Small heads up for those of you with early mk3 Focus's
Discussion
My early 2013 vintage mk3 ST was in for MOT today. It has only done 2,000 miles (over 1k of that on motorways) since its last MOT in January 2018 and it passed with no advisories at a mere 42,000 miles. Expecting the same today I was quite shocked to learn that it was to fail on a completely broken FNS spring that had broken in 2 places (!) and the last coil was completely missing! Not only that but both rear shockers are leaking fluid and the rear sub frame and mounting points now have enough surface corrosion that the tester recommended remedial work to clean them up and get them coated with underbody seal as left as they are will probably result in an advisory at next MOT.
6 years old, 42k and not based anywhere near the seaside. I know Ford's have never been known for good rust protection out of the factory but I'm annoyed that it's developing so quickly given the light usage. Equally I'm concerned by what's caused the FNS spring to break in such a catastrophic way as the car gets nursed like a baby as far as pothole avoidance and speed humps are concerned. I have not hit or driven over anything at such speed or force to crack the spring as I would have remembered and winced to myself at the time if I had. The rear shockers failing at such a low mileage also doesn't sit well with me but nothing I can do about it.
For any of you that have a mk3 and intend keeping it long term I'd say it's worth keeping an eye on these areas as they seem to be a bit pants.
6 years old, 42k and not based anywhere near the seaside. I know Ford's have never been known for good rust protection out of the factory but I'm annoyed that it's developing so quickly given the light usage. Equally I'm concerned by what's caused the FNS spring to break in such a catastrophic way as the car gets nursed like a baby as far as pothole avoidance and speed humps are concerned. I have not hit or driven over anything at such speed or force to crack the spring as I would have remembered and winced to myself at the time if I had. The rear shockers failing at such a low mileage also doesn't sit well with me but nothing I can do about it.
For any of you that have a mk3 and intend keeping it long term I'd say it's worth keeping an eye on these areas as they seem to be a bit pants.
Edited by Lemming Train on Tuesday 30th April 18:34
Temperature changes can break springs, my other half has gone through two on our mk2 focus and she drives proper slow/carefully. Only needs an imperfection in the cast.
Also yes, the anti corrosion is shocking, I saw under a 4 year old Mondeo a few weeks back that looked like it had been on the bottom of the English channel for a month - corrosion starting everywhere.
Also yes, the anti corrosion is shocking, I saw under a 4 year old Mondeo a few weeks back that looked like it had been on the bottom of the English channel for a month - corrosion starting everywhere.
sortedcossie said:
Temperature changes can break springs, my other half has gone through two on our mk2 focus and she drives proper slow/carefully. Only needs an imperfection in the cast.
Also yes, the anti corrosion is shocking, I saw under a 4 year old Mondeo a few weeks back that looked like it had been on the bottom of the English channel for a month - corrosion starting everywhere.
Perhaps a stupid question but is the quality of the springs not as good as it was in the past then? In my ~ 30 years of car ownership which has included some big mileages I've never had a spring break on any of them and I used to drive rather enthusiastically back in those days vs the more sedate driving I do these days. I can only recall having a leaking shocker on an old Nova GTe but the car had done over 150k with 100k of that in my ownership so can't grumble too much at that.Also yes, the anti corrosion is shocking, I saw under a 4 year old Mondeo a few weeks back that looked like it had been on the bottom of the English channel for a month - corrosion starting everywhere.
The speed the rust is developing reminds me of early 80s Fords which were bad for it, although not as bad as Austin and Leylands from a bit earlier which could sometimes be found with visible tin worm starting before they'd even been sold on the forecourts!
Fiestas in particular suffer from coil springs snapping.
Had to replace 3, yes three!! all on the front in a 2 month period.
They sit in a cup, that fills with water, I do believe Ford know about this issue and actually sell a sacrificial block of something metallic that sits in the cup to prevent corrosion.
After the third one going, I simply drilled a hole in each of the bottom cups to drain the rainwater out.
Had to replace 3, yes three!! all on the front in a 2 month period.
They sit in a cup, that fills with water, I do believe Ford know about this issue and actually sell a sacrificial block of something metallic that sits in the cup to prevent corrosion.
After the third one going, I simply drilled a hole in each of the bottom cups to drain the rainwater out.
Mexman said:
Fiestas in particular suffer from coil springs snapping.
Had to replace 3, yes three!! all on the front in a 2 month period.
They sit in a cup, that fills with water, I do believe Ford know about this issue and actually sell a sacrificial block of something metallic that sits in the cup to prevent corrosion.
After the third one going, I simply drilled a hole in each of the bottom cups to drain the rainwater out.
That's quite interesting and useful to know in equal measure, thanks. I'm friends with my tester and have known him for nearly 40 years so naturally he's quite happy for me to mill around watching the progress and chatting while he does the test - he showed me the cracked spring and broken piece in situ and the Focus seems to have the same set-up to what you're describing with the Fester as it too sits in a metal cup that was looking worse for wear.Had to replace 3, yes three!! all on the front in a 2 month period.
They sit in a cup, that fills with water, I do believe Ford know about this issue and actually sell a sacrificial block of something metallic that sits in the cup to prevent corrosion.
After the third one going, I simply drilled a hole in each of the bottom cups to drain the rainwater out.
Do you have any more info on the "blocks" you're referring to as it's piqued my interest, especially if it will reduce the chances of them breaking again in the future?
sortedcossie said:
Possibly, out of the last 5 cars that we've had 3 of them have had springs break.
My dad has just retired from running a small independent MOT station/garage - their metal recycling skip is always full of busted springs.
I suppose one should expect an increase to some degree as we've become a nation of 'style over function' with seemingly every car these days equipped with "sporty" unnecessarily large wheels and rubber band tyres, which at 30, 35, 40 profile do virtually nothing to help absorb the shocks from potholes and the springs and dampers can only do so much. 25 years ago a 70 profile was more the norm and I expect went quite a long way in helping absorb the potholes, not to mention general ride comfort.My dad has just retired from running a small independent MOT station/garage - their metal recycling skip is always full of busted springs.
Lemming Train said:
That's quite interesting and useful to know in equal measure, thanks. I'm friends with my tester and have known him for nearly 40 years so naturally he's quite happy for me to mill around watching the progress and chatting while he does the test - he showed me the cracked spring and broken piece in situ and the Focus seems to have the same set-up to what you're describing with the Fester as it too sits in a metal cup that was looking worse for wear.
Do you have any more info on the "blocks" you're referring to as it's piqued my interest, especially if it will reduce the chances of them breaking again in the future?
Cannot for the life of me remember where I heard or learnt of it, I think it was when I was doing a Google search on why Ford springs seem to suffer from this, and there it was, read it and thought mmm, that's interesting.Do you have any more info on the "blocks" you're referring to as it's piqued my interest, especially if it will reduce the chances of them breaking again in the future?
Funnily enough, just sold a Fiesta on the pitch, and guess what? In for MOT, broken spring although you could hear it twanging on test drive, and another Fiesta just arrived today with the same identical noise!
Rather than a 'block' I believe from memory, it's a zinc plate that sits in the spring cup under the end of the spring, I honestly don't know how/if that would work, but certainly a drain hole in the bottom of the cup has got to help.
On the missus Fiesta, these cups were just full of wet mud and dirt which obviously grinds against the spring end like sandpaper and rapidly wears off the crappy light mist coat of black spray paint that these things come coated with hence rust rapidly gaining a hold in the steel.
Edited by Mexman on Tuesday 30th April 20:20
Mexman said:
Cannot for the life of me remember where I heard or learnt of it, I think it was when I was doing a Google search on why Ford springs seem to suffer from this, and there it was, read it and thought mmm, that's interesting.
Funnily enough, just sold a Fiesta on the pitch, and guess what? In for MOT, broken spring although you could hear it twanging on test drive, and another Fiesta just arrived today with the same identical noise!
Rather than a 'block' I believe from memory, it's a zinc plate that sits in the spring cup under the end of the spring, I honestly don't know how/if that would work, but certainly a drain hole in the bottom of the cup has got to help.
On the missus Fiesta, these cups were just full of wet mud and dirt which obviously grinds against the spring end like sandpaper and rapidly wears off the crappy light mist coat of black spray paint that these things come coated with hence rust rapidly gaining a hold in the steel.
Cheers. I'll do some research when I'm bored and see what I can dig up. Funnily enough the tester said that I should have heard that it was broken or at least something amiss from the clattering and banging it would make, but I'm very sensitive to noting odd and unusual noises from my cars and can honestly say that I've never heard anything! I suppose it's possible it only 'went' recently so can't rule that out, but I find it hard to believe I've been driving around with only half a spring holding up the FNS corner of my car and not noticed any adverse effects. Funnily enough, just sold a Fiesta on the pitch, and guess what? In for MOT, broken spring although you could hear it twanging on test drive, and another Fiesta just arrived today with the same identical noise!
Rather than a 'block' I believe from memory, it's a zinc plate that sits in the spring cup under the end of the spring, I honestly don't know how/if that would work, but certainly a drain hole in the bottom of the cup has got to help.
On the missus Fiesta, these cups were just full of wet mud and dirt which obviously grinds against the spring end like sandpaper and rapidly wears off the crappy light mist coat of black spray paint that these things come coated with hence rust rapidly gaining a hold in the steel.
Edited by Mexman on Tuesday 30th April 20:20
For info the FNS spring is £30 and the rear shockers are £42 each. Tester is doing the job and reckons the spring is 1.5 hours to be safe and the rear shockers 10-15 mins each as both nuts are easily accessible with a socket and spanner. £200 for the complete job.
Yeah, pretty easy job and the springs are peanuts to buy.
Funnily enough, most springs will snap whilst the car is sitting there doing nothing, rather than when they are in use.
My wife's went with an horrendous bang whilst sitting on the driveway, whilst we were watching News at Ten.
I thought someone had crashed into house, the noise was LOUD.
Went outside, saw nothing and came back in.
Wife went out to the car to go to work, and got 5 foot down the drive before realising something was wrong.
Front offside was sitting an inch or so lower, so not immediately obvious, but looking at it, the bottom 2 inches of the spring had gone.
Where it had gone, I have no idea, must have shot off like a bullet somewhere, unfortunate damaging the inside of the tyre at the same time.
Hell of a bang though, when it let go.
On all 3 occasions, the springs snapped whilst stood still, unused, or on the third occasion, at a really low speed, like 5 mph.
Strange.
Funnily enough, most springs will snap whilst the car is sitting there doing nothing, rather than when they are in use.
My wife's went with an horrendous bang whilst sitting on the driveway, whilst we were watching News at Ten.
I thought someone had crashed into house, the noise was LOUD.
Went outside, saw nothing and came back in.
Wife went out to the car to go to work, and got 5 foot down the drive before realising something was wrong.
Front offside was sitting an inch or so lower, so not immediately obvious, but looking at it, the bottom 2 inches of the spring had gone.
Where it had gone, I have no idea, must have shot off like a bullet somewhere, unfortunate damaging the inside of the tyre at the same time.
Hell of a bang though, when it let go.
On all 3 occasions, the springs snapped whilst stood still, unused, or on the third occasion, at a really low speed, like 5 mph.
Strange.
Front Spring failure was common on the Mk5 Fiesta & appeared to be caused by poor coating allowing water in which would then couldn't get out - corrosion - fracture - break. The majority that I saw occurred overnight with the car parked up, which is probably just as well as the break could & occasionally did cause the spring to come into contact with the tyre wall.....
There was a TSB that advised the fitting of galvanised plates into the shock spring cups. Looking at the job, the plates served no practical purpose so I'm guessing that either the shock spring cups weren't manufactured to spec which the plates corrected or that there was some sort of galvanic / ionic / physics thing going on
There was a TSB that advised the fitting of galvanised plates into the shock spring cups. Looking at the job, the plates served no practical purpose so I'm guessing that either the shock spring cups weren't manufactured to spec which the plates corrected or that there was some sort of galvanic / ionic / physics thing going on
Zinc will protect steel against corrosion when both are submerged together, but it won't have any effect on the part of the spring that is above the water and surrounded by air.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_anode
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_anode
Gassing Station | Ford | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff