Going to work in the early hours this morning at a steady 68 mph when there was a loud bang from under the car, I pulled up on the hard shoulder, looking round I found nothing wrong, carried on with my journey, half a mile later something made a banging noise under the middle of the car. I pulled over again and with my torch tried to find the problem. After work I took it to my Inde , getting it up on the ramp he found a broken drivers side spring and he reckons that the second noise was the broken bit coming adrift. This is the first time in all my years of driving that I have had this, is this a common thing on Octavias ? 

Dunno about Octavias in particular but in general it is. In saying that though, it's only happened once to me.

I've not heard of it while I've been on this forum. I think you've just been unlucky.

Plus I've only had this happen once to me many years ago on an old Vauxhall Astra (which was pretty well loaded at the time).

This happened to me around November/December last year. I was travelling on the M74 which is undergoing huge roadworks when I heard a bang from OSF. I initially thought it was debris from the roadworks. A few miles later I heard something rattling around one of the OS wheels. I initially thought it was the debris being 'kicked' out of the wheel. Pulled over and had a look around and underneath the car, couldn't see anything. The car handled fine.

Few weeks later whilst having the haldex oil replaced was informed the OSF coilspring had sheared.

Had 1 spring break on my Octavia in 4 years of ownership.

 

Previous car was Volvo V40 and that did 5 springs in 7 years. It was a known feature on the V40.

 

Mechanic did tell me it's down to cost saving, as manufacturers realised springs didn't fail, so decided to make them slightly thinner to save a few quid.

Edited 13 May, 201610 yr by Polar

I heard a very loud bang from the rear when going round a mini roundabout last autumn. My initial thought was that my plug-in tow hook had slid from one side of the boot to the other, but it was louder than that. Over the next few weeks I had a rattle underneath somewhere when on rough roads and potholes. Not very loud and only on when hitting holes.

At the MOT in early December, they found a broken spring. I had both springs replaced to maintain symmetry. The rattle ceased.

Interestingly, they were going to fail/adjust the car on high headlight aim before they found the broken spring.

I have never had a broken spring on any car before, including driving on rough roads abroad. Mentioning this to friends, some of them too have had broken springs and not just on VAG cars. Seems springs don't last like they used to.

Going to work in the early hours this morning at a steady 68 mph when there was a loud bang from under the car, I pulled up on the hard shoulder, looking round I found nothing wrong, carried on with my journey, half a mile later something made a banging noise under the middle of the car. I pulled over again and with my torch tried to find the problem. After work I took it to my Inde , getting it up on the ramp he found a broken drivers side spring and he reckons that the second noise was the broken bit coming adrift. This is the first time in all my years of driving that I have had this, is this a common thing on Octavias ? 

 

Unfortunately, quite common.  Plenty of examples on this forum

My old XType snapped a front spring.

Someone I work with has just had a new spring and tyre (shredded by spring) on her 1 series.

My ex's Merc A class snapped both front springs around the 50k mile mark

Broken coil spring is very common these days. Most likely due to poor roads and speed humps. My car has 37000 miles and looking at mot history had a new spring fitted last year. Winter months we fit more than summer due to the steel been brittle.

My old XType snapped a front spring.

Someone I work with has just had a new spring and tyre (shredded by spring) on her 1 series.

Very common on a lot of cars as the main part of the spring is bigger than the seat so the spring drops down the shocker leg and pop goes the tyre. Fiestas and corsa's suffer from that badly

Edited 14 May, 201610 yr by tonyuk74

I had the bottom Spring cup brake away from the strut on a mk 2 fiesta many many years ago, gave a nice lowered effect