Do modern vehicle suspension springs last?

[fizzy]

Never had it happen in any Landrover I have had. No matter how much abuse they get. Never known it on a Rover either. My Brother's Audi A5 has had them go twice as has my mates Merc SLgay - must be a German thing - perhaps they should change Vorsprung durch Technik to knacksprung durch Technik

 

[bricol]

Springs on my 91 Lancia are still going well at 209,600 - I was going to say "strong", but I'd have to admit they are sagging a bit.
Changed three springs on the OH 07 Fiesta in two years.
My 07 ALfa - wasn't until I pulled the rear end apart to change a handbrake cable (the most over-designed, elaborate manual handbrake arrangement you could ever think of) that I noticed a rear spring was broken. Decided to pull the rear arms off to de-rust and paint them - found the other spring bust too. Alfa put colour coded stripes on the springs to identify them - and they weren't for a Q4. In-fact, each side was for a different version!

If you compare older car springs with modern ones you can see the differences - thinner gauge wire, ends not flattened and ground - which puts the max stress about 1/2 turn from the end - notice where they tend to break?

And of course, where they are, they get road rash - the coating gets damaged, rust starts - doesn't help in preventing crack iniation.

If I'm speccing a bespoke spring for a machine, don't go above a certain percentage of compression (or indeed, extension for extension springs), certainly don't let them become coil bound, ends formed closed, the ends ground flat. Don't get many breaking.

 

[anto44]

Last garage I worked in there was 5 mechanics and we did about 5-10 springs per week. It wasn't one particular brand of car they all suffer from broken springs.

 

[brightspark]

faster you go the less you feel

if you go over our not so level crossing fast its ok go slow and u can hear car front skirts crunch on it wagons go over it fast as well

 

[Rudi McAnichal]

The crack did propagate from a rusty spot on the spring: there was a small area at the start of the fracture that had visible corrosion, Though could be the initial crack initiated the rust unless the original spring had a defect in the coating.

I suspect most coil spring breakages arise when a damaged coating (stone chip?) lets in moisture, corrosion brings pitting, the pitting results in stress concentration, and the spring suffers fatigue failure.

The OP’s photo, showing rusted spring surface and fracture fairly typical of fatigue failure, is very similar to other broken springs that I have seen.

Does anybody regularly smear Waxoyl or something similar over their car springs?

 

[RichardM]

When I had the Berlingo it was a regular thing so I bought a hydraulic spring compressor just for the job. I never changed both at the same time. I think I had seven break in about 12 years of ownership. I saw a Ford Mondeo where the broken spring had dropped down the leg and ripped the tyre wall completely to shreds. The Berlingo had a guard which was fitted due to a fatal accident where Citroen were sued in France.

My old Berlingo went through a stage of breaking springs, right PITA to get the shock off too!

if you go over our not so level crossing fast its ok go slow and u can hear car front skirts crunch on it wagons go over it fast as well

Just like cattle grids, don't slow down and just skim the tops.

 

[brightspark]

Seen several of the broken part laying on the road, now that is a road hazard as they break very sharp,
and will destroy a tire if run over.

Leaf springs I find once in awhile, not as big as a problem if you run over them.

tell me about it 3 week old new van and i heard a big bang looked at the back tire and it had burst and ripped a full turn coil stabbed in to it l 125 quid up the swanny wasnt even of my vehicle i must have ran over it

 

[harveyp6]

Warranty companies really are a waste of time, Warranty company would only pay for 1 valve and fitting and argued it didn’t need a full gasket kit even though it was cheaper than individual gaskets

The above just sums warranty companies up to a T.
Buy the full gasket set, and bill the warranty companies for the individual gaskets. Win win!
They always have been. When I had my workshop, three of us in there, we refused to do work for them. We told any customers to pay us to do the job, and then try to claim back the cost of the job from the warranty. I reckon some of them are still trying to get paid. Some hope!

 

[fizzy]

Springs on my 91 Lancia are still going well at 209,600 - I was going to say "strong", but I'd have to admit they are sagging a bit.
Changed three springs on the OH 07 Fiesta in two years.
My 07 ALfa - wasn't until I pulled the rear end apart to change a handbrake cable (the most over-designed, elaborate manual handbrake arrangement you could ever think of) that I noticed a rear spring was broken. Decided to pull the rear arms off to de-rust and paint them - found the other spring bust too. Alfa put colour coded stripes on the springs to identify them - and they weren't for a Q4. In-fact, each side was for a different version!

If you compare older car springs with modern ones you can see the differences - thinner gauge wire, ends not flattened and ground - which puts the max stress about 1/2 turn from the end - notice where they tend to break?

And of course, where they are, they get road rash - the coating gets damaged, rust starts - doesn't help in preventing crack iniation.

If I'm speccing a bespoke spring for a machine, don't go above a certain percentage of compression (or indeed, extension for extension springs), certainly don't let them become coil bound, ends formed closed, the ends ground flat. Don't get many breaking.

My alfa 75 was on 185,000 miles - no broken springs. Hardly any rust either

 

[bricol]

My alfa 75 was on 185,000 miles - no broken springs. Hardly any rust either

Lent mine to a mate when they were car-less - liked it so much he bought it - his wife killed a pregnant deer with it. Didn't live long enough to rust - but long enough I experienced the clutch change and the prop-doughnut replacement.

I don't think it was destroying the Alfa that did it - but some years later she became my other half for an interesting, soap-opera, few years.

 

[fizzy]

Lent mine to a mate when they were car-less - liked it so much he bought it - his wife killed a pregnant deer with it. Didn't live long enough to rust - but long enough I experienced the clutch change and the prop-doughnut replacement.

I don't think it was destroying the Alfa that did it - but some years later she became my other half for an interesting, soap-opera, few years.

The prop doughnut was the ONLY real repair I had to do. Mind you the clutch was slipping like hell at 185,000 very hard miles! Still have the car - on my todo list

 

[Turbo]

My alfa 75 was on 185,000 miles - no broken springs. Hardly any rust either

No rust? Are you sure it's an alfa?

 

[ajlelectronics]

I had both front spring fail on the Citroen Xsara Picasso. Took out a front tyre too.

 

[Rannsachair]

I suspect most coil spring breakages arise when a damaged coating (stone chip?) lets in moisture, corrosion brings pitting, the pitting results in stress concentration, and the spring suffers fatigue failure.

The OP’s photo, showing rusted spring surface and fracture fairly typical of fatigue failure, is very similar to other broken springs that I have seen.

Does anybody regularly smear Waxoyl or something similar over their car springs?

I used to wrap leaf springs in Denso tape, think it used to be common on old cars.

 

[500e]

The tape of legend.
We used it on all the tower feeder cables, never had water ingress on joints

 

[Roger440]

Cars are heavier and I'd wager allowable spring stress limits in the design calculations have been relaxed to sail closer to failure. The spring still needs to fit in roughly the same space it ever did, meaning they can't magic more wire into the equation so it has to work a lot harder, eating into the fatigue life.

A mk1 golf was ~850kg kerb weight, a mk8 is more like 1500kg. A mk2 cavalier was 1050kg kerb weight and an insignia is 1600kg.

Bingo. Correct answer

And take a look at a mk1 coil V a mk8. From memory, mk has 10 coils, mk8 has 3.5 ish.

All about weight and cost. They have munched into the safety margin. Most are much nearer the limit now than they used to.

They could get more wire in, they choose not to.

 

[Erie Fred]

Bingo. Correct answer

And take a look at a mk1 coil V a mk8. From memory, mk has 10 coils, mk8 has 3.5 ish.

All about weight and cost. They have munched into the safety margin. Most are much nearer the limit now than they used to.

They could get more wire in, they choose not to.

Also the prep they do to the spring before and after forming.
Valve springs are treated to go millions of cycles.

 

[Roger440]

Also the prep they do to the spring before and after forming.
Valve springs are treated to go millions of cycles.

All OE stuff is shot peened, phosphated and coated. Thats not really the issue. The issues are in the design.

 

[Misterg]

Mrs G had one break on her (BMW) Mini.

Funny creaking noise when turning the steering that I thought was a seized strut bearing. It turned out to be a broken coil at the top of the spring that was well on it's way to munching through the top of the strut when it got to the garage.

As above, I think weight / cost pressures have eroded whatever safety margin was once there.

 

[fizzy]

The tape of legend.
We used it on all the tower feeder cables, never had water ingress on joints

Disgusting filthy awesome stuff