Inevitable front spring breaking

[ffrenchie]

We've had the car over a year now and this is the first problem. I drove it off the front yesterday and it was clunking and cracking on right turns so I drove it back home and checked it. Sure enough off side front spring in two pieces although it was driving alright. I took the strut off today and fetched a new spring, not bad £20.42 inc. vat. from the place my wife drives for on Saturday (staff discount) and I am taking it round to a friend's garage at 1400 when he gets back from dinner to have the new spring compressed onto the strut as it looks a monster of a job to get it down to length. It should be back together for tea time hopefully.

[steve valentine]

It's not actually that difficult a job if you have spring compressors. Only took me about an hour a side.

[Bigian]

We've had the car over a year now and this is the first problem. I drove it off the front yesterday and it was clunking and cracking on right turns so I drove it back home and checked it. Sure enough off side front spring in two pieces although it was driving alright. I took the strut off today and fetched a new spring, not bad £20.42 inc. vat. from the place my wife drives for on Saturday (staff discount) and I am taking it round to a friend's garage at 1400 when he gets back from dinner to have the new spring compressed onto the strut as it looks a monster of a job to get it down to length. It should be back together for tea time hopefully.

How many miles has your Lingo done Ffrenchie?

Cheers

Ian

[ffrenchie]

How many miles has your Lingo done Ffrenchie?

Cheers

Ian

92,000 so if it's an original spring it's not done bad. It's back on now, my friend round at the garage has a hydraulic spring compressor, we had to open it up two notches as the spring is so long. It has the spring catcher fitted as per the recall so it must have been in at some time. It was a pig to get the strut back down into the upright even with the weight of the car pushing it down but the club hammer helped.

[cancunia]

I may need to replace my driver's side shock / strut so rather than a totally new thread I thought I'd tag on to the end of this one. Am I right in thinking that I should be able to get the strut & spring out from the car without taking the brake & hub carrier etc off from underneath first? I think that's how I got the old spring & strut off the passenger side on my previous M59 but thought I'd ask first.
Thanks

[ffrenchie]

Undo the nut and bolt that clamps the strut into the hub, pull the flexy out of it's location and the drop link that connects it to the bottom arm (I cut mine off and replaced them for ease) . I beat the hub downwards with a lump hammer and a piece of 3x2 to remove then undo the 3 top nuts and drop the strut while holding it so it doesn't snag on anything. Knock a screwdriver or thin chisel into the slot in the hub to open it up and make sure the pip on the strut locates in it when you replace it

[GraemeT]

"Knock a screwdriver or thin chisel into the slot in the hub to open it up and make sure the pip on the strut locates in it when you replace it"

Double ditto on that bit - took a cold chisel and a big lump hammer on the Pug to open the gap up and, if you miss the pip then it all gets really, really stuck. Slather the sod in copper grease too as, no doubt, you'll be pulling it apart at some point.

[cancunia]

" pull the flexy out of it's location"

Thanks for the tips folks, I'll get a new strut over the next few days to see if it solves my banana spring problem.
Not quite sure what the "flexy" is though, the driveshaft coupling perhaps?

[geoff]

Probably the black rubber flexible brake hose which is clipped to the damper.

[cancunia]

Thanks. I'd intended to remove the bracket that holds the brake pipe & ABS cable so will tie them out of the way. I'm hoping that the 1.6HDi springs are not so strong as the 2.0 springs but somehow doubt it.