General Broken (Front) Springs - READ NOTES BEFORE VOTING OR ELSE.....

[PNL]

I honestly thought no one would ever report rear spring failure.

Now funny his should come up [rear spring breakage ]cos when my car went into LC motors in Newport I asked them Quote- how many of these front springs have you had to change and he said never done any front ones only the back ones hope this isn't going to escalate into all round spring failure will they be doing another spring bodge for the rears also

 

[euan]

When my spring broke I was reversing out my driveway, and whilst turning I heard a clunk. I thought it was a bit strange so I pulled up and got out to have a look. On the road I found a think semi circle with a flat end, and a sharp fractured end. It never clicked that it was *MY* spring, as the car was pretty new. The piece of metal was pretty heavy, shiny black, and perfectly clean. Not a spot of rust anywhere. The fractured edge was shiny, and fresh looking. I stuck it in my garage and forgot about it. Turns out it was the first half circle of the bottom end of my passenger side front spring. It was found when i went for the annual service. I through the broken part out unfortunately.

There is absolutely no way what-so-ever that corrosion is involved.

 

[dan-the-man]

just out of interest euan was condition was your spring cup in? was that rusted?

 

[Stilo_ste]

Having looked at this again, I fail to see the point of this poll. Unless there is to be some analysis of the data entries, then all it shows is how many people own what car, engine, reg, and spring details - as separate data. There is no conclusions to be drawn and no relationship between categories, unless some analysis is done.

Eg MY2003 is more likely to have front left srping break at 40,000 miles etc. etc.

If peoples total entries are made available it would be very easy to do the analysis and get some conclusions from the data. Else, its just meaningless.

IMO.

 

[Argonought]

Having looked at this again, I fail to see the point of this poll....

True it could be a lot clearer but that's mainly due to members not reading the notes (mentioned before anyway). It's a public poll so to make sense of it you need to click on the votes which then shows who's voted. With a bit of effort you can then make sense of all the entries.

Anyone is welcome to do this if they want. I had a go back in post #48

 

[Stilo_ste]

There are some very good and interesting informations coming out.

My main question would be that IF the reason for coil failure is salt corrosion, why did Fiat not do enough validation testing to understand this as a failure mode? and then reduce the risk or occurance by taking actions?

I work as an Engineer for a Commercial vehicle engine manufacture, and corrosion resistance is a fundemental requirement in any component either on engine or chassis mounted.

It looks to me as if either the wool is well and truly being pulled (and is being painfully swallowed by customers etc) or Fiat development and validation activities are woefully inadequate / incompetant. Opinions on this would make a good poll !

And to just say that other makes suffer too, is simply not getting the point. Springs should not fail to this occurance rate on any vehicle.

 

[Argonought]

Tried to make a bit of sense of the latest polls

Sample = 96 votes

Failures for 2002 Models = 18 (18.8%)
Failures for 2003 Models = 9 (9.4%)

There are NO reported failures in 2004 models or later.

 

[Stilo_ste]

nearly 19% - OMFG, that is a HUGE proportion. No wonder Fiat don't want to pay for it as a re-call, or under warranty

 

[Argonought]

No, not 19% - it's 28% out of all members who have taken part who have had a front spring failure.

To be fair, since people mainly join car forums when they have a problem, the overall UK % is likely to be a fair bit lower.

 

[PNL]

No, not 19% - it's 28% out of all members who have taken part who have had a front spring failure.

To be fair, since people mainly join car forums when they have a problem, the overall UK % is likely to be a fair bit lower.

I'm sure I read some where that there's 44,000 reported spring failiers nation wide on the stilo an that's probably not including the owners that have gone to an independent garage and had theirs replaced with motor factors parts..so the actual figure is very probably a great deal higher tat this :chin:

 

[Argonought]

I'm sure I read some where that there's 44,000 reported spring failiers nation wide on the stilo an that's probably not including the owners that have gone to an independent garage and had theirs replaced with motor factors parts..so the actual figure is very probably a great deal higher tat this :chin:

Phil, That's the number of cars on the recall which basically translates to all Stilos that have been sold in the UK. This is odd in itself as our poll doesn't show any issues with more recent models.

Based purely on the poll that should translate to over 12,000 Stilos having suffered front failure (and increasing)

Just can't get my head around that figure for some reason

 

[750nig]

Having voted on this poll when my first spring broke at Christmas, I can't add the failure that the Fiat garage found on the other side (Off side) when I took the car in for the recall last week.

 

[Argonought]

Having voted on this poll when my first spring broke at Christmas, I can't add the failure that the Fiat garage found on the other side (Off side) when I took the car in for the recall last week.

How'd you get on - get a free spring this time?

 

[DaveBM]

Just to add my Stilo had one of its front springs fail yesterday, the dealer is going to replace both front springs free of charge.

 

[Argonought]

Just to add my Stilo had one of its front springs fail yesterday, the dealer is going to replace both front springs free of charge.

Nice to know there ARE good dealers out there

Why not add some details to the servicing sticky?

 

[750nig]

Yep, they replaced both my springs even tho' one was only a month old.
No charge. Top notch I say.

 

[Argonought]

OK, here's another breakdown of the most recent figures:

Total Failures Based on Model

Abarth 37%
JTD 23%
Multiwagon 13%
Stilo 1.8 7%
Stilo 1.6 17%
Stilo 1.4 none
Stilo 1.2 3%

There seem to be two general trends.

1. As yet only models up to and including 2003 are affected.
2. Heavier engined cars seem most at risk.

Breakages are across a whole range of spring types.