I own a 2004 reg. 1.4TDi Fusion diesel and on Sunday morning the FNS coil spring snapped as I was parking the car.
I was perhaps fortunate this did not occur at speed as the FNS wheel locked when the broken coil spring was forced against the tyre.
I wonder if anyone else has had this experience as I am told by Ford that they have done a mod to the suspension for this car although no recall has been made.
This seems to me to be a safety issue (at least potentially) and in forty years of owning numerous new and old cars I have never experienced a coil spring snapping on any vehicle.
Has anyone a similar experience particularly with the Fusion please?
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 27/02/2008 at 13:19
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Happening to all makes-seems most common on VW & MB at the moment-must be the German steel!
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very common to most makes, including merc, BMW rears, renault fronts ( lots & often snap & take a chunck out the tyre side wall ) vauxhall astra rears ,Vectra fronts, VW golfs Rears Etc Etc so whilst it may of been a suprise to you its very very common. Poor metal & lots of speed humps.
Doc
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In 40 years of driving, a spring has only broken once,
on a Focus.
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Well quizman sounds like your Focus has done well in 40 years! how many miles has that one done then?
I can assure you as an MOT tester broken springs are an every day find
Doc
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Thanks for the replies folks.
I must admit to being very surprised by the answers on here as I have owned 6 new cars and 6 used cars (some quite elderly) over the last 44 years of driving and never have I had such a problem nor indeed a shocker problem either. (My old cars include a Skoda Favorit which cost me £350 and gave two and a half years service with not a hint of a problem before I bought a newr 6 year old Felicia!)
From the comments on here either they are skimping on the quality of metal or reducing the gauge or something the coil spring currently in my possession doesn't look very substantial.
Doesn't look as if I'll get anything out of Ford then.
Looking at the marques that are failing it doesn't seem that buying "quality" like a VW or BMW guarantees anything. Maybe I should buy a cheap Suzuki like my wife's car not a hint of trouble in the last five years.
Anyway thanks for the info, folks and happy motoring!
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Broken coil springs very common ... in all my years I can only remember 2 broken springs that fouled the tyres ...
I used to do work for a dealer and he told me cars don't have to be moving to break springs ...
He sat in his premises with about 20 cars all alone and very quite ... and suddenly there is a loud "Pingggg" ... when he first heard it he did not know what it was ...
It was only a while later when it happened again that he realised it was coil springs breaking on the parked cars ...
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>>he told me cars don't have to be moving to break springs ...
Yes, once a crack exists, it can propagate under a fluctuating load, but it can also propagate albeit more slowly under a constant load.
I take it these were second hand cars which were pinging their springs in the showroom?
Typically, cracks originate either where the spring has been badly handled and nicked, or from the area inside the coils where the highest stresses are. This makes cracks almost impossible to see until it's too late.
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I own an 02 Mondeo TDCi last week driving down the lane from my house I glanced in the mirror to see a vast plume of smoke trailing behind, just as the terrifying thought o pink fluffy dice my engine?s gone went thru my mind the front tyre burst. I was actually quite relieved it was a broken suspension spring that had ripped the tyre wall and not the engine gone up in smoke. The break down recovery guy did say broken springs were common, although how many rip the tyre to shreds I don?t know this obviously could have been dangerous.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 28/02/2008 at 14:00
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Anybody that's changed a suspension spring will tell you they are under a LOT of load, even when the car is stationary. It occured to me whilst winding the spring up that if the compressor let go, the spring would likely take off and exit the garage via the roof....!! I (15st of me) stood on top of the spring and it went down maybe 1/4" - we had to compress it about 3" to get the strut back together!
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I am amazed at how common this clearly is given the experience of contributors to this forum.
I just wonder that as it has the potential to cause a serious accident whether springs are really built to a spec. that means a failure will only occur in extreme circumstances it doesn't seem so?
Presumably there are regulations that specify the quality and tensile strength of coil springs?
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>>Presumably there are regulations that specify the quality and tensile strength of coil springs?
No, each manufacturer will have their own design standards for springs. They'll be designed with different margins of safety tested to different test specs and loads, and subject to different levels of combined corrosion and stress testing.
Once the manufacturer has specified the material for the springs, there will be stiffness and strength limits placed on the material supplier - but, it's largely up to the manufacturers contract with the supplier to enforce these requirements.
Tensile strength has virtually nothing to do with these failures - they are effectively fatigue failures, which occur far below the tensile strength of the material.
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Having spent 36 years in the motor industry, I had never heard of a coil spring snapping until the OSF one went on my Volvo XC70 at 53k miles. To show you how gently the car had been driven, it was still on the original brake pads and discs and returned 50mpg. Not bad for an auto.
Coming back to the coil spring issue, a friend of mine who owns an ex-Rover dealership says he has heard of Rover 75 springs just going twang with the car parked. Worrying or what?
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We get through loads of these where I work- Clio rear ones, E46 BMW rears and Corsa C rears are the most common.
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In 30 years, I only ever had one spring go on the front of my 1972 Hillman Avenger. I have heard as someone else has said, that Foci are prone to broken springs though, and almost always rip the tyre when they do go.
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I had a diesel Escort Estate-not a ball of fire(not a TD) but reliable and economical and it suited me.I pulled up onto French campsite and someone came up to me and said"Oh.you've got one of those-not very good are they?".Took him for a drive in it and he said it was much better than he expected.I asked"Had he owned one then?" "Oh no,my next door neighbour told me they were no good"And,on being asked,the neighbour hadn't owned one either!!!.
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Merely pointing out that problems always seem to occur to a friend of a mate's aunt's brother-in law just like a lot of people on here don't have things go wrong with their car-it's always a neighbour,a mate at work and so on.Why can't people be honest?
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There was an attempt to define `when` suspension springs snapped (on Stilo`s) here
tinyurl.com/2r5p48
Regards
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I agree with JC2. Lots of damage done to cars reputation through hearsay rather than peronnel experience.
Interestingly enough the caravan club magazine has an article on Mondeo TDCi owners feed back on usage & reliability of 22 owners ( so small number ) but you also have to remember these car's are working hard towing
Build quality 82%
Reliability 93% with one fault reported every 49000miles so survey was carried out over good milages. No common faults reported but dealer service was the curaters Egg.
I won't bore you with all the other factors but all in the 90% mark rating so overall a very good car. So why do we get a few with such major afflictions?
IJ
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Mine (1.25 fiesta) passed its MOT with a snapped spring!
It happens because Ford don't finish the spring ends off properly. They just cut the wire end off at right angles leaving a square bit that projects downwards and hits the fiirst coil as it compresses. Chips the paint off the spring, starts a crack and lets the salt work away at the wound. The rest is caused by gravity.
Japanese cars (apparently) have their springs finished properly.
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"Japanese cars (apparently) have their springs finished properly." sorry po1onium but it don't stop nissan springs breaking! replaced plenty of those too & there expensive just to add to the pain. Its nothing to do with the way ford finish their springs, they break on most makes
IJ
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During my 45yrs as a mechanic I've come across thousands of broken road springs - coil and leaf.
Never seen a broken torsion bar though. Why is this ?
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That tallys with my experience too (although the number of torsion bar sprung vehiles I've looked after has been smaller than other types)
A coil spring is just a torsion bar that has been coiled round - they work on fundamentally the same principle.
3 possible reasons spring (sorry!) to mind
1) The end detail on a torsion bar is usually larger diameter than the bar itself - the bar gets fat at the end, and then some splines are machined in. The coil spring is usually compromised in its end detail - only expensive processes, like flattening, grinding, or tapering can reduce these effects.
2) By not being bent round like a coil spring, a torsion bar is more evenly stressed. There's an extra stress factor, called the Wahl factor which is applicable to coil springs which isn't applicable to torsion bars. It's this effect which makes the stress higher on the inside of the coils.
3) There's usually no components which can act a mud traps, and corrosion is less of an issue. Corrosion within a crack makes the crack grow much faster, and makes the initiation of cracks much more likely.
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What also must contribute to the stress is the angle (of operation) of the spring, especially in vauxhall rear springs as a good example. In such cases the spring does not compress equally from top to bottom when in use but is pinched at an angle.
probably a much better term available to describe the effect, but anyone who has seen the rear spring setup on most vauxhalls will understand!
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A coil spring is just a torsion bar that has been coiled round - they work on fundamentally the same principle.
During 40yrs driving old cars the only similar thing that's happened to me was the front anti-roll bar on a 13yr old Audi 100. On inspection of fractured cross-section, there was a semicircle of rust and a semicircle of clean fractured metal. Clearly a small crack had gradually corroded and extended.
Nowadays, part of my oil change service is to transfer a considerable portion of the old oil to the underneath metal bits, including the springs. And brake connections [latest failure is a leak at the banjo-bolt attachment on rear caliper of 10yr old A6 - which could have been avoided if kept greased]
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>>Mine (1.25 fiesta) passed its MOT with a snapped spring!<<
I wouldnt be too proud of this if it was mine. I would be asking the mot station why they had allowed it to pass? How thorough was the rest of the test too?
A broken spring could slip and turn whilst driving, allowing it to pierce the tyre, ruining the tyre immediatley and potentially far worse consequences.
The mot test is supposedly (I know its not actually!) a check of vehicle safety. It is a check of basic safety though and a broken coil spring is worthy of a fail!
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This seems to me to be a safety issue (at least potentially) and in forty years of owning numerous new and old cars I have never experienced a coil spring snapping on any vehicle.
The response of some of the "Professional" respondents to this thread amaizes me.
My 03 Fusion had an OS front coil snap last year- not sure at what point, but it was found on the last MOT. There was about 150mm missing off the top.
I've also had to replace both rear shocks at about 50K miles: The flimsey gatter/bump stop ass'ys had fallen apart resulting in ingress of dirt into the seals from the exposed shocker piston rod.
I've also had many old and new cars and done hundreds of thousands of miles and never had a coil go before.
Bad design or quality leads to premature component failure and shouldn't be brushed under the carpet by manufacturers and maintenance people.
I think you're quite right in your expectation that in this day and age, a primary safety critical component, such as a coil, should not be expected to fail under "normal" usage, for the life of the vehicle.
If I was using it to cross Africa, South America (or the like) then, yes you could accept it because you're pushing the boundary. Normal UK driving conditions are hardly extreme (Probably one of the best driving environments in the world?)
If this was the flap or aileron falling off the wing of a plane we'd soon have something done about it!!! The maintenance people wouldn't be saying - Oh yes it's very common and has always been like this with Boeings, Airbus, Concordes........
Unlike "Joe Public" with his little car, British Airways wouldn't just say "Phew! lucky that happened just after we'd landed - Yes just stick another one on, like you did last time. And drop the bill off as you're on your way to the ACME Plane Spares wholesaler again".
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Personal experience - Couple of years ago, wandering round the used stock at our local Ford franchise. Heard sudden single 'ping', and metallic clatter as something hit the ground. Looked in direction of noise to see late MkII Mondeo (ST24 0n an 'X' IIRC) still bouncing slightly. Couple of weeks later, read an article in 'Car mechanics' about cars pinging their springs while stationary. All made sense!
As a cyclist, I regularly see short sections of coil spring by the side of the road.
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>>we'd soon have something done about it!!!
I would imagine that the numbers of car sales would drop rapidly if you wanted aerospace levels of engineering and maintenance - the costs would be simply eye watering. In this respect, your comparison is entirely false.
I don't think anyone is actually brushing anyting under the carpet - where's the evidence for this?
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> If I was using it to cross Africa ....
Back in the 70s I crossed Africa - due north from Livingstone to Leeds. The springs on my old Toyota Crown remained intact, even after the corrugations of the Sahara.
I suspect the increased number of spring failures is directly related to the increased number of speed bumps and potholes on our roads, some of which seem to be deteriorating to African standards.
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Hi This is a known fault that ford are aware of and it also effects the ford fiesta. The cars in question were built in Cologne between the dates of 2003 and early 2007. My car is effected by it and i have been fighting with ford customer service and the dealership for 4 weeks over the repair. Like yours mine was stationary. Ford are trying to ignore this issue. Please see posts on ford forum. I have even got the email with the tbs on from the dealership to proof it.
SNIPQUOTE!
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 23/04/2008 at 01:33
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I have a 2004 Fusion 3 1.6 Petrol and today I was driving slow around a roundabout and 30 metres off the exit my front right coil spring broke and burst my front tyre at the same time. I found the part that brok off in the road and it looked like it was of faulty manufacture as 50% of the metal thickness was rust coloured and the other half was bright metal so a fracture was probably already in the spring from new. Good old Ford, still producing rubbish after all these years. The part of the spring that snapped was right at the top of the spring, it went with a loud bang, fortunately I was only driving at low speed at the time.
SQ
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 29/10/2008 at 18:39
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My wife bought a fusion 1.6 06 plate, which has only done 14 k , last week the front off side coil spring snapped whilst I was driving at about 30mph and badly damaged the tyre. Ford have replaced the spring but haven't accepted liabity for the damage to the tyre leaving my wife having to pay up to replace what was a perfect tyre prior to fords part failure. I lwould have left the car blocking their forecourt till it was fixed properly but unfortuneatley she is more reserved so I will have to battle to recover our costs the old fashioned way. Absolute farse, FORD are clueless, I was reluctant that she buy it in the first place and now there's no chance I would ever buy another FORD. They have no idea about customer service and yet no doubt soon they will want me as a tax payer to contribute to a goverment rescue package. If the spring had broken whilst I was travelling at 70 mph it would have led to a blow out with in seconds. It's only a matter of time before some one gets killed.
Edited by wishihadboughtaproton on 27/02/2009 at 16:59
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I understand your comments wishihad, but its not just Fords I promise you, as you will no doubt have gathered from reading this section!
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I am getting very long in the tooth now as I have been driving for over fifty years and never saw the sense in buying new or newish cars. I bought cheap cars about ten year old and maintained them my self until only worthy of the scrap yard. I all these years I have never had a car break a suspension spring. Most of the problems I had were minor faults. Now, as I am finding it difficult to maintain the cars, my wife insisted in getting a more reliable car and we chose a three year old Ford Fusion 1.4 DTCI with just over 20,000 miles on the clock. The previous owner had replaced the near side front spring about a thousand miles ago he said. Three weeks after owning the car off side front spring broke as my wife was reversing off the drive, and as some other people have found, the break ripped the tyre and these ?Space saver? tyres they insist on using now drive me mad. I also seem to be having more problems with this car than any of my ten year old bangers. If it was not for the ridiculous road tax increase on older cars I would revert back to my bangers although with the amount of money spent on this car so far, I think it may still be worth it. I hope the recession in car sales does not mean further quality reductions in the manufacture of new cars.
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my mothers car broken a rear spring the other week, its only got 15k on the clock and shes owned it from new. and being a granny its not trashed.
the spring damaged a tyre and scrapped the underseal off the wheel arch.
luckily she wasn't going to visit my sister and her children as that would have been a motorway trip.
tax...hmm we pay 185ish on my wifes 9 year old volvo (year 2000) so not taken on the emissions...just paid 210 for my impreza 2003 (which is taxed on the emissions)
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my mums ka is about 35ish per year. you can get a new spring fitted for the difference...
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paul..
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the lady next door to us had a spring go on her citreon on the driveway, put a hole through the tyre, shortly after they did a recall, fitting plates to prevent the broken springs going through the tyres, she did manage to get the tyre and spring paid for my the main dealer..
your lucky to have a space saver, lots of manufacturers are moving towards a can of foam and a compressor,,,,ie mini and honda etc....friend split a "run flat" tyre on a curb and had to call the break down services as they didn't want to drive the car with a large split in it...
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The condition of many road surfaces in this country is a disgrace, and things have got noticeably worse in the last ten years in my opinion. That's without the speed ramps and other so-called "calming measures" put in place by councils.
I'm not suggesting that corner cutting by manufacturers isn't playing a part in the apparent increase in spring failures, but given the workout that a car's suspension gets on the most mundane and routine of journeys nowadays, it's not surprising that the failure rate is increasing. Every day, my car's suspension has to deal with a range of potholes and speed ramps which send it through pretty much its entire suspension travel, and give the shocks a real workout. Every day, day in day out. This never used to be the case.
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There is just one simple answer as to why springs are snapping: whatever is happening on the road (speed bumps, hitting kerbs, potholes, whatever), the root cause is always the result of too much salt on the roads! Most vehicles have traps for the salt to do its worst, and only pressure washing will flush it out. Of course, we could all campaign for abolition of salt on the roads, and get back to real motoring...
SQ
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 10/04/2009 at 20:35
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i still blame mainly eastern european outsourcing
put it this way my local vauxhall dealer supplied some springs in a placky bag this week,even my factor at least sends these in a posh looking box
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Hi fellow forum members, i have just joined today. Sorry to go over old ground.
As with many other Ford Fiesta/Fusion owners who have replied to this thread i too today have suffered the misfortune off suffering this same Coil Suspension Spring problem. Today after opening my garage and unlocking my car on opening my car door i was greeted with an almighty extremely loud CRACKING noise. Low and behold it turns out the drivers side's front coil suspension spring has broke at the base. Typically my car is out off warranty as it has a registration date off june 2004. The car has only covered 17,500 miles and has been well looked after, and is still on its original brake pads and front tyres. So hasn't been driven hard honest :-). It also has been serviced at my local ford garage for the past 3 years, that i have owned it.
As with other owners on here, it makes me quite angry that Ford seem to have chosen not to inform us owners off this manufacturing defect on this part. My main dealer deemed it most important at my last service to change my windscreen washer jets, as they said they had had a technical update briefing stating that the washer jet could perish over time and water could seep in to the engine bay causing corrosions. Its a real pity that they didn't deem it very important, to mention the Coil Springs on the Suspension.!
I have yet to speak to my local ford dealer as it now the weekend, but what i was hoping to find out on here from someone if Ford have now held there hands up and now agree that it is indeed a faulty part, and therefore if they are now fixing it free off charge or are they still saying its down to wear and tear and therefore am i on my own.
I hope someone can help.
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I bought a certified used 2004 Volvo XC70 with 80K on June 20, 2009. On July 28 I went to move the car from the street to the driveway and heard the most terrifying crunching noise coming from the front right side of the car then a loud hiss. When I got out and looked I noticed that the coil spring was snapped and had embedded itself into the tire. The hiss was all the air escaping. I had driven the car out of the driveway that morning and there was no problem. The spring must have snapped while parked. When the tow truck arrived to load it on the flatbed, again there was that awful grinding, crunching sound as it moved up the ramp of the truck. It's going back to the dealer because of the 60 day warranty. I told the service guy I want both front struts replaced and he told me he will inspect to determine if it's necessary. I won't get back behind the wheel unless they are both changed. What would have happened if I had been travel down the highway at 70 mph? Am I to believe there can be no warning? The plate attaching them can simply let go? Can the manufacturer be liable? Thank goodness it happened while parked or I may not have been able to share this story. I'm waiting to hear from the dealer as to what they are going to do.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 29/07/2009 at 20:06
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