A VERY lucky escape!!!

rabenson · Post by **rabenson** » 02 Mar 2008, 17:47

Backed off my drive this morning and when I started to move forward there was a horrible grating sound. Got out to see if anything had dropped off the underside and was catching but couldn't see anything. Gently pulled in to the side of the road. By this time I was convinced that either the offside front wheel bearing had disintegrated or its drive shaft had committed suicide. I really couldn't believe what I saw when I went to investigate.

The offside front strut spring had failed and dug into the front tyre!!!

I've not heard of this happening before and if it had happened last night as I was driving home at speed in traffic I really wouldn't have rated my chances....

If you look at the first photo:

Pic of the spring

You can see that it has failed just at the point where the lower cup drops down.

In the 10 yards or so that I slowly drove it, here is what it did to my lovely new Toyo Proxes T1-R....

Pic of the tyre

I really feel quite lucky to be alive....

Has anyone heard of this happening before??

Ron

nick · Post by **nick** » 02 Mar 2008, 18:04

Xsaras seem to break their springs quite often, fortunately failures like this tend to be at low speeds when the stresses on the suspension are at their greatest.
I had one fail at the very top, but without doing any damage. If its any consolation I was talking to the MOT tester about mine breaking and he said that in the past month or so every single Vauxhall he had tested had at least one spring broken, so Citroens don't seem so bad in comparison !

Post by **CitroJim** » 02 Mar 2008, 18:09

Yes indeed, a very lucky escape Ron.

I've seen precisely this happen on a 406, exactly how yours went and strangely, it happened all by itself after being parked for a weekend

The owner was most perturbed when he went to go home and found his car lying at a strange angle. Even the breakdown wagon had a job, the car being parked in a very tight spot.

It looks as if the spring tapers down to the spring-pan on the strut so if the spring snaps, down comes the wing onto the tyre. Many cars with tin sprigs have equal diameter springs all the way up so if a coil does break it is not catastrophic as it was on yours.

Springs are very well priced and not a hard job to fit, you do need a good spring compressor though.

Shame about the tyre. It looked brand new

citronut · Post by **citronut** » 02 Mar 2008, 18:28

i have seen a devise on a couple of xsaras which im told is mod from citroen,
this devise is a sort of spring catcher, which is two half rings made of strips of steel with brackets welded to them, these are clampt to the strut around the lower part of the spring, so if the spring goes it stops it going through the tyre
regards malcolm

rabenson · Post by **rabenson** » 02 Mar 2008, 18:49

citronut wrote:i have seen a devise on a couple of xsaras which im told is mod from citroen,
this devise is a sort of spring catcher, which is two half rings made of strips of steel with brackets welded to them, these are clampt to the strut around the lower part of the spring, so if the spring goes it stops it going through the tyre
regards malcolm

Interesting, I've just had a look on the AA website and it seems that there as a recall on Xsara Picassos, Berlingos and blingo multispace which sounds suspiciously like the mod that Citronut described:

http://www.theaa.com/allaboutcars/recal ... &makeId=A7

But I can't see any equivalent for the Xsara - which is odd as I thought that the Picasso and xsara had a very similar suspension layout...

I will research further...

Mandrake · Post by **Mandrake** » 02 Mar 2008, 19:03

Goodness me, look at the rust on that spring - no wonder it failed...

What on earth do you guys do to your roads with the salt ? A spring rusting right through like that on a car less than 5 years old is just unbelievable and unheard of down here - in fact I've never heard of a suspension spring failing due to rust here at all....(well maybe on a car 25 years or more old)

Are your local bodies who salt the roads in league with car manufacturers to ensure high turnover of spare car parts ?

(seriously, lol)

Regards,
Simon

Post by **CitroJim** » 02 Mar 2008, 19:10

Simon, believe me, that spring and spring pan is immaculate by our standards, just like brand new

You would not believe how cars rust in the UK and boy, do our councils love their salt. You'd be horrified if you looked under any of my cars

A couple of weeks ago I was going along a motorway and got behind the salting wagon ("Gritter") bombing along in the middle lane at 60MPH

The salt was coming out like a blizzard and actually reduced visibility considerably.

A salted road in the UK stays wet for days, long after any unsalted bit has long-since dried

Shows how good the PSA rustproofing process is though. Even here a badly rusty Citroen or Peugeot is very rare.

demag · Post by **demag** » 02 Mar 2008, 19:21

Now if you had a REAL Citroen you wouldn't have a spring to break

Post by **Peter.N.** » 02 Mar 2008, 20:46

Especially an XM!

I was look in on 'Honest Johns' forum the other night and apparantly broken coil springs are quite common now - it was leaf springs in my day

rabenson · Post by **rabenson** » 02 Mar 2008, 20:52

Mandrake wrote:Goodness me, look at the rust on that spring - no wonder it failed...

There's really very little rust on the spring, the rust in the pic is on the lower cup. The spring has fatigued by the looks of it with a crystalline type fracture surface (ie just bl**dy snapped!!).

Point taken about the benefits of wet suspension - I suppose that the occasional strut top through the bonnet is definitely less hazardous than a coil spring in the tyre!!

Ron

nick · Post by **nick** » 02 Mar 2008, 21:06

rabenson wrote:

Point taken about the benefits of wet suspension - I suppose that the occasional strut top through the bonnet is definitely less hazardous than a coil spring in the tyre!!

Ron

...or the bottom balljoint I had fall apart on a BX at 20 MPH! Admittedly that was a rare one, I think the previous owner driving it for ages with totally flat spheres had taken its toll.

demag · Post by **demag** » 02 Mar 2008, 21:52

I suppose that the occasional strut top through the bonnet is definitely less hazardous than a coil spring in the tyre!!

Ha!! You found us out!

wheeler · Post by **wheeler** » 02 Mar 2008, 21:54

rabenson wrote:
Interesting, I've just had a look on the AA website and it seems that there as a recall on Xsara Picassos, Berlingos and blingo multispace which sounds suspiciously like the mod that Citronut described:

But I can't see any equivalent for the Xsara - which is odd as I thought that the Picasso and xsara had a very similar suspension layout...

I will research further...

The C3 was also recalled for this, Make sure you check the flexy brake pipe & ABS sensor for damage also.

citronut · Post by **citronut** » 03 Mar 2008, 08:11

demag wrote:Now if you had a REAL Citroen you wouldn't have a spring to break

tht true as the only spring that would break might be the one after winter
regards malcolm

KP · Post by KP » 03 Mar 2008, 10:44

Also C2's have been recalled for it and have the modified suspension cups now.