As some of you know I bought Andy2407's yellow vRS a couple of months ago. He had put different brakes and suspension on the car but, to avoid paying higher insurance for a modified car, we took them off and he sold them. A local garage put the car back to standard at the beginning of February (using the original brakes and suspension from when Andy bought the car).

A few weeks ago I noticed an occasional knocking noise from the front left wheel area but then it went away so I didn't do anything about it. When it started making the noise again last week I booked the car into the garage. Today they have told me that the upper suspension coil (I think!) is broken and I need a new one which they will have to obtain from a main dealer. They weren't able to get one today so I am now driving a car which sounds like the wheel is about to fall off - scary! It's 10 times worse than when I took it in this morning so goodness knows what they've done to it!

This suspension has only done about 15k miles - would you expect it to break so soon/easily or is there a likelihood they could have damaged it when refitting it?

Thanks

Katie

i wouldn't go to the dealers for a new spring, there usually is a few sets on here for sale, i may even have a pair of low mileage springs in the loft

Do you reckon it'll be doing the car any harm driving it around clunking away like it is? This morning it was an occasional noise, now it is really loud and frequent so I really want to get it sorted tomorrow unless someone can assure me it won't be doing any harm. If so, I'll just turn the radio up really loud and ignore it until I can get a cheaper spring!

PM me with a price if you want to sell your spare ones Ric! How many miles would you expect to get out of the springs - is it odd for one to go so soon?

If it is a broken spring, ideally you shouldn't be driving the car

Pm Wardy kate , i think he has a complete suspension knocking about , can you use the mrdeux

Pm Wardy kate , i think he has a complete suspension knocking about , can you use the mrdeux

I'm not on the insurance - I was too chicken!

The garage quoted me £119 to fix it earlier today but that was when they thought they could get a replacement spring from their supplier. When it came, it was the wrong one and they are now saying they can only get one from a dealer so I'm guessing it's probably going to be a lot more than £119. I think I need them to at least put it back how it was so it doesn't sound like the wheel is going to fall off! Maybe then I can buy springs cheaper from someone on here. I could probably get on the MR2 insurance from Friday when Andy is back from his travels.

Can anyone suggest what kind of price I should be paying? The garage bloke suggested only replacing the spring on the broken side - is this a good idea?

Hey Katie - not heard of many (if any) suspension coil failures on the Fabia. Seems you've been unlucky; refitting should not have made any difference to the longevity of the spring. It's a metal spring we're talking about after all, at a low mileage. Unless perhaps the garage has not seated it properly? That would be hard to prove though, beyond doubt.

I do indeed have spare suspension. Four springs from my 1st Fabia which had done about 10k and also a full spring/damper set from the last Fabia which had done 60k when I upgraded them. Give me a shout if that's any good to you and we can make arrangements.

Steve

I've just taken the car back to the garage and made the guy there drive round the block to hear the clunking noise. He says he's going to have another look at it. The lad who dealt with it yesterday said he had put the spring back on upside down to try and stop it damaging the car - no idea if this is good practice or not! Anyway, they've ordered me a spring which will be in tomorrow. I'm still considering buying from someone on here instead though.

He also said that although I'd been a bit unlucky they've had a couple of Polos in where a spring has gone within 15k miles so it's not completely unheard of.

S'pose I'd better get on with my work now - have a good day everyone!

I've had springs break on a couple of cars, one of them being the last Fabia I had which was an SDI (currently have a VRs).

The problem is the design of the springs on modern cars. On older cars the springs tended to have the end coils compressed together and then the end ground flat (so that the ends of the spring are at right-angles to the length of the spring). On newer cars, the last coil is simply left 'open' and cut off. Before it is mounted on the car, the last coil is just sticking out.

Once it's mounted on the car, there is a cup at the bottom which has a cutout to take the end of the spring. This locates the spring in place and stops it turning. In my opinion this still has the possibility of side-loading the spring which can result in the bottom end coil breaking off, which is what happened to my SDI.

This is for the front springs. The rears still have the square ends I thinks but I haven't been udner the back of the car much.

As far as I know, the top coil is still flat and square (someone who has changed their VRs suspension will confirm this).

You say that the upper suspension coil has broken. I bet that the garage put the spring on upside down originally and that caused the spring to break.

It amazes me how useless some garages really are when it comes to common sense. You would expect a mechanic to be able to figure things out, but lots of time they simply rush things with little thought. I'd question them about which way up the spring was fitted. I'd bet you'd get some confused answers which usualy suggests they did a 'fit it as quick as possible' job.

Edited 25 March, 201016 yr by Shadowphax

I have got a set of standard vRS springs in the attic iirc Katie, you can have them if you want? I am only based over the way in Warrington.

I will check tomorrow night when I get home, to make sure I have not binned them when I cleared the garage out a while back.

That'd be ace, thank you! I can manage without my car tomorrow so we'll come across over the weekend if you've got them and then I can get the garage to fit them on Monday.

Shadowphax - thanks for your reply. I will definitely check with the garage that all the other springs are on the right way up.

Gotta love Briskoda!

That'd be ace, thank you! I can manage without my car tomorrow so we'll come across over the weekend if you've got them and then I can get the garage to fit them on Monday.

Shadowphax - thanks for your reply. I will definitely check with the garage that all the other springs are on the right way up.

Gotta love Briskoda!

If all else fails - Eurocarparts are showing stock of replacement std springs at £36 each

If all else fails - Eurocarparts are showing stock of replacement std springs at £36 each

Thank you!

I'd think that if you had done a poll of Fabia + Polo 9N + Ibiza 6L who were still using the factory fit suspension, then you'd find that a large percentage have suffered front spring failure - you were lucky, some like my wife's Polo 9N broke at half height and dropped the front of the car right down as the top and bottom halves intertwinned! My personal thoughts on this are that all the VAG cars using this platform end up having to use the Skoda "sh**ty" spring supplier!

Edited 27 March, 201016 yr by rum4mo

Just make sure they fit the correct spring, otherwise your car will be all lopsided. The vRS has different springs as standard from the 1.9TDi, which has longer springs. The vRS springs are shorter, if you fit the standard spring then that one corner of the car will be noticably higher than the other side.

Thanks guys. What a great resource Briskoda is!

My car is now up and running again - yay! Springs from Wardy (thanks!), fitted by the garage who charged me less than they said they were going to and also fixed my rear screen wash pipe for free!

Thanks everyone for help and advice.