Broken spring fails my MOT

[Gucci]

Everything else was spotless and without fault on my 04 ML350. But on the rear offside I have a broken spring. The testing station said an ML came in yesterday with a similar fault. He thought a Mercedes recall may have been called on this and said it was worth looking in to.

Back in 10 days - it needs sorting by then - how much for these if I end up forking out?

 

[BlackC55]

They are about £280 and they come with the shock absorber. The spring is not available as a seperate part.

Very common issue.

I can get them at a very good price!

 

[stats007]

Do you need to replace them in pairs being integrated?

 

[stevesey]

When I took mine in on Monday the tester queried one of the front springs (based on what he could feel of the lower end that was buried in the grove in the wishbone), but I wasn't convinced and we had a good look and cleaned out the groove - also I managed to find the top coil ends with the torch and count the turns, both the same.

As I left the MOT station another an Astra owner came in holding one and half coils of rear spring - apparently it's a common fault on Astras (and Corsas). Easy fix though as the compact nature of the rears mean thay can be changed just by unbolting the shock, lowering the rear arm and pulling the spring out without the aid of compressors.

Anyway booked the wife's Astra in for MOT next week, popped my head under it today to check the exhaust and noticed one and half coils of spring danging from one of the brake pipes. Wife had said we heard a bang the other day, like something flicking up off the road, but she hadn't seen anything.

Doesn't answer your question, but shows it's not just Mercs that suffer from broken springs.

 

[trapperjohn]

BM 3 Series go thru em for fun, likewise Rover 75s.

 

[Rory]

Going back a few years but my wife's 1998 Renault Clio was found to have broken both rear coil springs at 4 years old. This was in the days of 1 yr warranty. The dealer had 9 in stock so I reckoned it must have been a common issue.
Called Renault customer services and 15mins the dealer called back and said they would replace both FOC.

Apparently it's very common on European cars as, unlike Japanese origin cars, we don't flatten the ends of the springs. I also heard that springs often have a weak spot where they have wire wrapped around them to hang them while going through the production process - certain on the Clio they both broke in exactly the same place.

 

[mcsailing]

Broken front spring 55 plate A class

I have just taken my 55 plate Aclass in this morning to the dealer with a front spring broken The car has only done 20k I am surprised its gone with that mileage
Has anyone else had problems