OK have a look at the pictures and you can form your own conclusions.
This is a rarity as all pictures on the forum so far have been of broken springs. This is the first chance to have a close look at a used spring BEFORE it breaks. For reference, my springs were 5 years old on a 2002 Stilo 1.6 with 56K miles
This is a new spring alongside an old one. Not much difference between the two. In fact the old spring is in extremely good general condition. The springs come with a 1mm thick polyplastic protective coating and this is almost completely intact on the old spring. No sign of general corrosion or damage at all, some scuffs on the plastic coating but nothing penetrating the outer case. You can also see there’s no sign of sag on the old spring either as it is the same unloaded length as the new one. So at this point the spring looks almost as good as new and I begin to wonder why I’m even changing it.
Then looking at the base of the spring it becomes obvious.
There is wear right through the outer casing at this point and heavy, pitted corrosion has already started into the spring. Now this outer plastic coating is tough stuff. Even scuff marks from spring compressors come nowhere near breaking through. The wear point shows the signs of continued grinding wear rather than a cut or badly applied plastic protective coating
So pinpointing where the damage is, I’ve drawn a line here from the end of the spring and we can say that the wear is between 180 and 270 degrees from the end of the spring and on the first coil from the base. From pictures of other owner’s broken springs that’s where their fracture takes place too.
So what is causing it to wear through the protective coating at that point?
To see that we have to check where this point is whilst the spring is in its normal laden state and the car is on the ground. No good jacking it up and taking a look with the wheel off. Here is a picture in the passenger wheel arch with car on the ground
The base end of the spring fits against a stop on the strut so the spring is fixed and not free to rotate at the bottom so the position of the end of the spring is fixed and therefore the wear point will also always be in the same relative place. That puts the wear point about here in this picture. As you can see, there’s nothing there to cause wear like the proximity of other components so it’s not a clearance problem and bear in mind all the wear is on the underside of the spring. The wear point is just where the spring is making the lightest contact with the lower spring cup
So what’s it all about?
Well here it is. The spring is like a helter skelter fairground ride for rain and dirt. Study the first picture and see where the dirt and mud collects. On the old spring all the dirt was on the underside of the spring coils all the way down the spring, getting progressively thicker nearer the bottom of the spring. So the base of the spring, where it meets the lower spring retainer, is a dumping ground for all road dirt and grit which simply runs down the underside of the spring. Now as you go over bumps the spring compresses onto the lower cup and crushes the grit and mud there with considerable force to the plastic spring coating at that point and it simply wears through. Once the outer plastic cover is gone then there’s nothing to stop corrosion taking place at a very fast rate to the spring. Nothing worse than mud and damp being applied to bare steel and spring steel corrodes even faster than mild steel
So, in my opinion, the thing that’s grinding the outer casing away is quite simply road dirt in the base cup. I would say there appears to be nothing wrong with the manufacture of the spring or its protective case, it’s not sagging even after 5 years and looks generally as good as new. The only damage is at that one point and it is damage rather than a fault at manufacture
PREVENTION IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN CURE
Here's a snapped spring
Once the outer plastic case has worn through then it’s a time bomb and covering the area up will only make it corrode faster. If you have a newer model or you can catch it in time before the outer casing breaks through then a simple remedy might be to get into that area between the spring and the lower cup and clear it right out of grit and mud, then attach some simple tie wraps or something similar around the spring near the base but on the wider spring section so that water and mud running down the spring simply drops outside of the lower cup and not into it. Simple eh? Your lives could be saved for the cost of a few tie wraps. Beware if you’re keen on pressure washing your suspension frequently in that area as that just accelerates the dumping of grit in the same place
For those of you who have had the spring catcher mod already fitted it could be difficult now to gain access to check the problem area and I’ve no idea whether part of the mod was to inspect specifically this area and advise or change springs where appropriate. Once the spring protective cover is gone then the fuse is lit in my opinion and there’s nothing you can do but change the spring and do your best to make sure it doesn’t happen again
This is a rarity as all pictures on the forum so far have been of broken springs. This is the first chance to have a close look at a used spring BEFORE it breaks. For reference, my springs were 5 years old on a 2002 Stilo 1.6 with 56K miles
This is a new spring alongside an old one. Not much difference between the two. In fact the old spring is in extremely good general condition. The springs come with a 1mm thick polyplastic protective coating and this is almost completely intact on the old spring. No sign of general corrosion or damage at all, some scuffs on the plastic coating but nothing penetrating the outer case. You can also see there’s no sign of sag on the old spring either as it is the same unloaded length as the new one. So at this point the spring looks almost as good as new and I begin to wonder why I’m even changing it.
Then looking at the base of the spring it becomes obvious.
There is wear right through the outer casing at this point and heavy, pitted corrosion has already started into the spring. Now this outer plastic coating is tough stuff. Even scuff marks from spring compressors come nowhere near breaking through. The wear point shows the signs of continued grinding wear rather than a cut or badly applied plastic protective coating
So pinpointing where the damage is, I’ve drawn a line here from the end of the spring and we can say that the wear is between 180 and 270 degrees from the end of the spring and on the first coil from the base. From pictures of other owner’s broken springs that’s where their fracture takes place too.
So what is causing it to wear through the protective coating at that point?
To see that we have to check where this point is whilst the spring is in its normal laden state and the car is on the ground. No good jacking it up and taking a look with the wheel off. Here is a picture in the passenger wheel arch with car on the ground
The base end of the spring fits against a stop on the strut so the spring is fixed and not free to rotate at the bottom so the position of the end of the spring is fixed and therefore the wear point will also always be in the same relative place. That puts the wear point about here in this picture. As you can see, there’s nothing there to cause wear like the proximity of other components so it’s not a clearance problem and bear in mind all the wear is on the underside of the spring. The wear point is just where the spring is making the lightest contact with the lower spring cup
So what’s it all about?
Well here it is. The spring is like a helter skelter fairground ride for rain and dirt. Study the first picture and see where the dirt and mud collects. On the old spring all the dirt was on the underside of the spring coils all the way down the spring, getting progressively thicker nearer the bottom of the spring. So the base of the spring, where it meets the lower spring retainer, is a dumping ground for all road dirt and grit which simply runs down the underside of the spring. Now as you go over bumps the spring compresses onto the lower cup and crushes the grit and mud there with considerable force to the plastic spring coating at that point and it simply wears through. Once the outer plastic cover is gone then there’s nothing to stop corrosion taking place at a very fast rate to the spring. Nothing worse than mud and damp being applied to bare steel and spring steel corrodes even faster than mild steel
So, in my opinion, the thing that’s grinding the outer casing away is quite simply road dirt in the base cup. I would say there appears to be nothing wrong with the manufacture of the spring or its protective case, it’s not sagging even after 5 years and looks generally as good as new. The only damage is at that one point and it is damage rather than a fault at manufacture
PREVENTION IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN CURE
Here's a snapped spring
Once the outer plastic case has worn through then it’s a time bomb and covering the area up will only make it corrode faster. If you have a newer model or you can catch it in time before the outer casing breaks through then a simple remedy might be to get into that area between the spring and the lower cup and clear it right out of grit and mud, then attach some simple tie wraps or something similar around the spring near the base but on the wider spring section so that water and mud running down the spring simply drops outside of the lower cup and not into it. Simple eh? Your lives could be saved for the cost of a few tie wraps. Beware if you’re keen on pressure washing your suspension frequently in that area as that just accelerates the dumping of grit in the same place
For those of you who have had the spring catcher mod already fitted it could be difficult now to gain access to check the problem area and I’ve no idea whether part of the mod was to inspect specifically this area and advise or change springs where appropriate. Once the spring protective cover is gone then the fuse is lit in my opinion and there’s nothing you can do but change the spring and do your best to make sure it doesn’t happen again
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