Coil Spring Corrosion

[Craig S]

Quick question. I have a 2017 Volvo V40, around 20 months ago, the offside front coil spring snapped, and was replaced under warranty as I had bought the car from a main dealer.

Yesterday, the nearside front coil spring snapped and skewered the tyre. The car has been recovered to the local main dealer (who replaced the offside spring) and I have just had a phonecall to say that they need to replace both the Nearside and Offside front coil springs as the nearside spring is broken but the offside spring is badly corroded.

I was advised by the dealer today that if one spring breaks, both springs should be replaced at the same time.

So a couple of obvious questions.....

1 - Should both springs have been replaced under warranty 20 months ago if that is standard practice?

2 - Am I being unreasonable to expect a coil spring to remain corrosion resistant for more than 20 months/16,000 miles?

Or is this "you need to replace the other spring" just blatant upselling?

[Clan]

Originally Posted by Craig S

Quick question. I have a 2017 Volvo V40, around 20 months ago, the offside front coil spring snapped, and was replaced under warranty as I had bought the car from a main dealer.

Yesterday, the nearside front coil spring snapped and skewered the tyre. The car has been recovered to the local main dealer (who replaced the offside spring) and I have just had a phonecall to say that they need to replace both the Nearside and Offside front coil springs as the nearside spring is broken but the offside spring is badly corroded.

I was advised by the dealer today that if one spring breaks, both springs should be replaced at the same time.

So a couple of obvious questions.....

1 - Should both springs have been replaced under warranty 20 months ago if that is standard practice?

2 - Am I being unreasonable to expect a coil spring to remain corrosion resistant for more than 20 months/16,000 miles?

Or is this "you need to replace the other spring" just blatant upselling?

Suspension coil spring breaking is becoming more common these days as time goes by they could make springs last for life up until the the mid 1990's then something changed. maybe the same thing that makes brake disks rust like hell these days, lack of chromium in the material ? never heard of a new V40 spring breaking yet let alone 2 on the same car apart from this one. Maybe there is some problem with a recent batch.

[Craig S]

I'm just wondering whether this is something that I should be raising with Volvo Customer Services.

Less than 24 months of use from a coil spring seems poor quality parts being used, or as you suggest, a bad batch of springs...... either way it's not a good look.

[simboc2004]

Both my front springs have broken on my 54,000 mile 2017 D4 R design Nav Pro. How can I find out what spring length I need? Is it sports chassis or standard on an R Design? "sports" is, i think, 288mm spring length?

[Clan]

Originally Posted by simboc2004

Both my front springs have broken on my 54,000 mile 2017 D4 R design Nav Pro. How can I find out what spring length I need? Is it sports chassis or standard on an R Design? "sports" is, i think, 288mm spring length?

your volvo parts dept will be able to get the correct spring type from the chassis code.

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by Craig S

Quick question. I have a 2017 Volvo V40, around 20 months ago, the offside front coil spring snapped, and was replaced under warranty as I had bought the car from a main dealer.

Yesterday, the nearside front coil spring snapped and skewered the tyre. The car has been recovered to the local main dealer (who replaced the offside spring) and I have just had a phonecall to say that they need to replace both the Nearside and Offside front coil springs as the nearside spring is broken but the offside spring is badly corroded.

I was advised by the dealer today that if one spring breaks, both springs should be replaced at the same time.

So a couple of obvious questions.....

1 - Should both springs have been replaced under warranty 20 months ago if that is standard practice?

2 - Am I being unreasonable to expect a coil spring to remain corrosion resistant for more than 20 months/16,000 miles?

Or is this "you need to replace the other spring" just blatant upselling?

I was under the impression that springs should be replaced in pairs, as the car can become lopsided just replacing one. If they did that in the first place, the likelihood of the other spring failing would have been reduced. I would certainly question why they only replaced one spring the first time around, as they said themselves they should be replaced in pairs?

Springs breaking in less than two years seems excessive, but the roads today are poor and suspension systems take a beating on a daily basis. Even still, I wouldn't expect broken springs in such a short period of time... unless you make a habit of driving into pot holes. Lol.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

I was under the impression that springs should be replaced in pairs, as the car can become lopsided just replacing one. If they did that in the first place, the likelihood of the other spring failing would have been reduced. I would certainly question why they only replaced one spring the first time around, as they said themselves they should be replaced in pairs?

Springs breaking in less than two years seems excessive, but the roads today are poor and suspension systems take a beating on a daily basis. Even still, I wouldn't expect broken springs in such a short period of time... unless you make a habit of driving into pot holes. Lol.

Yes it is shocking, they cant seem to make springs properly anymore, this never happened before about the year 2000. This isn't just volvo its a problem for all manufacturers. You wouldn't change both springs on a car so new, they don't generally sag. The only reason a garage would change a pair is to cover themselves so they don't have to do the job for free if the other side does go.