Broken springs

[stwat]

Why is this now a common issue? Not only with MB's, many manufacturers seem to have suffered from this over the last ten years or so. But why?
I've owned many cars since I started driving in the early 90's and none have ever had broken springs. My 30 year old W126 is still on it's original springs. They probably could do with being replaced to be honest, but still, they ain't broken.
What why and how? It intrigues me

 

[Gazwould]

Cheap Chinese steel .

And an over abundance of pot holes and pollution causing speed bumps .

 

[KennyN]

Mine went on the front of the CLS , in the middle of the night whilst it was sitting on the driveway

You can see a tiny bit of corrosion had started to creep into the metal and i guess that was the point it got fatally weakened then just gave up the will to spring.



We (the family) have owned a CLS / Ignis / Clio / Scenic / 107 / 4 series / Juke / Saab 900 + 9-3 over the last ten years and the only cars to have had a broken spring were the Saab and the Merc.

Mainly poor quality metal i would imagine but the state of the roads certainly dont help.

Kenny

 

[grober]

This subject crops up on a regular basis. See post 4 in this thread W204 broken coil spring

ps the popularity of big wheels with narrow sidewall / low profile tyres favoured by most car designers nowadays where more suspension shock loadings have to be absorbed by the suspension rather than the tyre doesn't help either!

 

[E53AMG]

My 82 year old Mother's 2009 Fiesta recently blew a Spring, Mechanic asked her if she regularly drove over speed bumps, she replied "yes I do actually once a week on my journey to the hairdressers" he said take a different route...

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

[GeeJayW]

Had one of the rear springs break last year on our Mk6 Golf. First time I've had one go in the 40+ years I've been motoring.

 

[slade1]

My 1960 190 still has original springs and are covered with surface rust!!!
CLK has 2 new springs so far.

 

[Petrol Pete]

I remember when shock absorbers were changed at regular intervals but never coil springs, almost the other way around theses days it seems

 

[grober]

Which brings us courtesy of speed bumps and SL500AMG's 82 year old mum to the subject of suspension travel and the suspension phenomenon known as "bottoming out"! I'm going to get into trouble with the Aston Martin SUV fans on this one.

 

[Blackbird1]

And it's only going to get worse ie cheap metal ect. Thing is we all blame China for cheap shoddy stuff and to extent it's true, but they only make it to a customer's requirements so a spring company will say "we want x amount of these and this quality". The Chinese can probably make stuff a lot better but don't probably due to that.

 

[jpwilliams]

Two rear ones just gone on my W210 Estate.They had done 9 years and 140,000 miles.
Originals were replaced at 65,000 miles, 13 years ago by Olly in Horndean.

 

[Rory]

My 82 year old Mother's 2009 Fiesta recently blew a Spring, Mechanic asked her if she regularly drove over speed bumps, she replied "yes I do actually once a week on my journey to the hairdressers" he said take a different route...

Yet get in a Merc taxi abroad and they smash them over speed bumps as if they're not there. I asked one (who spoke good English) about breaking springs and he said it wasn't an issue.

I did read that a big reason for a failure now is they used to treat the springs with something that's now banned.

 

[markjay]

Mine went on the front of the CLS , in the middle of the night whilst it was sitting on the driveway

You can see a tiny bit of corrosion had started to creep into the metal and i guess that was the point it got fatally weakened then just gave up the will to spring.



We (the family) have owned a CLS / Ignis / Clio / Scenic / 107 / 4 series / Juke / Saab 900 + 9-3 over the last ten years and the only cars to have had a broken spring were the Saab and the Merc.

Mainly poor quality metal i would imagine but the state of the roads certainly dont help.

Kenny

The corrosion probably isn't what caused the spring to fail.

What probably happened was a small crack that occurred a while ago and eventually the spring gave way at that point.

The corrosion is likely cosmetic and the result of the earlier small fracture being exposed to the elements until the spring finally broke.

 

[m80]

If it's just poor metal quality I would have thought by now that one of our members with superior knowledge would have pointed us to a spring manufaturer of higher quality springs.

I could see a rear spring on the Vito wasn't sitting right, as I jacked up the rear for a better look it fell out.
The top and the bottom had broken and gone, hopefully not to the unsafe disadvantage of anyone following me.
What was left was approximately 60% and that would have fallen out on a bump sometime.

There must be a fair number of sharp edged broken springs on our roads at any time.

 

[D-18]

I had two front springs break on my W211 E280 CDI and prior to that, a front spring failed on my Vectra GSi. Does seem to be quite a common issue these days.

 

[markjay]

And it's only going to get worse ie cheap metal ect. Thing is we all blame China for cheap shoddy stuff and to extent it's true, but they only make it to a customer's requirements so a spring company will say "we want x amount of these and this quality". The Chinese can probably make stuff a lot better but don't probably due to that.

I agree, the difference between factories in the Far East and in the West, is that the former will make whatever you ask them to, including substandard, dangerous, or fake products, while you'll struggle to find a factory in the West that would do that.

But when it comes to making high-end stuff, there's no difference between a factory in China and anywhere else in the world.

It's all down to the specifications you provide the factory, and the checks you make to ensure compliance.

Car manufacturers that have parts made in China can not blame the Chinese if the quality is poor, but only themselves.

They either got what they ordered, or they didn't check what they were getting... either way it's the car manufacturer's responsibility.

In short, the Chinese have no issue in making high-quality products, if this is what you ordered.

 

[grober]

Interesting discusssion here about european OEM and aftermarket brand names.
SACHS, KILEN, LESJOFORS coil springs - same company? - UKPassats
and this discussion on spring manufacture from Kilen.[ who may be part of lesjofors]
Coil Springs Technical Advice - Part Info

 

[Colesy]

My W203 C230 had its MOT this week. Both rear and one front springs broken

 

[merc85]

Kilen, lesjofors are indeed the same manufacturer anc they are made in Sweden. A lot of people only change 1 spring at a time believe it or not. Ford, GM an Renault are common in our area Of Essex with the odd VAG we do sell a few Mb ones Too.

 

[bob6600]

I would go with @grober's response of bigger wheels and lower profile tyres over the years coupled with the number of pot holes in the roads these days. Although, my W210 had 16s with 'chunky' tyres, there wasn't much on a W210 tht didn't rust or break!