coil spring came off seat - what happened?

[Adam32]

I have been changing the front shocks on my 2009 Mitsubishi Colt. In order to do this I had to compress the springs and take the strut apart. While I was at it I also replaced the strut top mount and bearing.

Anyway, I refitted the struts and went for a test drive. Almost immediately I heard lots of banging when steering on full lock and to my horror the spring on one side completely came off the seat. Upon jacking up the vehicle, I also see the other side has started to come off. The side that came off, you will see that the new bearing has also been damaged (see red arrow on picture). With this in mind I have a few theories:

1) The spring was not seated properly on the seat. See picture with the green arrow which shows how the spring was seated. This is exactly the same as the old fitting and it is logically the only place where it could seat.

2) The top nut holding the assembly together was too tight. When the spring was compressed I threaded this all the way as I thought that how the other one was? Maybe this would explain the damage to the bearing, but as I say I think the original was fully threaded.

3) When compressing the spring it somehow distorted

I can't think of anything else that could have happened? I am begging to wish I had just purchased new structs ready to bolt on.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to what could have happened?

[Chris32345]

Hard to tell from the pic but are you sure they are fitted the correct way around they look like they are but is one side different profile or size to the other?

[E-bmw]

Looks like either incorrect springs or incorrect installation.

[guards red]

Does the top mount rotate properly?

If it does not, it is possible that the spring has been twisted as the steering turns until it has come off the lower seat.

[Adam32]

Chris32345 said:

Hard to tell from the pic but are you sure they are fitted the correct way around they look like they are but is one side different profile or size to the other?

That is the only way they can go. The top is much smaller and the spring cap seats perfectly in there. It would be impossible to fit them upside down.

[Adam32]

guards red said:

Does the top mount rotate properly?

If it does not, it is possible that the spring has been twisted as the steering turns until it has come off the lower seat.

I did not check it when it was on, but I can't think why it would not. It has a new bearing. But it does seem odd that the new bearing was damaged. If the top nut was cranked down far to much, there may be this problem. But the way the struct tops are machined, I thought the nut just got cranked all the way down anyway

[E-bmw]

Adam32 said:

But the way the struct tops are machined, I thought the nut just got cranked all the way down anyway

They do.

[kambites]

The seating at the green arrow looks right to me. It's been years since I've changed the spring over a set of McPherson struts but I can't see what you could have done wrong.

I assume the little stop bar thing which you can see on the picture with the green arrow is still there and undamaged after the failure? It looks like the spring has screwed itself down which would imply it passed that stop somehow, is it possible that once you'd compressed the spring, fitted the top mount and released the compression, the spring had already jumped from butted up to the stop to sitting on top of it? (I'm assuming the picture with the green arrow was taken before you compressed the spring).

Edited by kambites on Thursday 4th April 07:56

[Adam32]

kambites said:

The seating at the green arrow looks right to me. It's been years since I've changed the spring over a set of McPherson struts but I can't see what you could have done wrong.

One thing I did notice on a fully assembled strut, it has these rubber sleeves on the end of the spring (as shown on arrow below). I wonder if these stop the spring from slipping off? But then again the old spring was missing this and it never came off

[Adam32]

I could not be bothered messing about any further and have order 2 complete GH struts from Amazon Germany for £330 including delivery. I will send the old shocks back, as the quality is not great anyway. For that price its not worth messing about with parts and trying new springs etc. At least when it comes I can just bolt it straight on.