As this can apply to any car as is quite general I thought it is best in discussion rather than technical.
On Tuesday or Monday I had two new rear tyres fitted.
On Wednesday I got cought out by a horrible and probably ilegal speed hump, I went over it at 15mph and it felt really too fast. It is on a private estate and it was put in place by the resisents commitee many years ago.
On saturday I went to my grandmas and washed under my wheel arches with a high preasure hose pipe. When I got it home I started to T-CUT a scratch and as I was doing it heared a large explosion, some passers by thought it was from my car. I checked the tyres and they were all fine, I also checked underneath and nothing obvious.
I drove my car for the first time since the incident and there is now a horrible squeeky sort of knock from the back of my car, it sounds like something is loose and I am pretty sure it is connected to the explosion, the only thing I can think is it was a coil decompressing. The lower coils look ok but they are hiden so can't really tell. The coils feel tight and not loose and the lower arms look ok. There is no signs of a shock leaking.
Any other ideas? The coils are original and have 80k and 9.5 years old so they are probably due for the replacement.
I don't know if the explosion noise was from my car but it seems highly likely it is connected :(.
I am thinking that the the tyre people may have caused some fatique on a worn spring, then I went over that bump causing further damage then I washed it all with cold water possibly causing further damage until the thing decompresed.
PS I am not worried in normal rattle style, I have a very big job on atm so I can afford to get this fixed ;).
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 13/04/2009 at 19:40
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Carefully check (or get someone to check) all your coil springs - the coil spring should end squarely. When they snap, the fracture surface is never square to the coil, it tends to be helical, so, it's easy to tell the difference.
The reason why it's worth checking carefully is to be sure a sharp cut end isn't going to puncture your tyre.
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Thanks NC :) I will take some pics and post them as it might help. They both look like coils to me. They don;t feel loose when I touch them but that may not mean anything.
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the pigtail on the spring end often breaks on corsas ,you wont see it as its mounted next to the chassis leg upper (rear )
i saw a spring on a corsa that had lost a complete lump of coil and yet the car sat straight last week
corsa b and rear springs its not if -its when
ps dont forget to grease the fuel tank while under there as i recommended the other week
im seeing more and more late plate corsa b cars on the run off with rust in the floor pans and rear chassis legs lately ( V,W,X,) ,its as if they took a full leaf out of fords book and lost the plot with the runout model
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HJ - I don't think pigtailing confers immunity;
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=72...1
BB - yes, I've seen similar on Astras too.
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I intend to some rust proofing on my chasis in the summer.
Just been reading google and it is sounding more and more likely it is a snapped spring but I have looked at them and they fine, it must be the hidden bit. Would this be easy for a garage to diagnose it and how much is likely to cost for two new springs including labour at say £30 an hour?
I knew the springs were a common problem on this car from thsi site when I bought it, I expected to have to replace them whithin the year as I go over so many pot holes/bumps but not this early :(
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Rattle, why bother with the rustproofing.
The electrics or mechanicals of this car will expire long before the chassis.
Give the underside and the wheelarches a good pressure wash.
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My niece's Corsa suffered the same fate last Saturday - £40.00 quid for the bits and around £60.00 labour is what she's been told to expect. I was a passenger in the car when it happened - and I recovered the bits from the road - the break was exactly as described above by NC.
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Chris that is what I did on saturday before the 'bang happened'.
Pug is that for two coils or one?
It looks like I am again without transport and my dads car is booked in for CV boot and other bits of suspension work as his car started making a horrible knocking noise last week. It seems to be never ending but I suppose that is what happens when you run small superminis in a pothole speed bump city.
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One (according to her dad who was here earlier).
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Well my posts to rattle tend to get ignored but i will try for one more time
apply handbrake
jack car up on end of sill in front of back wheel (its tuff here dont worry)
put axle stand under car for peace of mind
undo the 17 0r 19 mm bolt (its late i cant remember)that holds the rear shocker in place onto the back axle seen from underneath
get assistant to grab wheel (handbrake on remember so it dont turn) and turn it in an anti or clock wise position depending on side to pull the axle down slightly
the spring will nigh on fall out
replacement as they say
job takes 10 minutes
replace both springs if you wish but you are wasting money
a single spring at a motor factor is $25 with a fancy box
($=pounds by the way)
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Bellboy I don't ignore you :) It is just as you will see from some my older posts from the technical forum every time I touch cars it goes wrong. You have but my mind of rest that it sounds like an easy job though :). I have no idea which spring it is at the moment.
I know it must be frustrating for you, but its like when I am trying to explain to somebody on the phone how to reset a wireless password it is very frustrating to me because its so easy yet for my client they find it very hard.
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>>job takes 10 minutes
Quite agree BB, it's a really straightforward job to do.
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I back up this advice.
Not a McPherson strut, just a coil spring which falls out when the car is jacked up and the suspension is at it's maximum travel.
Meccano was more difficult in my experience!
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A word of encouragement to Rattle.
You sound a reasonably able fellow, you work on computers and stuff without problems, so transfer that skill to working on your motor.
When I started working on cars I had a few heart-stopping moments, but a cup of tea and a break works wonders.
If you want difficult I think the thermostat on a Rover 100 was possibly it. Bent double over the engine bay in eye-watering contact with all sorts of hard bits, those were the days.
screwtape
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Got some pictures and both coils look ill
Rear left
tinyurl.com/ddcm9w
Rear right
tinyurl.com/cdu9zj
Both look pretty rusted and you can see they are breaking up.
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But what was the noise? Are you sure it even came from the car?
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Ian,
If you want, you can bring the car round and do the job here, I've got all the kit and trolley jacks etc. Make the job a bit easier.
Just give me a bell
Ted
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Rob I don't know for the certain the noise was from my car, but passers by all looked at my car as it happened and I asked was that from my car and they said they think so. You can't see all the coil as it its hidden so i suspect it may have cracked further up.
Since this bang my suspension has been making a noise but thinking about it was on the way back from the journey rather than on the way there, and yes I have completly emptied the boot etc.
Ted that is an idea thanks, I have a trolley jack but no proper spanners, axle stands etc etc. I also would not be confident in doing it myself but if you showed me what to do I will be a lot more confident.
Do the coils look bad from that picture to me they do but maybe thats just normal?
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I can't really tell from the piccies, something looks a bit ragged.
I think the best thing is to drop the springs out and inspect and clean up the entire area.
If the springs are OK then at least all you've done is lost an hours time and we can see if anything else is wrong under the car.
Ted
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Thanks Ted :) when is good for you? The passed the MOT only a month ago and its done about 300 miles since then so what ever it is must have been quite sudden, the suspension was silent when I got it.
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There seems to be a difference, and as ted says something looks ragged, but the angles are slightly different so it's hard to tell. As it's a simple job it's worth taking a close look.
I wish you (and ted) the best of luck with it.
I must say it seems unusual for an actual spring to break when it wasn't being compressed. From the photos it seems possible that the spring has forced its way through a pressed steel cup meant to restrain it. The pressed steel parts of modern rear suspensions make your blood run cold after a few years on the road. They sometimes just collapse into powdered rust. Anyone taken the bump stops out of an old Peugeot 205? Hilarious.
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If there is a fault, and it is easily rectified by replacing a spring or two at modest cost (insh'allah), the ghastly speed bump will have done you a favour by revealing a weak spot in the new car. Better find out at home than when belting about on the Continent...
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look closely at the n/s spring, at the top , its lost its pigtail, compare to o/s, unless it has been replaced in the past with the later spring that doesnt have pigtail [doubtfull looking at corrosion] the o/s is original incidentally .
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Looking at the two photos again (pony's post made me look again) you can see part of the coil is missing from the left side coil. Quite a bit missing in fact.
... looks like the other one could go soon too.
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as said one spring looks like its lost a complete bit of spring just like the one i saw last week
the other spring looks ok and it is of the later type with out the pig tail having been added at the factory
as i said the one i saw the car still sat level on the road
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I can clearly see the difference now it has been pointed out, I won't drive the car now apart from to get it looked at. I assume a bit of spring missing would make the sort of noise my suspension is now making?
Also my car looks quite rusty underneath but I suppose that is normal, I will do some protection on it and greese the fuel tank like Bellboy suggests, I am not sure how long I am keeping this car but it needs to at least pass a few more MOTs.
My car appears to sit level too but my road has a camber so its not that easy to tell.
Edited by rtj70 on 13/04/2009 at 19:45
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Apologies bellboy. You did say exactly this above before Rattle posted a set of photos. You were spot on :-)
At least Rattle knew these might need doing and it's fairly easy/cheap.
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Rattle, Just logged on. From what the others say, a couple of springs might be a good idea.
Try the lads at Autocom on Darnley street for springs. Mention my name..I'm about all week 'cept Friday. Just give me a bell or call round at 149.
Ted
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Hey, a Backroom meet !!!!!!!!! :-]]
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Thanks since the springs are clearly rusting it does make sense to replace them it is not like they are £100 each. I will take pictures of my front springs too but the noise seems to be coming from the back and the front springs look quite new from what I can tell.
Thursday would be good for me but I will arrange it with you tomorrow.
Thanks.
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Hey a Backroom meet !!!!!!!!! :-]]
Or a dating agency ;)
Those rusty bits looked a bit like mine where it was just the plastic paint peeling off. (but they did break in the end, but not at that place).
Edited by martint123 on 14/04/2009 at 12:57
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"....Or a dating agency ;)...."
You'd never live it down, would you - 'we met admiring the rear springs of a Vauxhall Corsa'.
"Corsa than springtime..are you" - maybe not quite what Rodgers and Hammerstein had in mind. :)
So Rattle - now that it's spring (sorry!) will you be looking for a hydraulically-suspended Citroen as your next car?
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So Rattle - now that it's spring (sorry!) will you be looking for a hydraulically-suspended Citroen as your next car?
I think that's outside his sphere of knowledge :)
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I've always fancied making love to a DS but sadly they are too difficult to get on with!
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Making love to a DS - quelle idee!
Actually, you may get a whole new range of goddess opportunities - if the magazines are to be believed, the next range of Citroens will be called DS1 to DS5.
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The problem is they will no doubt all be made of PSA parts and not engineered from scratch. What made cars like the DS so special is they were completly unique. My Science teacher used to have one. He was only 36 at the time but he looked more like 66 I figured that is what owning a DS does to you!
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Ted fitted the springs at his house this afternoon the right one turned out to be ok but replaced it anyway as it was rusting it would probably snap sooner or later, the left one had the pigtail missing was loose and a different height.
tinyurl.com/cjw7zt
Got to see the famous Jowett in the flesh too which was nice.
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