £50 p&l inc VAT but call it £80 to be on the safe side (budgeting wise).

You may as well get the other one done as well to be honest.

Damage wise, who knows, should be fine but why its there you should still get it looked at.
 
I wish I could show the guy who spent 9k on one of these this thread :D

edit: and yes.. That should not happen on a car that's less than 2 years old!
 
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Springs can fail quite early on some cars. Leaving them parked up for long periods seems to increase the chances of it too. Surprised you didn't notice it when driving, but it's unlikely you will have done any damage.

Springs are cheap and very easy to replace. :)
 
Cheers guys put my mind at rest.
Just got the ball ache of tomorrow now, i remember last time my car just turned up not booked in at the garage they didn't look happy.

Didn't notice it at all the car doesn't feel any different to how it did before, drove to Whitby and back which is about 70 miles on friday as well and nothing but that rattling noise which i know now to be the part that broke off.
 
kip02 said:
The next problem I had was that no matter how high I jacked the car up to get the wheel back on the car it still was not high enough. I got my dad to try and he spotted what was wrong straight away that the coil had some of it snapped off and it wasn't going up with the car but staying hanging down.
Click to expand...

That makes no sense, a snapped spring would not prevent the wheel hub being raised with the car when you jack it up. Once a car is jacked up enough that a wheel is off the ground, it's the damper that is stopping the spring extending any further, a snapped spring wouldn't make any difference to this.
 
Same thing happened on my girlfriends 4 year old ford Ka, looks like it rusted straight through.

But her problem was that the whole rear end collapsed and it cost her about £350 for new coils and bend shock absorbers.
 
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