I think the number I quoted ( 00 800 34280000 ) is a 24 x 7 number. This is for general awareness.
As for you phoning tomorrow no problem. "Get In There" as they say.
Will be interesting to see how this develops ..... or not!
Technical Croma springs
- Thread starter kennethgordon
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Technical Croma springs
I think the number I quoted ( 00 800 34280000 ) is a 24 x 7 number. This is for general awareness.
As for you phoning tomorrow no problem. "Get In There" as they say.
Will be interesting to see how this develops ..... or not!
DoIDon'tI
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Almost certainly - it's most likely the car 'settled' on to one of the coils after the top one broke then 'fell off' it when the steering turned.
I can't see an obvious pattern / trend as you're not on 18" rims any more, and my car is both older and has done 40,000 miles more on the original front springs
Good old GM suspension - it's like waiting to win the lottery in reverse
Local service garage has done the front springs and MOT, but told me he left the rears because he could not locate springs, apart from Fiat at £100 each. Will pick it up soon, but look at doing rears and Bilstein shocks. This could mean rear tracking, which has been perfect on mine after being reset at a 15000 miles recall, long before I got it.
As expected Fiat customer care was totally useless, wanted me to transport the car 16 miles to a Fiat dealer for him to inspect the spring, a decent maker would have had a field service engineer do that anyway. I suggested that the spring would still be available after replacement, but that was off the script.
As expected Fiat customer care was totally useless, wanted me to transport the car 16 miles to a Fiat dealer for him to inspect the spring, a decent maker would have had a field service engineer do that anyway. I suggested that the spring would still be available after replacement, but that was off the script.
Hmmm, I dumped my springs the other day at local recycling center. If Fiat want them maybe I could get the whole scap metal skip shipped to them.
Did they test the shocks? Ours passed the pre-mot (failed on a cracked spring) but when the garage took them off they agreed with me that they were 100% dead giving 0 resistance. Suprised them that the mot didn't pickup on that.
Nickb500
Member
Hi as mentioned in another post, when my Croma was in for a cambelt replacement a few weeks ago they spotted a broken rear spring and recommended replacing both which I agreed to. At the time I didn't know that the other rear spring was just replaced before I bought the car last July when it was MOTd! Found this using the MOT history check on the DVLA site - I wish I had thought of that before.
The first car I had a spring failure on in 30+ years of motoring was my Stilo, but I did buy a Mondeo in the meantime - one of its selling points was '2 recent front springs - so you should be OK for a while'!
Numerous friends also complain about spring failures in all different types of car so maybe it is a combination of our atrocious road surfaces, speed bumps etc and a limited number of spring manufacturers out there who get all these repeat orders?
Unfortunately in my case the new springs didn't resolve the annoying rattle on the slightest bumps so I had to have new rear shockers as well which did stop the racket - it's been an expensive month.
The first car I had a spring failure on in 30+ years of motoring was my Stilo, but I did buy a Mondeo in the meantime - one of its selling points was '2 recent front springs - so you should be OK for a while'!
Numerous friends also complain about spring failures in all different types of car so maybe it is a combination of our atrocious road surfaces, speed bumps etc and a limited number of spring manufacturers out there who get all these repeat orders?
Unfortunately in my case the new springs didn't resolve the annoying rattle on the slightest bumps so I had to have new rear shockers as well which did stop the racket - it's been an expensive month.
Spring failure seems common across all makes. It seems to me that it could be due to design change. Springs were a sort of parallel sided cylinder shape, but now the top and bottom coils are smaller, which needs a different manufacturing technique.
So the strut has less height, enabling a lower bonnet line, but we get a high failure rate.
The worst is that some breakages cause a collapse and tyre damage, some are only discovered at MOT time, depending on the point of failure and the strut design.
Modification is needed to protect the tyre and stop the total collapse.
No reply from Fiat yet!!
So the strut has less height, enabling a lower bonnet line, but we get a high failure rate.
The worst is that some breakages cause a collapse and tyre damage, some are only discovered at MOT time, depending on the point of failure and the strut design.
Modification is needed to protect the tyre and stop the total collapse.
No reply from Fiat yet!!
Granvilleb
New member
I have just checked the springs on my Croma and found that 3 of the 4 had rust in the same place. On the last bottom bend and on the inside. This rust was on a place were the plastic coating had been damaged and had started to flake away. I can only think this happened during fitment at the factory. I have given them a good clean and painted the places with metal paint and keeping my fingers crossed. I would think that FIAT should be paying for the springs that have failed on my evidence.
Couldn't paint my new front springs so liberally coated them in moly grease.
I doubt Fiat will pay for anything 5 yrs on after mfg. Best we can hope for is some broken spring retaining clamps to be fitted or supplied free of charge. I would possibly even buy a pair however they don't exist unless they are exactly the same as the ones fitted to Stilos. My local dealer didn't have any in stock so I was unable to borrow on to see if they would fit a Croma strut.
I doubt Fiat will pay for anything 5 yrs on after mfg. Best we can hope for is some broken spring retaining clamps to be fitted or supplied free of charge. I would possibly even buy a pair however they don't exist unless they are exactly the same as the ones fitted to Stilos. My local dealer didn't have any in stock so I was unable to borrow on to see if they would fit a Croma strut.
N/S Front discovered broken today.
Call Fiat on Fiat on 00 800 34280000
Let make them work for our hard earned money. If you call then they will have 3 cases on their books in the last two weeks!
Had my new rear springs fitted today.
The old springs used tapered wire with the thinnest sections at the top and bottoms. Needless to say the lower thinner coils were corroded and no doubt would have failed fairly soon. The new Kilen springs are not tapered so should last longer.
As a guide for others my local independent garage charged £50 all in to fit the springs I supplied.
I did the fronts myself a couple of weeks ago.
Local garage confirmed that the rear springs are not that easy to fit and would not recommend anybody tackle this job unless they have help and good access. You can see from the £50 charge they did the job quickly, which is what I would expect from a competant garage, but I also respect their view on a DIY job as this is what I concluded when I started to tackle the rears after the i did the fronts.
My bottom line is if you are / think you are good at car mechanics AND you have a broken rear spring to replace and thus car off the road then get stuck in! If you are just replacing the rear springs before they fail then you may be better off letting a local garage do the job. Unless you have two hydraulic jacks AND two axle stands (3 hydraulic jacks is better) AND another person to help then I suggest you don't tackle this job. I was very surprised at the built up tensions in the miriad of the Croma's rear suspension joints.
The old springs used tapered wire with the thinnest sections at the top and bottoms. Needless to say the lower thinner coils were corroded and no doubt would have failed fairly soon. The new Kilen springs are not tapered so should last longer.
As a guide for others my local independent garage charged £50 all in to fit the springs I supplied.
I did the fronts myself a couple of weeks ago.
Local garage confirmed that the rear springs are not that easy to fit and would not recommend anybody tackle this job unless they have help and good access. You can see from the £50 charge they did the job quickly, which is what I would expect from a competant garage, but I also respect their view on a DIY job as this is what I concluded when I started to tackle the rears after the i did the fronts.
My bottom line is if you are / think you are good at car mechanics AND you have a broken rear spring to replace and thus car off the road then get stuck in! If you are just replacing the rear springs before they fail then you may be better off letting a local garage do the job. Unless you have two hydraulic jacks AND two axle stands (3 hydraulic jacks is better) AND another person to help then I suggest you don't tackle this job. I was very surprised at the built up tensions in the miriad of the Croma's rear suspension joints.
Nick and all, Today 8th March 2011 I had a telephone reply to my email, only took 2 weeks. A nice young lady called Jenny, who makes a suggestion which could possibly be tried in future. When calling Fiat customer services if you have a difficult problem you can ask to speak to an executive, must be worth a try.
They apparently have no thoughts on protecting the springs from slashing the tyre though.
This should be read with your cynical hat on.
They apparently have no thoughts on protecting the springs from slashing the tyre though.
This should be read with your cynical hat on.
I'm still waiting for an offical response to my case number. I'm happy to let it drag as it just helps me when I call an executive.
Anyway I'm off to have my car fully realigned tomorrow. New speings have been in for over a week now so everything should have settled in nicely.
I'm shooting for a
Front Toe In of 0.5mm +/- 0.5mm
Rear Toe of 1mm +/- 0.5mm
Rear Camber of -1 degree +/- 0.5 degrees
I doubt they will be able to get the rear camber less than -1.5 degrees which will be a shame. It is the rear camber that totally kills the rear tyres.
If they can get is less than -1 degree then I'm almost tempted to go 0 to -0.5 deg. max. As soon as the rear is loaded up the camber goes very negative to having extra latitude could be a bonus. Handling could be a little skittish when lightly loaded but I'm OK with that.
Anyway I'm off to have my car fully realigned tomorrow. New speings have been in for over a week now so everything should have settled in nicely.
I'm shooting for a
Front Toe In of 0.5mm +/- 0.5mm
Rear Toe of 1mm +/- 0.5mm
Rear Camber of -1 degree +/- 0.5 degrees
I doubt they will be able to get the rear camber less than -1.5 degrees which will be a shame. It is the rear camber that totally kills the rear tyres.
If they can get is less than -1 degree then I'm almost tempted to go 0 to -0.5 deg. max. As soon as the rear is loaded up the camber goes very negative to having extra latitude could be a bonus. Handling could be a little skittish when lightly loaded but I'm OK with that.
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Well I had the tracking done.
Fronts set and can confirm that spiliting hubs and reassembling them preloaded did completely throw the front tracking out.
Rears were NOT adjusted as changing the springs and fitting the new Kilen springs did not change the rear tracking. This means that the Kilen springs were identical in lenght/load force vlaues as the ones taken out. Only difference is that the Kilens are NOT tapered.
Final settings this time are:
Front Toe: +0.6mm
Front Camber: -1.10 deg
Rear Toes: +0.6mm
Rear Camber: -1.97 deg
Technician can't work out what Fiat may have done to the rear suspension as on Vectras and Signums he can set rear camber to under 1.5 degrees with no problems. Only variables are spring lenght, lower arm length, toe are length and to a lesser extent bannana arm length. Also natural rear end weight and axle loading.
Another Fiat/Croma mystery!
Fronts set and can confirm that spiliting hubs and reassembling them preloaded did completely throw the front tracking out.
Rears were NOT adjusted as changing the springs and fitting the new Kilen springs did not change the rear tracking. This means that the Kilen springs were identical in lenght/load force vlaues as the ones taken out. Only difference is that the Kilens are NOT tapered.
Final settings this time are:
Front Toe: +0.6mm
Front Camber: -1.10 deg
Rear Toes: +0.6mm
Rear Camber: -1.97 deg
Technician can't work out what Fiat may have done to the rear suspension as on Vectras and Signums he can set rear camber to under 1.5 degrees with no problems. Only variables are spring lenght, lower arm length, toe are length and to a lesser extent bannana arm length. Also natural rear end weight and axle loading.
Another Fiat/Croma mystery!
Just had a small oil leakage under the left front, turns out to be LH shocker. Would it be better to replace them when a front spring breaks?
Got to have the front springs off again. At least it isn't the steering rack.
Also the glowplug light was coming on again after starting for about 20 seconds, so the ECU has been reset, see if this is OK on next startup.
Got to have the front springs off again. At least it isn't the steering rack.
Also the glowplug light was coming on again after starting for about 20 seconds, so the ECU has been reset, see if this is OK on next startup.
If your front shock is leaking then IMHO it is better to have the shocks and springs replaced at the same time on both sides. I'm assuming here that you are still on original springs.
Nick, it's just come back from having front springs and MOT. What I meant was: should it be considered when replacing front springs to replace shockers, in the same way that you replace the water pump on the 1910 150 when you do the cam belt.
