And low-profile tyres as well... Deep tyres give more cushioning over rough road surfaces and ruts and speed humps. The 'modern' craze for low-profile tyres is, in my opinion, crazy. Reducing the profile depth of tyres takes away part of the vehicles suspension, gives a rock-hard uncomfortable ride, often results in damaged wheel rims, sends shocks through the car to give the driver a bad back and cause premature failure of parts - and premature broken springs. Bring back 70-profile tyres, says I.

Broken road springs are an increasingly common problem across all makes. just ask any MoT tester!

Discussing the appalling state of local roads with my trusted indy he remarked that potholes, badly re-instated utility trenches and drivers who take humps too fast ensure he has a steady trade in replacing broken springs, a pile in his skip awaiting the scrap man's visit.

You will need to ensure any replacement of road springs is done in pairs, (i.e. both front springs, or both rear springs).

I'll dispute that's necessary. Look at any modern FWD car, the engine's over the RH side, as is the driver (most journeys are done solo), biasing weight to that side.

At one time Fiat Pandas had a spacer fitted as standard to the front RH spring on RHD models.

Thank all. I had both replaced anyway. The bottom of both seemed to be the same condition after removal (apart from the break) - the lacquer was worn off the bottom and some rust on the ends and bubbling of lacquer. The broken one had obviously been failing and partly cracked for some time as part of the break surface was corroded slighly (about 25% of the area) and the rest was clean. Maybe they should be zinc plated instead of lacquered., but I'm not sure rust was the culprit just under engineering.

Since when were springs lacquered anyway? - the ones on older cars seemer to be just a metal finish and thicker. At least the bodies dont rust as much as the wings on my old Mk 3 Cortina did many years ago. I was cleaning my mother in law's windows one day must be well over 30 years ago and one of her neighbours offered me a replacement fibre glass wing for it. She only had one though so the other just stayed rusty with taped over holes in it!