Broken Spring things to know

[ChrisM]

Just done this and struggled like a pig.
broke on a sleeping police man at 10mph, an almighty bang then a limping renault! anyway.
mine broke around 10/15cm from the top. car was drivable but slowly.
on removal I found the spring had destroyed the top bearing under the stut mounting. took me ages and a LOT of swearing to remove as spring and sprung past the top mount so was at full extension in the wheel arch and not much room to work with. these are my views on what I should have done.
1st before removing wheel, slacken off hub nut, ready to remove hub
why! well I didn't bother as I figured I will pop off wheel, undo the 3 top mount bolts then undo pinch bolt in hub, thus removing complete suspension leg -WRONG once the 3 bolts on the inner wing where lose spring shot downards to its full extension, now I don't have any room the wiggle out strut leg as the spring force is pushing down on it, which is pushing hub down taking away all my working space.
If I had done the above blue first, then after releasing the top bolts I would have removed caliper, hanger and finally disc, unwound hub nut fully pushed Drive shaft out of back hub would have been free to pop off - job done.
NO I struggled for an hour trying allsorts to force this blinking spring, in the end I clamped it in situ [spring clamps] used my jack to lift the stut up against the cars weight, hit the hub with hammer dowards until I could get enough room to pop of the hub - not really the correct way to do it , but no other option left, hub nut was way to tight to be undone with the hub loose, could not re-attache hub becasue of sprung spring!
ALSO it takes a massive amount of force to compress a CC spring small enough to get the top mounting on, I had to do it in work with a mitsubish Heavy duty compressor, and gritted teeth.
NOW back to the hub, had I removed the hub 1st then the refitting of this strut again would have been simple, as I found I could not get enough work space to engage the lower strut into the hub, again loads of brute force and a hammer and bit "o" wood finally got it engaged again not an ideal way to do it, was not easy but once this was done job was simple.
So simply if you break a spring, REMOVE YOUR HUB - SLACKEN 1ST THE HUB NUT it will make the job easier to do stripping and replacing, but on strip down beware that spring is still slighly compressed not much but enough to give you a fright if unaware, it is a long spring in a little area, personally I don't think your £10 spring compressors from Halfrauds would be man enough to pull it down enough to get the bearing and top mount on.
So there it is, I did it wrong at the start and was not able to put it right once those top mount botls where undone, next time hub is coming off to save on the hammering, bad language and the insational need to kick it hard! Hub nuts are hellish tight, so undo while car has its wheels on on the floor.

[JasonS]

Oh dear..

I was having my CC MOT tested when a Laguna came in with a broken spring.
The lads in the garage were all too familiar with them and joked that it was only a matter of time before one of mine would break also..

The owner of the Laguna had only noticed the busted spring as it was digging into the inside wall of the tyre and making a 'rubber smell'. Once they got it up on the lift, I had a look at the tyre - he was lucky it hadn't gouged enough out to rip the tyre to bits..

[Anthony]

That is a known and very dangerous fault with the Lagunas. A guy at work had the same thing happen to himself.

[ChrisM]

On a CC well yes I supose it is a matter of time really, when you consider the weight of the CC, also what suprised us quite a lot was how much compresion is on the spring, I had to change struts on my fiat and managed it quite easilly with a set of £10 spring compresors from Halfrauds, yet this CC of mine had to have its new spring so compressed for us to get the top mount and bearing on it it was bordering on ridiculas my £10 compressors would not have do the job, the lad that helped me had done a Meg Hatch 1.6cc petrol 2 weeks before and even he said I didn't have to compress that spring so much as my 1.9 diesel CC so it seems the CC springs are under a lot of tension under that wheel arch before they hit a hump, s owill be waiting now for the other side to go BANG! also another regular problem with them is a radial steering arm ball joint wear, mine has got a little on the passenger side, also I suspect related to the weight of the car.
Renault seem to have a tendancy not to think things through fully, I don't think the suspension on these cars is adequate for the weight as that glass roof is so heafty, take my wifes Meg 1 Coupe 1.4 thay have geared it down as they realise that it will not be running on motorways, if you need motorway driving you would not buy a 1.4 well not in 1999 anyway so its pick up is excellent top end not so good 80 mph and it is screaming at you, but again as a Coupe it looks a bit sporty but they used the same suspension as the 4 door? two totally differant car types and drivers, so it goes well but is so soft, very similar again to the CC rocks and rolls every where, try a smart change of direction on a bend especially with that lump of glass above your head and you will see what I mean, mine has also suffered from the moment I got it from gusty side winds, when I get these this car does not know if it is coming or going by the time it has settled the next gust has hit it and it all starts again, that glass roof acts like a pendulm and makes the car roll from side to side, so the drive to work through the winter down the North Wales coast is quite a handful of a drive, I supose a good indication now with hind sight is the wheel arch gap between the top of the wheel and the bottom of the arch, it is very large, compared to the EOS, Astra Twintop, all the Pugs, now I know why, it is to give it room to roll on the suspension with out rubbing on the tyres, all I can really say it is not the best of cars I have owned, not the worst either but it is making its way there slowly. At the moment there is some serious discussion into waving it goodbye, it has till next spring to change our minds, I have spent more money on this car in 6 months than on my wifes Meg1 in 7 years, I don't find that aceptable, the build quality is appauling - cheap to be brutal, so it has till spring to redeem itself!
Can it do it? - personally I don't think so!
Watch out for the next thrilling installment!

[wanda]

On a CC well yes I supose it is a matter of time really, when you consider the weight of the CC, also what suprised us quite a lot was how much compresion is on the spring, I had to change struts on my fiat and managed it quite easilly with a set of £10 spring compresors from Halfrauds, yet this CC of mine had to have its new spring so compressed for us to get the top mount and bearing on it it was bordering on ridiculas my £10 compressors would not have do the job, the lad that helped me had done a Meg Hatch 1.6cc petrol 2 weeks before and even he said I didn't have to compress that spring so much as my 1.9 diesel CC so it seems the CC springs are under a lot of tension under that wheel arch before they hit a hump, s owill be waiting now for the other side to go BANG! also another regular problem with them is a radial steering arm ball joint wear, mine has got a little on the passenger side, also I suspect related to the weight of the car.
Renault seem to have a tendancy not to think things through fully, I don't think the suspension on these cars is adequate for the weight as that glass roof is so heafty, take my wifes Meg 1 Coupe 1.4 thay have geared it down as they realise that it will not be running on motorways, if you need motorway driving you would not buy a 1.4 well not in 1999 anyway so its pick up is excellent top end not so good 80 mph and it is screaming at you, but again as a Coupe it looks a bit sporty but they used the same suspension as the 4 door? two totally differant car types and drivers, so it goes well but is so soft, very similar again to the CC rocks and rolls every where, try a smart change of direction on a bend especially with that lump of glass above your head and you will see what I mean, mine has also suffered from the moment I got it from gusty side winds, when I get these this car does not know if it is coming or going by the time it has settled the next gust has hit it and it all starts again, that glass roof acts like a pendulm and makes the car roll from side to side, so the drive to work through the winter down the North Wales coast is quite a handful of a drive, I supose a good indication now with hind sight is the wheel arch gap between the top of the wheel and the bottom of the arch, it is very large, compared to the EOS, Astra Twintop, all the Pugs, now I know why, it is to give it room to roll on the suspension with out rubbing on the tyres, all I can really say it is not the best of cars I have owned, not the worst either but it is making its way there slowly. At the moment there is some serious discussion into waving it goodbye, it has till next spring to change our minds, I have spent more money on this car in 6 months than on my wifes Meg1 in 7 years, I don't find that aceptable, the build quality is appauling - cheap to be brutal, so it has till spring to redeem itself!
Can it do it? - personally I don't think so!
Watch out for the next thrilling installment!

Thats really unlucky mate. How old is your car again?

If I was you I would also seriously think about the pros and cons of keeping it.

[ChrisM]

2004 and just turned 67k on the clock, well it is in next weekend for a lower suspension arm (not cars fault - roughly fitted ball joint in March, hammered home and split lower sealing ring = grease loss from split resulting worn joint) but it is also having track control arm and track rod end done, rear discs from Renault are on thier way as we speak and new front tyres fitted next saturday once this has been done I have finally caught up with it, at this point a line is to be drawn, and we start afresh, and see where it takes us, I have spoken to a few Renault owners who have complained about the 60/70k monsoon of work then it slows down again, so I am hoping this will now stop and the pros will start out weighing the cons.

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http://www.electricwindowsdirect.co.uk
New regs at a very good price for any make not just Renault.