Front Coil Spring Broken - Slightly! How to fix

gk5000

Hello,

NCT found one of the front coil springs broken - The bottom 3 inches of it are gone, roughly half a turn missing so its not sitting square in the mount.
Recon its been like that for ages, a small shunt many years ago, but no imbalance or handling issues and several previous NCT's.

Its a 97 and only used very little, so looking the simplest/cheapest, doing it myself.

So whats best cost-wise and to match (and don't want to do both sides )
1. New coil spring
2. Scrapyard spring
3. Scrapyard complete strut

Thanks.

canhefixit

You could just replace coil but you need spring compressors to remove the old coil and install the new one or you could buy shock from scrappie with coil already intact and just install which is probably the better option as you dont want to change both front coils the scrappie one will be well broke which shouldnt effect the handling to much.

nct tester

canhefixit wrote: »

You could just replace coil but you need spring compressors to remove the old coil and install the new one or you could buy shock from scrappie with coil already intact and just install which is probably the better option as you dont want to change both front coils the scrappie one will be well broke which shouldnt effect the handling to much.

car could fail on shock imbalance the next day if you put a complete second hand strut in, there is no way of knowing the condition of the shock. id get a new spring , theyre not that expensive.

Suspension components should always be replaced in pairs. Get a new pair of springs. You'll need to get the headlight focus checked too as the new springs most likely will leave the front of the car slightly higher than it was beforehand.

gk5000

Yes, but I'm wondering if a second hand spring would be a better match to avoid doing both sides.

joujoujou

Yes, it'll be better. Especially if you're lucky enough to get one as old as the other one (I know, it'll be not easy to make sure how old is the one you gonna buy). Similar age = similar wear = similar handling.

Anyway, the best would be getting a pair of new ones, as been said already.

zapata

I fitted 2nd hand springs from different cars to a 00 mondeo last year and they're still fine (5000 miles done and nct passed with them on).
NB. Compressing springs is high risk and can cause serious injury/death if something goes wrong.
You could remove the strut/spring assembly intact and bring that to a mechanic to fit to reduce cost.

canhefixit

nct tester wrote: »

car could fail on shock imbalance the next day if you put a complete second hand strut in, there is no way of knowing the condition of the shock. id get a new spring , theyre not that expensive.

I see your point but i have seen countless times people getting complete shock with coil from scrappie from similar aged car and never any problems putting it through the test...

Me personally i would want to change in pairs either take both shocks of same car from scrappie or replace both coils in car but as OP sounds like he wants this done as cheap as possible 1 complete 2nd hand shock is his cheapest way