Car on driveway with collapsed suspension (suspected), Help!

[Smithy15493]

Hi

I’ll admit i don’t know a lot about car repairs, but i got into my car today and the front right side is lower than the left, and sounds like the tire is scraping against the bodywork. I suspect some kind of broken spring/suspension but there is no way i can drive it to a garage.

Is my next course of action to ring around the local garages and see who can come have a look? What’s the likelyhood of a garage having availability on the same day? Or do i go through say the RAC? I do need the car for work so there is a bit of urgency.

My breakdown cover only covers if you breakdown 15+ miles away from home unfortunatly. The tyres seem fine. It’s a 2010 BMW 320d

Any advice welcome! Cheers

[sherman]

Phone the RAC.
Pay for a tow/upgrade to home cover to the garage.

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

If a spring has broken there is a reasonable chance that the spring is rubbing against the inner wall of the tyre and eating its way through the rubber.

[Griffith4ever]

You are going to have to get a garage to recover it, then mend it. Same day.... unlikely. I struggle to book any work including an MOT anwhere closer than a month in advance.

[AWRacing]

Look for a mobile mechanic, they’ll be able to come to you and diagnose the problem. Whether they can fix it the same day is another thing though

[kiethton]

AWRacing said:

Look for a mobile mechanic, they’ll be able to come to you and diagnose the problem. Whether they can fix it the same day is another thing though

Do this, if you are in SE London I can recommend a guy that does all my car jobs

[brillomaster]

My front spring snapped on my 3 series. My preferred garage were unable to recover the car themselves, recommended a flatbed company. Tried them, but they never got back to me. Would have been ruinously expensive anyways.

Get a mobile mechanic to change springs on both sides. Easy enough job, springs are cheap, and mobile mechanics are cheap as they dont have overheads of a fixed garage or receptionists.

[ucb]

I drove for 2 weeks on a broken spring.
Drive it 15 miles away and call the breakdown....

[Jakg]

ucb said:

I drove for 2 weeks on a broken spring.
Drive it 15 miles away and call the breakdown....

With a tyre rubbing against the spring? That would be monumentally stupid.

[valiant]

Breakdown cover that’s only valid 15 miles from home?

Jesus, was it free with a pack of cornflakes or something?

You’ve either misread it or been sold a dud product.

[GVK]

I drove about a mile once with a broken front spring on my E46, it punctured the tyre within that mile!

So yeah, bad idea.

[Demelitia]

ucb said:

I drove for 2 weeks on a broken spring.
Drive it 15 miles away and call the breakdown....

Not at all relevant in this situation. It was a rubbish idea when you did it, and an even worse idea in a bmw that generally send the remains of the spring through the tyre when they snap.

A mobile mechanic and a call to your local motor factors, or dealership if you’re feeling flush, will have the problem sorted quickly.

[survivalist]

valiant said:

Breakdown cover that’s only valid 15 miles from home?

Jesus, was it free with a pack of cornflakes or something?

You’ve either misread it or been sold a dud product.

Not sure about these days, but it used to be pretty common for breakdown cover to be split into ‘recovery’ and ‘home start’. A mate of mine had a very unreliable Mini and we were forever towing it down the road so that he could call the RAC.

[anonymous-user]

It’ll need to be recovered somewhere
Not hard job on ramps, dangerous on the drive
Just had my Skodas done @ £160 fitted at a tyre place

Maybe the RAC will recover it for an upgrade fee?
Try local tyre places, they might arrange recovery too

[Smithy15493]

Thanks for the help all, going to frantically ring a bunch of garages this morning!

[Griffith4ever]

valiant said:

Breakdown cover that’s only valid 15 miles from home?

Jesus, was it free with a pack of cornflakes or something?

You’ve either misread it or been sold a dud product.

completely standard if you don't choose homestart. It's there to stop people who can't be arsed to keep a battery charged from calling them out every day, and the likes. I've never paid for home start. I have more than one car so it's a waste.

[sixor8]

I wonder if the OP has mis-read his cover. I frequently have b/down cover WITHOUT home start. You have to be between 1/4 and 1/2 a mile from home usually (I remember rolling my car down a hill back in the 80s before calling up the AA / RAC). The cheap companies will only transport you 10,15 or 20 miles max to a place of repair. You need full 'national' recovery to be brought home or another destination.

It's cheaper, and if I can't fix a car at home, it is so seriously borked it'll need major attention anyway. I also have more than 1 car which means no rush to fix one.

I had an Alfa GT in 2021 with a badly corroded suspension strut collapsing such that the spring was rubbing on the tyre, which ruined it. I had driven 1/2 a mile like that but I wouldn't recommend it.

Edited by sixor8 on Monday 20th February 09:04

[Griffith4ever]

Ahh - I didn't see the 15 miles bit! More like 1/2 a mile or so as you say

[Krikkit]

brillomaster said:

Get a mobile mechanic to change springs on both sides. Easy enough job, springs are cheap, and mobile mechanics are cheap as they dont have overheads of a fixed garage or receptionists.

This is undoubtedly the best solution imho!

[stevieturbo]

Jakg said:

With a tyre rubbing against the spring? That would be monumentally stupid.

It would, but not all springs break and end up anywhere near the tyre.

Some will pierce it for sure, some you could drive for 20k and never know it's broke.

Although in this instance, if things have dropped as much as described, it would not seem wise to dry and drive it, at least without a proper inspection of where the spring is ending up