How long should a spring last?

March 25th 2008. Turned off the M62 on my way to Nick Wright's Meet at Howden. Travelling at around 50 on the bend at the end of the slip road when there was a sudden bang. That was not the spring, but the new tyre on my offside being punctured by the spring as it broke. Luckily no one was injured, only my pocket when I got the �600+ bill for two new springs and fitting - not to mention the trip home on the AA wagon, or �220 for a new front tyre!

March 25th 2010
Wife picked up the car from a full service. When she got home, she said "Its rattling a bit!". It was late and I was busy so I said "I'll look at it in the morning". So I drove it on the 26th to have two new tyres fitted, and did a bit of shopping, travelled about 12 miles with no rattles. Later I had to go out, and as I set off the rattles started. It was the spring again. Luckily the razor sharp point got stuck on a bracket on the strut, so the new tyre was not damaged.

2 years and 30K miles to the day. My last car had Alpina springs fitted at 53K miles. These were still fine 5 years later at 168K when I sold the car.

Question - Have I been unlucky, or has the standard of BMW springs gone to pot since they started manufacturing them in China?


Edited by Howard

Not a 7, but I think our e46 328i Touring has recently popped a nsr spring, haven't had an opportunity to have it properly looked at yet.  The car belonged to my sister before me, hasn't been abused or modified, and I know that they were replaced at approx 40k miles by a main dealer when the nsr spring snapped.  The car has approx 67k miles now.  I'm inclined to be disappointed in the recurrence and its clear its a reasonable common e46 issue.

In contrast, my last e39 5 went to 145k with me on the originals.  Reports of spring failures seem to be fairly rare.

Can't comment round York, speedbumps kill car stuff (exhausts, springs and lowered bodywork etc.). Lucky for me my last broken spring had only the end bit go so it seated itself and just knocked. Was a pain replacing it, prybar and a lot of swearing - happy at E30 rear setup on the Compact though.

thepits wrote: Rhys wrote: speedbumps kill car stuff  don't start me off If you go over them it kills the springs If you straddle them it kills the tyres   and as for Pot-Holes.........

What about pot-holes next to speed bumps? Nice large thunk! before I hit the bump. makes the bump a lot bigger. Nice council round my way hasn't done snot about repairing the roads since the bad weather..