I went to use my car yesterday & it would barely move & there was a loud grating noise. Investigation found a broken front spring which was jammed against the tyre so the car was going nowhere.
Problem was the car was parked on a sloping yard outside, not the ideal place to work given that our yard was covered in snow & ice! Managed to get it jacked up & the wheel off but put 2 jacks, an axle stand & a spare wheel under it plus chocked the other 3 wheels!
I think I had a lucky escape, had it happened while driving the front wheel would have been punctured & probably jammed, resulting in a nasty accident.
I was hoping to cut away the broken bit & re-seat the remainder of the spring so that I could get the car into the workshop. But I couldn't get the spring to stay in place on the pan because it wasn't flattened. At this stage I retired for the night, knowing it would have to be fixed where it sat!
Today the snow & ice had gone, making everything safer. I eventually got the whole strut stripped out after a lot of swearing. It didn't want to separate from the hub & I thought I was going to have to take it all of in one unit, an awful lot more work! Then I happened to twist it a certain way & the hub dropped off!
I wonder if I could weld it back together?
I used to have a load of springs I had stripped from various 205's and they are the same diameter as this 306 spring. Unfortunately I did a clearout & scrapped most of them, including long diesel ones which would be a good match for this dturbo 306.
All I had left were GTI ones which are a lot shorter.
I calculated the spring rates of what I had, selected the stiffest one & fitted it. Naturally on re assembly the strut wouldn't go back into the hub. I tried various ways but nothing happening. I was on the verge of giving up but again I twisted the hub & it popped into place!
Everything's all back together now & the car on 4 wheels again.
I had calculated that the car would be 50mm lower with the GTI spring but it's only 25mm. It might settle more but it's only a temporary fix as I will be ordering a pair of Eibachs on Monday.
Problem was the car was parked on a sloping yard outside, not the ideal place to work given that our yard was covered in snow & ice! Managed to get it jacked up & the wheel off but put 2 jacks, an axle stand & a spare wheel under it plus chocked the other 3 wheels!
I think I had a lucky escape, had it happened while driving the front wheel would have been punctured & probably jammed, resulting in a nasty accident.
I was hoping to cut away the broken bit & re-seat the remainder of the spring so that I could get the car into the workshop. But I couldn't get the spring to stay in place on the pan because it wasn't flattened. At this stage I retired for the night, knowing it would have to be fixed where it sat!
Today the snow & ice had gone, making everything safer. I eventually got the whole strut stripped out after a lot of swearing. It didn't want to separate from the hub & I thought I was going to have to take it all of in one unit, an awful lot more work! Then I happened to twist it a certain way & the hub dropped off!
I wonder if I could weld it back together?
I used to have a load of springs I had stripped from various 205's and they are the same diameter as this 306 spring. Unfortunately I did a clearout & scrapped most of them, including long diesel ones which would be a good match for this dturbo 306.
All I had left were GTI ones which are a lot shorter.I calculated the spring rates of what I had, selected the stiffest one & fitted it. Naturally on re assembly the strut wouldn't go back into the hub. I tried various ways but nothing happening. I was on the verge of giving up but again I twisted the hub & it popped into place!
Everything's all back together now & the car on 4 wheels again.
I had calculated that the car would be 50mm lower with the GTI spring but it's only 25mm. It might settle more but it's only a temporary fix as I will be ordering a pair of Eibachs on Monday.
