Another M2 spring failure

[Lox]

Hi all. Was driving (sedately) to meet a mate on Thursday eve when the dreaded rear spring failure hit me. Big bang at the back, warning lights everywhere and a grinding noise.

BMW Assist recovered it to a dealer and sure enough, the spring has snapped - hardly an unknown issue.

Car is 7 years old, on 55k miles and covered by BMW warranty. What are the chances that the warranty would cover this?

[Megaflow]

Highly unlikely I would say. Not sure how a spring failure lead to warning lights though, there are no sensors on the spring.

[Wills2]

Sounds like a wear and tear item to me after 7 years same with the dampers as well I would imagine, they don't last forever and can be damaged via impacts driving on our dreadful roads.

[stevemcs]

Megaflow said:

Highly unlikely I would say. Not sure how a spring failure lead to warning lights though, there are no sensors on the spring.

Not sure if its a similar set up to the Mini, but when the rear springs fail on these they take the ABS sensor with them as the spring shoots down.

[Lox]

Oh yeah, it took out the wiring for the wheel speed sensor. Maybe that was it

[Megaflow]

Lox said:

Oh yeah, it took out the wiring for the wheel speed sensor. Maybe that was it

Yep, that will do it.

[Inbox]

It is a premature failure as the one on the other side hasn't failed, definitely worth checking the warranty exclusions.

[Lox]

Thanks for replies.

Very annoying that a spring seems to be a consumable on these at modest mileages, but it's not mega bucks to fix, so c'est la vie I guess!

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

If you've extended warranty seems a bit mean for it not to be covered? I'd ask to see the exact clause that excludes the repair.

I've a 9 year old Golf that had VW extended warranty. I too broke a rear spring & it was fixed under warranty with no push back at all.

[Lox]

Thanks, I might give it a go. Specific exclusions from warranty cover include
"all service items which will
require periodic replacement."

Not sure if a spring is a service item, but they do require periodic replacement.

[Inbox]

Lox said:

Thanks, I might give it a go. Specific exclusions from warranty cover include
"all service items which will
require periodic replacement."

Not sure if a spring is a service item, but they do require periodic replacement.

If it is a service item it will have a replacement schedule, I have never seen springs as service items.

[Evolved]

What is it with BMW and VAG that causes rear spring failure? Had a couple of GTi’s and they both had failed rear springs.

[Sheepshanks]

It's not a service item but they may blame corrosion, which is usually excluded.

It might depend what the dealer says to the warranty company - I had one replaced by a 3rd party warranty company (having said that the "BMW" one is really a 3rd party too) and they tried to trick the dealer into agreeing it was caused by corrosion. Thankfully he said it wasn't, but in reality that is the reason they break,

[Sheepshanks]

Evolved said:

What is it with BMW and VAG that causes rear spring failure? Had a couple of GTi s and they both had failed rear springs.

I've had the fronts break on Mercs (twice on same car) and wife's Renault Clio. The Clio was many years ago, when car only had a 1 yr warranty. Both rears were found to be broken at 4yr service / MOT. Renault replaced them FOC. Dealer had loads in stock so it must have been common.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Evolved said:

What is it with BMW and VAG that causes rear spring failure? Had a couple of GTi s and they both had failed rear springs.

It's not limited to those marques, it's now a fairly common occurrence due to the state of our roads!

[Evolved]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Evolved said:

What is it with BMW and VAG that causes rear spring failure? Had a couple of GTi s and they both had failed rear springs.

It's not limited to those marques, it's now a fairly common occurrence due to the state of our roads!

Good point, the roads are shocking. I was asking as most people I know with VAG or BMW’s have had spring failure so seems a common occurrence in those brands. Low profile tyres, big wheels, crap roads - snapped springs.

[silentbrown]

Evolved said:

Good point, the roads are shocking. I was asking as most people I know with VAG or BMW s have had spring failure so seems a common occurrence in those brands. Low profile tyres, big wheels, crap roads - snapped springs.

Terrible potholes round here. Bust a rear spring on daughter's mini last year which took out the ABS sensor with predictable results.

It's still on runflats, which I'm 100% sure don't help.

[Evolved]

silentbrown said:

Evolved said:

Good point, the roads are shocking. I was asking as most people I know with VAG or BMW s have had spring failure so seems a common occurrence in those brands. Low profile tyres, big wheels, crap roads - snapped springs.

Terrible potholes round here. Bust a rear spring on daughter's mini last year which took out the ABS sensor with predictable results.

It's still on runflats, which I'm 100% sure don't help.

Runflats, forgot about those rascals, they’ll definitely exasperate the problem.

[MitchT]

Evolved said:

Runflats, forgot about those rascals, they ll definitely exasperate the problem.

Yeah, would leave you feeling quite exacerbated!

[Evolved]

MitchT said:

Evolved said:

Runflats, forgot about those rascals, they ll definitely exasperate the problem.

Yeah, would leave you feeling quite exacerbated!

Christmas drinkies have kicked in.