Front spring just sheared, e92 m3

[cammy71]

Haven't read anywhere that this is a problem, but driver's side front spring snapped at the weekend. Lucky I was just leaving house when I noticed obvious issue and not doing usual motorway commute. Could hardly get my fingers between tyre and wheel arch, AA job to garage. Currently getting both sides replaced. 80k miles and no track days. Anybody else?

[jcolley]

cammy71 said:

Haven't read anywhere that this is a problem, but driver's side front spring snapped at the weekend. Lucky I was just leaving house when I noticed obvious issue and not doing usual motorway commute. Could hardly get my fingers between tyre and wheel arch, AA job to garage. Currently getting both sides replaced. 80k miles and no track days. Anybody else?

Not on an M, but my wife's X3 had a broken coil on the left rear. I live close to Turner Motorsports (ALMS BMW team) and their service manager indicated it was a common problem on the older X3.

I did learn from that they should be replaced in pairs though, curious what your garage tells you.

Was is the actual spring or did the strut mount shear?

[FredBasset]

Probably similar to the wife's Volvo last year. It was sitting in the drive and we hear a sound like a gun shot. I think a lot of cars are being affected by the poor roads, continual punishment against pot holes etc put hairline cracks in the spring.

Water gets in the crack and frost finishes it.

My dealer commented on the number of these failures they get in winter compared to summer.

Regards
Fred

[E30M3SE]

Nothing new with broken springs these days, regardless of the marque.

[MGJohn]

Common breakage according to my MoT tester. He failed the BMW being tested in front of my appointment. Apparently widespread. He thinks speed humps and traffic calming devices play a part. Could be, I suspect it's the quality of materials. Lots of cars now suffer.

[E30M3SE]

MGJohn said:

Common breakage according to my MoT tester. He failed the BMW being tested in front of my appointment. Apparently widespread. He thinks speed humps and traffic calming devices play a part. Could be, I suspect it's the quality of materials. Lots of cars now suffer.

Definitely not the same as they used to be.

[cammy71]

No damage to strut, just snapped at top of spring. Initially garage said they would test the other spring to see if it needed replaced but it old them just to change both for safety/futur inconvenience sake. All done now but £500 poorer!

[E30M3SE]

They should always be changed in pairs.