I'm glad at least someone had some joy last night (well done Liverpool). Whilst driving to my mum's, I could hear an ever louder rattling coming from the front suspension. Slightly disconcerted, and considering that Parkside Skoda had been messing with the suspension only a few weeks ago, I decided that something was loose or hadn't been tightened up properly.

I pulled into a car park to see what was happening when I felt a hard juddering through the wheel. This was accompanied by the horrible sound of a spring under torsion.

While I waited for the AA to arrive, I kept looking at the car. It looked perfectly normal, but something was nagging. The drivers side looked slighly lower. The AA confirmed my suspicions on arrival. Half-a-turn of the top of the drivers side coil-spring had snapped off completely. It was rattling around. Certainly not the fault of Parkside (although one wonders if they ought to have spotted a dodgy spring when they were doing the anti-roll bars).

So my car now languishes at a dealer, waiting for me to find out how long it's going to be incapacitated. Meanwhile, I languish in the depths of suburban hell - a Renault Scenic - which is actually a very nice car (for a French people carrier).

You may now weep openly and offer your sympathy

you have it.

Lovely driving position in the scenic i found (drove one with a colleague the other week)

Bit like a bus........

How the hell does a coil spring snap? They're not supposed to, why the hell did it snap???

Rob, I have a full oem octy vrs suspension sitting in the shed although I guess the postage for a coil spring will cost quiet a bit.

I used to own the first of the Passat range many years ago and that suffered from a similar problem with rear springs. A faulty batch I guess.

Very unfortunate, but i doubt the garage could have really predicted that one coming by just looking at your springs, probably a flaw within the material, what i would do is throw the spring back at the manufacturer (If its fairly new) and depending on the break type (Helical or straight shear for instance) you can probably determine who's fault it was and where the fracture began.

And get a new spring to boot

Springs quite often snap. My white MGB failed its first MOT for various things among which was a broken spring - I'd never noticed (watch iiiiiiittt!!).

The spring itself won't cost much but there's a couple of hours involved in fitting a new one (and a big hammer).

Bit like a bus........

EXACTLY! Now I know what drivers of people carriers get such a reputation. The way it handles just makes you cut corners' date=' run wide and generally drive in a lazy manner.

Here's some photos of the piece of spring that snapped off:

[img']http://www.webappuk.com/download/SPRING.jpg[/img]

The spring itself won't cost much but there's a couple of hours involved in fitting a new one (and a big hammer).

Well, IMO it should all be done under warranty. I'm going to be cheeky and ask them to do the passenger side as well.

They should really insist on doing both sides - springs should be replaced in pairs for obvious reasons.

They should really insist on doing both sides - springs should be replaced in pairs for obvious reasons.

Interesting. Do you have anything I can use to back this up? The dealer is insisting they only need to replace the affected spring.

I guess it doesn't matter so much on a fairly new car. Springs sag over time, and on an older car, if you replace only one, you end up with a lopsided car. Simple as that.

I guess it doesn't matter so much on a fairly new car. Springs sag over time, and on an older car, if you replace only one, you end up with a lopsided car. Simple as that.

I'll be checking it with flippin' Vernier calipers if I have to, and I won't accept the car if it's not 100% right

I'm feeling very down about my car right now. I love it so much, but it's causing me such pain.