Good Afternoon All

I've recently purchased a 2010 Fiat Punto Evo with 55k miles on the clock for my daughter and so far we have had 3 months of untroubled motoring. Currently we are only using it at weekends as she is learning to drive.

This week, looking out of the window, it appeared that the front of the car had 'lowered' and the rear 'risen'. On getting in the car, it was making a strange noise from the front.

Based on my very limited knowledge of cars I'm assuming a suspension issue of sorts? There ends my brilliance!

What I'd love your help with are the following questions:
Is this a common issue?
Is it easy to fix?
Is it potentially expensive?
Does it require a visit to my local garage or is it a possible 'fix' for a breakdown call out service which we subscribe to? I'm guessing probably not!

Plus any other thoughts or advice would be most welcome!

Many thanks in advance
Spencer

First guess would be a broken spring. Not too difficult to look at it, but keep fingers out, there is still a lot of tension in there, and might not be settled. Don't drive it like this. A broken spring can escape and puncture a tyre, and can also jam the steering.

Top suspension mounts can sag over time, but will rarely drop suddenly. There are rubber mounts on the lower suspension arm too, but these failing will cause little drop.

Time to lie beside it with a good torch and peer at the springs.

Has it dropped both sides, or just one. Rare for both springs to break at once, but if both were weak, the cold night might have been a last straw. You could jack it up and remove a wheel at a time, better view, but beware of springs that may not now be properly captive.

If one spring is broken, replace the pair. They need to be matched, and of course both are same age, so even if only one broken, the other is likely to be weak.

First guess would be a broken spring. Not too difficult to look at it, but keep fingers out, there is still a lot of tension in there, and might not be settled. Don't drive it like this. A broken spring can escape and puncture a tyre, and can also jam the steering.

Top suspension mounts can sag over time, but will rarely drop suddenly. There are rubber mounts on the lower suspension arm too, but these failing will cause little drop.

Time to lie beside it with a good torch and peer at the springs.

Has it dropped both sides, or just one. Rare for both springs to break at once, but if both were weak, the cold night might have been a last straw. You could jack it up and remove a wheel at a time, better view, but beware of springs that may not now be properly captive.

If one spring is broken, replace the pair. They need to be matched, and of course both are same age, so even if only one broken, the other is likely to be weak.

For you to notice a 'tilt'

It should be something fairly obvious..

I had an MOT fail in the summer on my recently purchased grande.. it was @25mm .. 1" lower

So It wasnt obvious
First one I'd comeacross.. probably like that on my purchase

Thanks Bill, really appreciated

9761Spencet said:

Thanks Bill, really appreciated

Click to expand...

A quick look should reveal which corner of the car

This one only dropped the front corner around an inch

Tip :

Carefully put your hand turned sideways

Between the top of the tyre..and the cars bodywork

I got 4 fingers tall one side
Only 3 fingers gap the other

varesecrazy said:

A quick look should reveal which corner of the car

This one only dropped the front corner around an inch

Tip :

Carefully put your hand turned sideways

Between the top of the tyre..and the cars bodywork

I got 4 fingers tall one side
Only 3 fingers gap the other

Click to expand...

Did this, thank you.

The left side was a good inch or 2 lower than the right

9761Spencet said:

Did this, thank you.

The left side was a good inch or 2 lower than the right

Click to expand...

Front.. or rear?

Front left

9761Spencet said:

Front left

Click to expand...

The one that hits the most potholes. At least it collapsed while parked.

Ben Double post problem seems to have popped up again. Posts 2&3.