what's up with Alpine A110 springs??
Discussion
They seem to snap left, right and centre on a regular basis, with no provocation at all - often on cars that are just a couple of years old. 
This does not bode well for long-term reliability/build quality of the A110, as I was hoping to get one. Are owners not concerned?? Or is it a case of Emperor's new clothes and fingers in ears??
This does not bode well for long-term reliability/build quality of the A110, as I was hoping to get one. Are owners not concerned?? Or is it a case of Emperor's new clothes and fingers in ears??
OK I'll bite.
Broken coil springs are a fairly common occurrence on modern cars. The root cause of the failure has little to do with specific provocation.
Any coil spring is just a torsion bar in a helical format. To provide spring force, the bar twists and the internal stress increases. You can achieve the same spring force by twisting a fat bar a little, or a small bar a lot. The fat bar sees low stress. The small bar sees higher stress.
Given the need to minimise weight in modern cars, springs are designed to run at higher stress nowadays. The designs are modelled so the fatigue life of the part (how many thousands of times it can be cycled until failure) is appropriate to the lifespan of the vehicle. This avoids over-engineering and unnecessary part weight/material usage.
The coating on the spring is not for cosmetic purposes. It protects the surface of the spring from corrosion - because when corrosion occurs, the fatigue modelling is compromised. Crack propagation increases material stress locally, reducing the number of cycles to failure dramatically. This is why springs fail early - because the paint gets chipped.
Sure, car X/Y/Z from the 1970s or whatever might well be on its original springs with chipped paint. The reason they are still intact is because of the over-engineered (read: inefficient) design.
One might well expect that - to deliver such a lightweight car - Alpine chose to design to a particularly high stress/low weight spring. The reason you may think they're uniquely poor is more to do with the number of cars which have been running them from new. You couldn't statistically conclude any aftermarket alternative would be better - no aftermarket spring has had anything like that volume of real-world exposure.
While it's understandable to exercise concern in relation to any significant outlay, to associate this particular component failure with overall build quality is conflation. They're made by industry darlings Eibach. Not Alpine.
FWIW I've just had two broken springs on a fairly recent BMW. A friend has the same BMW, and has had the same. Issue is not unique, nor indicative of other concerns.
Buy one. They're brilliant.
Broken coil springs are a fairly common occurrence on modern cars. The root cause of the failure has little to do with specific provocation.
Any coil spring is just a torsion bar in a helical format. To provide spring force, the bar twists and the internal stress increases. You can achieve the same spring force by twisting a fat bar a little, or a small bar a lot. The fat bar sees low stress. The small bar sees higher stress.
Given the need to minimise weight in modern cars, springs are designed to run at higher stress nowadays. The designs are modelled so the fatigue life of the part (how many thousands of times it can be cycled until failure) is appropriate to the lifespan of the vehicle. This avoids over-engineering and unnecessary part weight/material usage.
The coating on the spring is not for cosmetic purposes. It protects the surface of the spring from corrosion - because when corrosion occurs, the fatigue modelling is compromised. Crack propagation increases material stress locally, reducing the number of cycles to failure dramatically. This is why springs fail early - because the paint gets chipped.
Sure, car X/Y/Z from the 1970s or whatever might well be on its original springs with chipped paint. The reason they are still intact is because of the over-engineered (read: inefficient) design.
One might well expect that - to deliver such a lightweight car - Alpine chose to design to a particularly high stress/low weight spring. The reason you may think they're uniquely poor is more to do with the number of cars which have been running them from new. You couldn't statistically conclude any aftermarket alternative would be better - no aftermarket spring has had anything like that volume of real-world exposure.
While it's understandable to exercise concern in relation to any significant outlay, to associate this particular component failure with overall build quality is conflation. They're made by industry darlings Eibach. Not Alpine.
FWIW I've just had two broken springs on a fairly recent BMW. A friend has the same BMW, and has had the same. Issue is not unique, nor indicative of other concerns.
Buy one. They're brilliant.
It's a fair question. I've been driving for 40 years and only had 2 failures, one on a Renault Clio, the other on the Alpine.
I think there is a specific issue with the Alpine to have so many low mileage failures, whether that's due to engineering tolerances, poor overall suspension design that allows the coating to be easily chipped etc..., but it's not normal.
I think there is a specific issue with the Alpine to have so many low mileage failures, whether that's due to engineering tolerances, poor overall suspension design that allows the coating to be easily chipped etc..., but it's not normal.
I've been driving for 40 years and have had a spring snap on only two cars, ever. An old Volvo 340 hatch-back (over 30 years ago) and a 2014 Mini Roadster a few years ago. I've had Audi's, BMW's, Mercs and Porsches. All daily drivers and used a lot on UK roads. No broken springs.
The issues with the Alpine A110 are not just 'normal wear and tear'.
The issues with the Alpine A110 are not just 'normal wear and tear'.
wax lyrical said:
I've been driving for 40 years and have had a spring snap on only two cars, ever. An old Volvo 340 hatch-back (over 30 years ago) and a 2014 Mini Roadster a few years ago. I've had Audi's, BMW's, Mercs and Porsches. All daily drivers and used a lot on UK roads. No broken springs.
The issues with the Alpine A110 are not just 'normal wear and tear'.
Have you actually got any data on failure rates? The internet forums aren t reliable, all the drivers whose springs aren t failing aren t writing on forums.The issues with the Alpine A110 are not just 'normal wear and tear'.
I ve had a spring fail on a fiesta and an M2 but not on an A110!
A110 springs do appear to have a higher failure rate than typical, but then again, most cars have some specific issues associated with them. Sure, a spring breaking can be a fairly dramatic event and on the face of it, it seems ridiculous that this could even happen. In the grand scheme of things, however, for my money, it's not the worst issue that could bedevil a car. I'll take the chance of a spring breaking over the chance of the gremlins inherent to an Ingenium or THP engine, an IMS bearing or TFSI oil consumption any day of the week. If one is looking for bullet proof motoring, there may be a few mid-90's Corollas and Starlets kicking about here and there. 
In any case, in 30 years of owning cars, the only springs I've ever had fail on me were the rears on a 1992 Mercedes 300TE-24 (S124). They too had a bit of a habit for doing that, I was told.
In any case, in 30 years of owning cars, the only springs I've ever had fail on me were the rears on a 1992 Mercedes 300TE-24 (S124). They too had a bit of a habit for doing that, I was told.
Edited by Yuri75 on Friday 9th October 09:41
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