Snapped fos coil spring on 2000 passat estate sport

[MONKEYBOYRAW]

Help! Last night I hit a pretty hefty pothole on the way home with my daughter and a very loud thud from fos wheel. No effect to steering but checking this morning the coil has snapped !

Now I have spoken to teh local garage and they reckon about 370 but i need to replace both front springs (?) and may be the ball joints as well. Sounds like a little bit of BS to me but as so close to Christmas this is quite a hit so really need some advice.

Cheers

[iwaters]

Suspension components need to be replaced in pairs across and axel, so that bit is true.

The ball joins will only need replacing if they are damaged. However, there is a caveat here. The ball joints of the top control arms are secured into the wheel bearing housing with a large pinch bolt. This can be a major pain the the butt to remove (just google 'Passat pinch bolt' for horror stories). When I did this on my Audi A6 I had to use a MAPP torch to get it off and this subsequently destroyed the rubber seals of the ball joints.

Perhaps the garage are refering to this.

Perhaps you can pursue action against the council (assuming it wasn't a private road) for all or some of the cost. Not sure how sucessfull that will be.

[snapdragon]

I claimed £1300 for new front suspension, hire care, taxi etc.. after a broken spring and won in the small claims court. This was after driving through a pothole at low speed (which seems worse)

My advice is to use moneyclaim online website, the fee is £30.

Keep all receipts and take lots and lots of pictures of the hole close and far, from driver's POV, and from above, and beside, and include photos of the general condition of the road, try and show rutting, crazing and previous repairs. Crazing shows up best when the road is drying out after being wet and the cracks are still wet and dark.

You need to show that the hole has developed over a period of time (ejected stones and aggregate around the hole) and that it wasn't unforeseeable such as a collapsed void under the surface.

Good luck.

[Crasher]

It is not BS, you are supposed to replace both springs and it may be that the top arm bolt is completely seized solid and unless the garage has the special Klann extractor tool (which costs about £500) they will have to heat up the bolt location which destroys both upper arm ball joints.

[beaucostil]

Had broken front coil spring replaced after front corner dropped right over tyre . Undriveable .my trusted techie charged me 3hours Part £50 .labour£60 & that included changing oil&filter which I supplied , I asked should we change both fronts & he said no . Not necessary , car looks & drives just as before.

[scotty33]

In an ideal world, both springs need to be changed together, if you are prepared to compromise...
Bear in mind that most folk don't even notice they are driving on a snapped spring, which is an uneven pairing of springs on a grand scale..

[beaucostil]

i was lucky in that i returned home with spring fine , overnight it must have pinged & the morning after i had,nt got 30feet from the drive when it was obvious something was wrong , ,got out & yep , ,badly wrong however i don,t feel like i compromised scotty , just took the advice of a professional ,
in january i had a coil pack go & he advised to switch all 4 , which i did
what makes it necessary to change both road springs together?

[snapdragon]

which i did
what makes it necessary to change both road springs together?

I guess they become softer and saggy after years. Most offical manuals say if they have covered more than xxx miles or yyy years, then replace the pair, and that's under warranty so the manufacturer thinks it's work spending the money.

[Crasher]

Also they rust which undermines the spring causing it to snap.

[miller sb]

Just suffered the same thing, broken coil spring on my Passat TDi sport, I've fitted a new spring but can't see how you can get the 11 deg angle on the upper spring seat. Surely if both ends of the spring are against the stops its right ?

Any advice ?