172 - Broken Spring Trauma

[BrynO]

Took the Clio out to fill up with fuel, could hear a bit of a clank going over the 36 speed bumps between home and the petrol station. Stuck my hand under the front wheel arch & lifted out a large chunk of front spring from the strut seat! eeelk. about half of one coil has snapped off, looks like it may not just have happened as theres rust on the fracture point. Anyway, could do with some advice on how to remove the strut, on other motors I have had to do this there has always been some small bolts holding the top of the strut to the body, I cant see these on the Clio, so how is the top of the strut attached to the car?

Also, if anyone has a pair of standard front springs from a 172 they dont need, please drop me a PM, cheers.

 

[edde]

Any chances of some pictures of the broken spring this is the second incident of broken springs on 172 that I have heard of. Im thinking there may be a possible problem with them.

 

[night.icon]

it is the second one i have herd of hugh (Mcshrug) and helen (Tomboy) had a cracked sring on there mk1 172

 

[Fred@BTM]

easy to remove, wack a 21mm (maybe 22mm) socket over the nut on the top of the strut and twist (youll need a long bar type 1/2 drive for leverage)

 

[BrynO]

Yep, Ill post a pic as soon as I get it off (once I have one to put back on), seems like a pretty unusual thing to happen, its a chunky piece of metal to snap. FredD, am I taking the top nut off at this stage? I presume not as thats what is holding the top spring seat and compression of the spring.

 

[® Andy]

Doubt theres much compression left? When I had my Eibachs put on the other month, Gav at K-Tec didnt need to use spring compressors at all and my springs werent broken!!

Case of undoing the big nut at the bottom on the wheel hub; undoing the big nut at the top of the strut; then undoing the nut holding the top seat carefully (didnt fly off or anything nasty). Putting the Eibach Pros on (which are admittedly little bit shorter that the OE springs) only took a tiny bit of body weight on the top seat to compress the springs enough to get the nut back on. Dont know if the OE springs will need a compressor tho ... sorry!!

Saw exactly this fault on a Megane Coupe the other day. I was waiting to have something sorted on mine and was watching from the warmth of the MOT observation area. Slightly "worn" looking Megane was being tested when I saw the tester holding up what looked like half a coil of spring ... split and rusted in the middle. When the lad whos car it was came back, I said "mate hope thats not part of your spring", but it was ... that was the least of his worries tho (good £700 of work required)

 

[JAY172]

you need to remove the large top nut/bush to remove the shocker from the turret.there is another nut under this that holds the shocker togethor.undo the two 18m nuts and bolts to release the strut from the hub assembly.with the strut removed you need to clamp the spring with some spring clamps.once the spring is clamped you can undo the other top nut,remove the shocker top and remove the spring.refitting is a reverse of the above but you need to clamp the new spring as well so you can get the shocker top on etc.

 

[Roamer]

... just to add to what Jay has said, the 2 18mm nuts and bolts you remove to take the strut out of the hub assembly are splined, so youll have to undo each of the nuts a bit (Without trying to rotate the bolt) and then tap the bolts out a bit......its a bit fiddly but they come out, just need to give em a bit of a whack

 

[Fred@BTM]

and loosen the top nuts under the bonnet while the car is still on the ground, i find its much easier

 

[BrynO]

Thanks guys, makes sense now, I have some spring clamps in my toolkit - just need a replacement pair of springs now - anyone some to sell? (or should I just fit a set of lowered ones and not tell the wife?!?)

 

[Gwynny]

Ive got a set of cup springs if your interested!

 

[Black Fox]

This is quite common on clios, 19s, 5s and older 21s.