Yes, this is yet another coil spring thread!
Here's the background: I was driving my '03 5-door Abarth recently when, after an hour of a rather unusual jangly sound that I couldn't quite identify, the last half a turn of the front right coil parted company with the car. I am very glad I got round to getting that recall done!
So, a new pair of standard springs were ordered and arrived t'other day, along with a new pair of anti-roll bar drop links as the old ones were getting a bit noisy over rougher terrain. I decided to fit all of these myself despite the warnings regarding doing the coil springs yourself; I've got a decent set of spring compressors and was fairly confident I could do a good job.
Getting the old ones off and new ones on wasn't overly difficult - yes, I was a little surprised at how much compression you need to put the springs under to get the top strut mount back on - but I made sure everything was lined up correctly and reinstalled them on the car.
Took it out for a short spin and was initially impressed at how the turn in was noticably sharper, but after about 5 mins there was a serious knocking noise when driving on a very light trailing throttle - just maintaining a consistent speed. Braking or accelerating seemed ok. I headed straight home and was surprised when the front started scraping on our far-too-bumpy gravel access road; previously it had never scraped on even the worst bumps. Pulling up in our drive and having a look at the front end I was shocked at how low the front end is now sitting - it looks like it's braking hard just sitting still! Looking up into the wheel arch I could see that the spring looks almost fully compressed under the car's weight, as there is very little space between the coils, and therefore just about no useful suspension travel. Sorry about the rubbish quality pics (and the embarrassingly filthy Abarth) but hopefully you can see what I mean.
The other thing I noticed when I reinstalled the struts is that the top cap in the engine bay doesn't clamp tightly down on the bodywork - there's a slight gap. The top nut that secures the top mount and spring protrudes through the hole in the bodywork slightly so that the cap tightens up against it. Is this normal? I wish I had checked how they were before I took the struts off.
Anyone else think I might have been sent springs for maybe a 1.2 Stilo instead? They weren't packaged in the original box but do have part number of sorts printed on them - once I've taken them back off I'll have a look at ePER and see if they match up. Funnily enough I did notice that one of the springs had marks on it that made me think it had seen a spring compressor before. I'm going to speak to the company I bought them from tomorrow.
Any other opinions or advice greatfully received!
Ben
Here's the background: I was driving my '03 5-door Abarth recently when, after an hour of a rather unusual jangly sound that I couldn't quite identify, the last half a turn of the front right coil parted company with the car. I am very glad I got round to getting that recall done!
So, a new pair of standard springs were ordered and arrived t'other day, along with a new pair of anti-roll bar drop links as the old ones were getting a bit noisy over rougher terrain. I decided to fit all of these myself despite the warnings regarding doing the coil springs yourself; I've got a decent set of spring compressors and was fairly confident I could do a good job.
Getting the old ones off and new ones on wasn't overly difficult - yes, I was a little surprised at how much compression you need to put the springs under to get the top strut mount back on - but I made sure everything was lined up correctly and reinstalled them on the car.
Took it out for a short spin and was initially impressed at how the turn in was noticably sharper, but after about 5 mins there was a serious knocking noise when driving on a very light trailing throttle - just maintaining a consistent speed. Braking or accelerating seemed ok. I headed straight home and was surprised when the front started scraping on our far-too-bumpy gravel access road; previously it had never scraped on even the worst bumps. Pulling up in our drive and having a look at the front end I was shocked at how low the front end is now sitting - it looks like it's braking hard just sitting still! Looking up into the wheel arch I could see that the spring looks almost fully compressed under the car's weight, as there is very little space between the coils, and therefore just about no useful suspension travel. Sorry about the rubbish quality pics (and the embarrassingly filthy Abarth) but hopefully you can see what I mean.
The other thing I noticed when I reinstalled the struts is that the top cap in the engine bay doesn't clamp tightly down on the bodywork - there's a slight gap. The top nut that secures the top mount and spring protrudes through the hole in the bodywork slightly so that the cap tightens up against it. Is this normal? I wish I had checked how they were before I took the struts off.
Anyone else think I might have been sent springs for maybe a 1.2 Stilo instead? They weren't packaged in the original box but do have part number of sorts printed on them - once I've taken them back off I'll have a look at ePER and see if they match up. Funnily enough I did notice that one of the springs had marks on it that made me think it had seen a spring compressor before. I'm going to speak to the company I bought them from tomorrow.
Any other opinions or advice greatfully received!
Ben
