My front passenger side spring snapped and the front drivers side is tired and sitting low. So I need a pair of front springs.

My dilemma is that I don't really want to lower the car because I like decent ground clearance, but I don't want to put original weak OEM springs on the car and have them only last 60-ish thousand miles and give me a "wollow-y" ride.

I would ideally like a standard length spring, but a heavy duty/stiffer spring. I know this wouldn't give me a real race car ride through the bends and the car would still wallow some, but I could live with that.

I would appreciate any views, opinions and info you have on spring possibilities. If there are any decent priced shock absorbers out there that can improve the rolling in corners but leave the ride height as standard with better quality springs that's an option I'd really consider.

It's a 2003 1.9 JTD Multiwagon.

Thanks to everyone in advance.

If you want a change of spring type like you've suggested, you must change all four, otherwise the handling characteristics will be all over the place.

The other option is to keep the OEM type springs and fit uprated shock absorbers (KONI Sport Adjustables are excellent). And if you're prepared to brush on your springs a thin coat of Waxoyl each year, they will never rust and never need replacing.

Parts catalogue lists different springs for the Stilo Van. They are likely to be heavy duty but I don't recall anyone ever fitting them.

Yellow Peril said:

If you want a change of spring type like you've suggested, you must change all four, otherwise the handling characteristics will be all over the place.

The other option is to keep the OEM type springs and fit uprated shock absorbers (KONI Sport Adjustables are excellent). And if you're prepared to brush on your springs a thin coat of Waxoyl each year, they will never rust and never need replacing.

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Thanks Yellow, I actually quite liked to look and ride quality when the front end was low due to the springs being tired and the rear was standard (so quite high haha). It looked more aggressive pointing down and felt solid through the corners. Until the spring snapped of course lol.

Many thanks for the Waxoyl tip for when I've got my new springs.

Are the KONI sports dampers better or cheaper or both compared to the eibach dampers that most stilo owners seem to upgrade to? Have you upgraded to the KONI's then?

Davren said:

Parts catalogue lists different springs for the Stilo Van. They are likely to be heavy duty but I don't recall anyone ever fitting them.

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Thats very interesting Davren, I'm going to have to research into this.

Thanks for the idea, I forgot about the van and would have thought that parts like the springs wouldn't be compatible with the standard models. But as I said, I'll look into it.

Cheers.

ePER lists different front springs and shock absorbers for the 2 and 4 door vans, however the top and bottom spring mounting pads for all Stilo models are the same. This would suggest that any of the Stilo springs would physically fit. Problem would be deciding which ones to go for to achieve the ride height and spring tension you want/need.

I seem to remember reading in the workshop manual that some (probably the vans) springs have a different wire diameter, but I can't find the information now.

Davren said:

ePER lists different front springs and shock absorbers for the 2 and 4 door vans, however the top and bottom spring mounting pads for all Stilo models are the same. This would suggest that any of the Stilo springs would physically fit. Problem would be deciding which ones to go for to achieve the ride height and spring tension you want/need.

I seem to remember reading in the workshop manual that some (probapby the vans) springs have a different wire diameter, but I can't find the information now.

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Thanks very much Davren, I think I'll leave it till tomorrow for further investigation. But I am very intrigued by this possibility.

Stilo Nutter said:

Thanks Yellow, I actually quite liked to look and ride quality when the front end was low due to the springs being tired and the rear was standard (so quite high haha). It looked more aggressive pointing down and felt solid through the corners. Until the spring snapped of course lol.

Many thanks for the Waxoyl tip for when I've got my new springs.

Are the KONI sports dampers better or cheaper or both compared to the eibach dampers that most stilo owners seem to upgrade to? Have you upgraded to the KONI's then?

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The Eibach dampers are ideally meant to be paired with Eibach lowering springs. On prices, I'm not sure, but I suspect the KONIs will be more expensive than the Eibachs...you're paying for a quality item.

Yes, I did fit KONIs to my 1.6 (my Schumi is fitted with Bilstein dampers as standard). I recommend the KONIs highly - the handling is transformed, even with standard springs.

A word of caution about fitting van springs - these are likley to give you a higher ride height, which is fine if you want your Stilo to look even more like a 4 x 4 than it does already!

Again just what I am was looking for

Finally, after a lengthy-ish delivery and with only having a handful of decent days since receiving the new shocks (KYB Excel-G_ and springs (Kilen), the front end is now rebuilt (normal ride height).

New Drop-links, the new dampers and springs, the caliper pistons freed up and greased and the parts painted. I took it for a quick drive tonight and its feeling quite nice, the rear end is yet to be done and then the real tests on it's new handling will commence

Pictures have been taken, I'll put them up when the rear end is done, I will also report how it handles with the new dampers.

Kilen is a subsiduary of Lesjofers, a highly reputable Swedish Spring manufacturer. And just picture for yourself some of those Swedish roads lol.

Both prices are delivered

Front Pair of Kilen Springs - £60.96
Set of 4 KYB Excel-G Shocks - £164.42

The Shocks were from Buypartsby.

Alot of people say that after about 2 weeks the kilens break in a bit and actually lower the car a little so id like to know if this happens to yours. Also where did you get them from.

Well if thats true, i can live with "a little". i will keep everyone apprised with the results.

I got the springs from ebay, they seemed like a damn good price for the pair, and surely they can't be any worse than the OEM springs that snap at like 50,000 miles or onwards.

Here's the link ;-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110625536399

The stilo passed the mot yesterday with no problems maybe my springs not broken then. The previous owner replaced the front left suspension arm and I'm thinking they haven't put the spring back on properly. I can can see a 2 cm gap between each ring on the rhs but less than 1cm lhs but if I put my hand further up the spring there is a 2cm gap. I will take some pictures at the weekend so you see what I mean. At least it passed the mot so should be safe.

Regarding your differing sizes between the coils, I would have to say your springs are tired and may fail soon. Good news about passing your mot though.

On my stilo, the coil snapped the end of the coil at the top on the passenger side. On the other side nothing had snapped, but it was clear that side was tired as the coils looked too close together.

It was probably the harsh weather we had as soon as we got the car home from buying it, the -20 degree and below temperatures probably exploited a crack in my spring - moisture got in, then froze and expanded making things worse, then driving over all the bumpy/jaggedy ice covered roads finished it off.

Here are a few pics of the rebuild & new parts ;-

ramborobert said:

Alot of people say that after about 2 weeks the kilens break in a bit and actually lower the car a little so id like to know if this happens to yours. Also where did you get them from.

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Sorry I forgot about you asking this until I saw a recent post of yours, I hope the answer isn't too late (i.e. you haven't all ready bought a set of springs). If a lot of the threads on here are anything to go by, most stilo's and especially the 1.9 jtd's sit low at the front end.

My Kilen springs did settle a little bit but reading some of the threads where people have measured the height to their wheel-arches, mine sits at about the same height as others.

I do wish the MW's had more ground clearance at the front, I might have to look into some way of having a lift kit made up lol.

Ok, so its now 2 years since I fitted a pair of new Kilen front springs and the drivers side has just snapped.

Is Kilen not as good a make as I thought? Was I maybe just unlucky with a flawed spring and it was doomed to have a short life?

I'd like your thoughts and opinions please on what my next standard ride height replacement springs should be.

Are KYB springs good quality? Do Koni do springs, if so are they any good? or should I give Kilen/Lesjofors another try?

Thanks for your help, anyone and everyone lol.

Stilonutter I have just fitted a pair of lesjofors springs on the front after OS snapped, same struts as they are ok, it handles fine for an estate and does what I want it to. If I wanted better handling I would change the car but each to their own. Good luck

Stilonutter: I had fitted on my old stilo 1.2 kilen springs. I found they made the car sit slightly lower at the front but never experienced any handling problems . They had done 70kmiles from fitting by the time I sold the car. Do you have particularly bad roads or speed bumps in your area?