Hello all - I'm after a bit of general advice. Long story short, last year I replaced the front springs and shock absorbers on my 2010 Xsara Picasso with 140k miles on the clock. Although I bought the correct Napa springs and installed them correctly (double-checked by the mechanic at MOT time), the car sat very high at the front and the ride was very harsh. Sometime after I installed the front springs, the car developed a loud clonk on tight turns at very slow speed. Only one, sometimes two clonks - not the clicking sound typical of bad CV joints, and only when moving very slowly in a tight turn. I kept on assuming that it must have been the bearings on the top strut mounts - which I reused when changing the springs. Last week the car developed a loud rhythmical clonking towards the passenger side, which increased in frequency with the speed. I've taken a look and the inner gaiter (near the gearbox) for the passenger cv joint is completely split around one of the folds, and there is grease everywhere. To my surprise, I discovered exactly the same situation on the other side. I could do with some opinions on:
1. Is is possible that the high ride and extra harsh front springs have something to do with the inner / triax joints giving up?
2. At 140k miles (I've had the car from new), I am inclined to just replace both driveshafts with a pair of good Shaftec parts and be happy they lasted this long, instead of pulling them out, troubleshooting, replacing the inner gaiter and re-packing with grease, and praying they won't give up any time soon.
Any thoughts on the above please? As a side note, after 8k miles since installing the front springs, the ride has softened somewhat to bearable levels, but the car is still sitting higher than it should at the front.