New Coil spring / Windscreen Crack ?

[Mart7379]

Hi guys
a few days ago the mrs went out in her DS4, within 5 mins she rang...... 'I've just heard something sound like it snapped'

Closer inspection, the coil spring was what she heard snapping. so I went out and bought a new spring and a set of compression clamps. I then set about replacing the spring. pretty easy job for a novice I thought. Thank god for compression clamps. When pulling the wiper mechanism arm off to access the both. I caught the bottom edge of the windscreen, however I wouldn't say it was a heavy knock (however the weather was cold/wet)

Anyway, swapped the spring over, put everything back together, took the car for a little test drive, and heard knocking when going over speed humps. So pulled the strut out, tightened the top mount. Put it all back together and hey presto, sorted. NO knocking at all.

The Mrs went out to go and get her passport sorted. When she got back there was a crack in her windscreen on the corner of the new spring. Now, apart from the tap from the wiper arm. Have I done anything wrong. She is terrible for hitting speed humps like they aren't there. dare I suggest that was the cause of the crack in connection with the new spring still being stiff.

Here’s how I replaced the spring.
With the spring already broken the removal of the inner top mount was easy as the securing nut was already loose. So removed the top mount and old spring. Putting the new spring in its place. And compressing the spring. I then placed the spring on the strut with the end up against the tab on the strut. Then placed top mount on again making sure the end of the spring was up against the tab and tightened it down. Then put the strut with new spring back on the car. Feeling quite proud as it was my 1st time. Albeit relatively easy.

As I said previously I did catch the bottom corner of the windscreen when pulling the wiper mechanism arm off but it was nothing substantial. Or does even the slightest tap from that component act like a glass hammer?

[mickthemaverick]

ONLY an OPINION!! I would suggest that you may have chipped the edge of the screen with the wiper arm which resulted in the crack growing from the chip when vibrated by road bumps etc from the new spring. I always recommend replacing all suspension parts in pairs at least to maintain balance across the axle.

[Mart7379]

I’ve been out and lifted the bonet, and checked where the wiper mechanism is in comparison to where the crack starts………. directly below, so, yeh whilst it wasn’t a substantial knock it was enough!

We live n learn, new windscreen going on Tuesday. At least we’ve only had to pay the excess