What just fell off my car?

[carparkno1]

2015 qashqai. Opened driver door, got into car, heard a clang and something fall to the ground. Trying to work out what this is? It's hard, has metallic coating, with rust, too hard for a spring? I drove the car to the petrol station and think I may have head a clunk but can't be sure.

All advice welcome! Will go to garage over weekend to check. Its a hateful boring thing so I'm quite happy for this to be the excuse to trade it in lol

[anonymous-user]

Bottom piece of a suspension coil spring.

ETA - or top

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 23 September 09:48

[orangeLP400]

Suspension coil spring ( probably the top bit) MOT failure so new spring and perhaps strut top mount/bearing required.

[DodgyGeezer]

It's half a horseshoe- you've lost some power


Seriously though looks like one of your coil-springs has gone so you'll need to replace. It's relatively cheap

[carparkno1]

Thanks all. Interestingly nissan replaced the osr spring just last month and passed the mot. One of those things I guess

[DaveCWK]

I don't know what it is about modern springs but broken ones seem so common. From what I can gather it was a really rare occurrence 20+yrs ago.

[Steamer]

DaveCWK said:

I don't know what it is about modern springs but broken ones seem so common. From what I can gather it was a really rare occurrence 20+yrs ago.

I've been thinking that too - when out cycling I see loads of these in the gutter.. state of the roads / poor quality metal?

[Giulia Jon]

Steamer said:

I see loads of these in the gutter.. state of the roads / poor quality metal?

Both ,plus hitting speed bumps too hard is another

[carparkno1]

Giulia Jon said:

Steamer said:

I see loads of these in the gutter.. state of the roads / poor quality metal?

Both ,plus hitting speed bumps too hard is another

Where I live every road has potholes beyond belief that may as week be inverse speed bumps

[donkmeister]

Giulia Jon said:

Steamer said:

I see loads of these in the gutter.. state of the roads / poor quality metal?

Both ,plus hitting speed bumps too hard is another

I've seen "better engineering" cited as an example. It sounds counterintuitive as we use "well engineered" as a synonym of "built to last" in everyday speech, but engineers are meant to design something that can do the job for the least amount of money.

If the springs last forever then they have probably been specified too highly. The engineers are better now at specifying springs that are just about good enough, so it saves the manufacturer money. Woo, progress.

[Tommo87]

Giulia Jon said:

Steamer said:

I see loads of these in the gutter.. state of the roads / poor quality metal?

Both ,plus hitting speed bumps too hard is another

Speed bumps on the rods are definitely more common than they were 25 years ago.

With low profile run flat stiff walled tyres, I guess they are put through a harsher regime.

[Richard-390a0]

The springs are made of cheap chinese steel these days. If you can find the broken part before corrosion sets in on the newly exposed area of failure you can usually expect to see some inclusions in the metal.

[BrassMan]

When this began to become a thing, I was told that it was to do with the finishing of the coil at the top/bottom allowing water to sit in the coil and rust it.

[dontlookdown]

It does seem that broken springs are much more of a thing then they used to be. Not sure why though.

Suspensions are generally firmer than of old. Are stiffer/shorter springs more inclined to break?

ETA cars are also heavier than they were which may have an impact on spring life.

[Pica-Pica]

DaveCWK said:

I don't know what it is about modern springs but broken ones seem so common. From what I can gather it was a really rare occurrence 20+yrs ago.

No. It happened on my E36 (1998 - 2017: RIP). A simple replacement. It was the lower end of the rear coil spring that went. I probably have had both sides changed if one went. I remember being shocked at the time, but the BMW-trained Indy seemed unsurprised.

ETA, that had 225/60 - R15 tyres, a reasonably compliant suspension, certainly not as hard as todays F30, and yes, fewer speed bumps back then.

Edited by Pica-Pica on Friday 23 September 11:16

[Largechris]

Big end?

[Deranged Rover]

When I had to have a replacement spring on a Mondeo a few years back, the garage said this was more prevalent these days as one of the chemicals that was used in the external coatings on the springs was banned a few years back.

The chemical compound they use now is all cuddly and bunny-friendly but doesn't resist corrosion as well as the old one used to.

[SO27]

carparkno1 said:

Thanks all. Interestingly nissan replaced the osr spring just last month and passed the mot. One of those things I guess

Could be left over from this. Maybe the snapped bit was hanging off something, not noticed when the replacement was done and has now dropped off.

[liner33]

carparkno1 said:

Thanks all. Interestingly nissan replaced the osr spring just last month and passed the mot. One of those things I guess

Its good practice to replace suspension items in pairs

[cjb44]

liner33 said:

Its good practice to replace suspension items in pairs

I totally agree, but try telling VW that. Had a big argument with my local VW dealer when this happened to my wife's Polo GT which was still under warranty. The CEO had no idea or inclination that this was good engineering practice, and disputed this fact, I won in the end through sheer doggedness and the fact that they had performed miserably with other issues on the car; never will I use this franchise again, take your money, take silly videos and then you are on your own.