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Reason for Front Coil Spring Snapped ! Help ! - Bmw318ise
Hi all,

I need all of your advise.

My bmw E46 's front coil spring snapped, I would like to know the reason for that.

I have got a warranty on my car but the insurance company insisted that the snap was due to the cold weather.

I am no expert in car. But will it be the main reason for that to happen ?
or will it be happened anyway ?

Please advise me as many reason as possible.

I will start off by the cold weather condition or maybe corrosion.

Anymore ??

thank you.
Reason for Front Coil Spring Snapped ! Help ! - doctorchris
What tales these insurance companies spin to avoid a payout!
Coil springs do not snap due to the cold, they snap due to poor manufacture and corrosion.
There are many posts on this forum regarding failure of coil springs and I will leave you to search for more information.
Don't let the insurance company get away with this.
Reason for Front Coil Spring Snapped ! Help ! - L'escargot
Fatigue failure. tinyurl.com/dzsz6y
Reason for Front Coil Spring Snapped ! Help ! - Collos25
If that were the case then not many cars would run in Moscow.
Reason for Front Coil Spring Snapped ! Help ! - Brit_in_Germany
If that were the case then not many cars would run in Moscow.


Let alone Munich.
Reason for Front Coil Spring Snapped ! Help ! - TimOrridge
I would say maybe a faulty batch of springs at time of manafacturing. The springs on my Audi are approaching 16 years old so and they are rusted up.
Reason for Front Coil Spring Snapped ! Help ! - Number_Cruncher
L'escargot is, of course, quite right. Virtually all coil spring failures are fatigue failures.

The fatigue failure can be initiated more quickly by factors like corrosion, and as mentioned in the article, inclusions in the steel. By mechanically wedging the crack faces open, corrosion can rapidy speed the process of fatigue, but this doesn't make the failure a corrosion failure, it's still a fatigue failure hastened by corrosion.

Owing to the geometry and loading of the coil spring, the crack almost always begins on the inner surface of the coil, where even if the coil were perfectly clean, it would be difficult to see. So, very few coil springs are "caught" while the crack is propagating, and almost all are only found after the spring has finally fractured. The final fracture is a pure overload failure, because the working section of the spring has been so diminished by the propagation of the crack.

I applaud the creativity of the insurance company - to many people it might sound like a plausible explanation - but it's almost certainly untrue.

Reason for Front Coil Spring Snapped ! Help ! - OldSock
Well, there has been a 'cold snap' recently :-) Groan...

Embrittlement could occur on exposure to liquefied gas temperatures, I guess, but probably not in a typical UK winter.
Reason for Front Coil Spring Snapped ! Help ! - akr
I had the front offside spring go on my Saab 93 last week. It's just 4 years old and has done 52000 miles. I took it to the local garage asking them to have a look underneath (I thought initially it was the exhaust when I heard the intermittent clonking). Within seconds he comes out of his pit proclaiming "springs are us.com" and showed me the offending spring, cleanly snapped in two. This proclamation was due to the fact that he repairs so many of these.
Now round my suburb of Leeds it's a sea of speed bumps so he reckons that has to be a contributory factor to the number of spring failures he sees. Having said that the wife hit a massive pot hole in the car the week before and punctured the tyre on the front nearside. Whether this sudden jolt contributed to the spring going on the opposite side I have no idea.
All I know is that it's been an expensive week and that I now drive round this area avoiding the speed bumps, even if it does take longer. Speed bumps, however, are another post.
Reason for Front Coil Spring Snapped ! Help ! - yorkiebar
I had to read this twice because people were quoting the insurers refused to act on it!

But i now realise the warranty (insurers) was the comment, and agree its a warranty course of action!
BMW 3-Series E46 - Reason for Front Coil Spring S - Bmw318ise
Hi,

Thank you for all your help and support.

I have now sent a letter to the insurance company.
Basically, I pointed out that the coil spring will not snap because of the cold weather or the word 'freezing' under their term and condition is simply can't exist and not clear.
Hopefully they will pay out.

Also,told them they are design to operate on all temperature. If not, there will be no car running about in Moscow. # I like the idea very much thank you ! #

Thank you once again!

{moves to existing thread, as related}

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 11/02/2009 at 09:56

BMW 3-Series E46 - Reason for Front Coil Spring S - Altea Ego
be prepared for the next knock back they will try.

"dear sir, thank you for your claim. Suspension components are "wear and tear" items, and as clause 3 section 4 point 1.1.3.1.4.5.1.5.6. in very small print says. "wear and tear Items are explicitly excluded"

thank you for doing business with us.
BMW 3-Series E46 - Reason for Front Coil Spring S - Bmw318ise
True !

But in my letter, I pointed out that it can't be wear and tear cos you don't know when the coil spring are gonna to give up and it is not a service item.

Besides, it can't be the manufacturers' fault or design's fault !

It is simply the nature of the coil spring !!

Hope they will pay out.

Finger crossed !!
SQ

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 11/02/2009 at 16:47