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Hi I took my car to renault garage for m.o.t. and service and it failed the m.o.t. because the two front coil springs were broken. I have been quoted £346 for their replacement and told the car would have to be retested. Does this seem a reasonable price for this type of job? Would be very grateful for a swift reply. Cheers, Dippy
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Hi dippy,
My clio 1.6 also failed an MOT in September this year for a broken front coil spring and a broken rear coil spring. I bought both springs from a motor factors-it was about £100 for the pair and an independent garage charged £60 for fitting so it was approx £160 all in. From what I recall there was very little difference in price between the front and rear spring. The garage that fitted the springs also carried out the mot so the retest was free. In short Renault are ripping you off. They will give you the line that original renault parts are better quality but then again the springs in my car were original renault parts and they still broke!
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Its just a stadard mchperson strut on the front on the Clio I am pretty sure. I paid £160 for my fronts as I had to get it done for a holiday but I could have got them done for £100 but the garage was busy for a week so it was no use.
Most the fast fit centres wanted between £150 and £180.
I have a Corsa but the front suspension setup is pretty similar. They will need to be compressed which makes the job a little harder but its still an easy job for a garage.
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You should be charged about £100 (All in) on average for a single spring replacement unless your car is a top marque or special..fone your local motor shop and find out the cost of a spring yourself and add 1 hrs labour . Over the past 7/8 years theres been a huge surge in broken front springs due to poor quality finishing at the foundries, springs used to have tapered ends to fit snugly into the cup stops but suppliers are cutting the spring ends off flat and the steel is often over-tempered causing them to break. Some manufacturers have been fitting theses poor quality and flawed springs at the production lines and recall costs have been huge. french companies have suffered badly , Citroen have been forced to replace tens of thousands of springs over there warranty date because of crashes in France. to try and dodge the problem, instead of replacing the dangerous springs before they brake, Citroen dealers where fitting a cheapo steel cup to the strut to catch the spring if it does brake and stop it slicing into the tyre.....When you have had the spring fitted which is a bread and butter job ....( which is normally carried out by the garage "semi Skilled" mechanic or apprentice)...check and make sure that the spring is not on upside down...I had 2 springs fitted and both had "TOP" printed upside down on the bottom coil; of each spring, the mechanic tried to tell me there was no difference which way the spring went....IT DOES MATTER..the car is in a dangerous condition if the spring is fitted upside down so check,
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springs are £30 each trade
labour per side say 45 minutes
draw your own conclusions
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Yup, monkey metal springs. Done loads. We charge about £180 for this job.
Not fair to say that this is a standard charge though, different vehciles have different set up so costs vary depending on the amount of work involved.
People are blaming speed bumps for broken springs, but metal quality and finishing of the springs has declined, this is why most are braking. On some cars strut top mount siezes and spring gets twisted which encourages them to break.
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