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Horror of the week 01-12-09


Tony
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Vauxhall Sigma arrived at the centre with a blown out tyre in the spare and the space saver fitted on the OSF, when i drove the car into the centre the steering was as heavy as hell, i thought it was due to the poxy space saver..... then as the car rode the slight incline to the workshop the front valance scrapped the floor :huh: .... must be that space saver again methinks :rolleyes:

 

After fitting the new tyre it was put back on the car, but it wouldn't go on :D obviously we initially thought it was the wrong wheel "WTF"....... Or maybe, just maybe this could be the reason why

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Not only has the spring snapped it rode down the strut tangling with the brake lines and drop-link, eventually it pierced the tyre. This is the scary bit, the male owner was totally unaware there was a problem...... How can you not notice the heavy steering, the noise, the angle of the car?

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My mates Alfa 166 had a snapped spring on the OSF. It drove perfectly despite this, I drove it to the MOT centre that failed it and I didn't notice anything amiss. It was nowhere near as bad as this Vauxhall but it was completely snapped, the top two coils were totally separate.

 

I normally work on 80s Peugeots and I have never seen a Pug spring with any significant corrosion, my mates Alfa is a '99 on 60k so I was surprised to say the least. I ended up fitting a full set of Eibachs as they cost less than just the fronts from Alfa, and once the rears were off it was obvious they needed changing too. I understand it was recently aligned at WIM on my recommendation.

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Can you imagin what it would be like to drive a car with a front coil missing :D

 

 

 

yeah right lol....i drove a bedford cf van 60 miloe with just springs on the front and shocks removed years ago.....would put any ganta bouncy car to shame lol

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Vauxhall Sigma arrived at the centre with a blown out tyre

Not only has the spring snapped it rode down the strut tangling with the brake lines and drop-link, eventually it pierced the tyre.

 

Same thing happened on my son's Vauxhall Corsa SXi, spring snapped and punctured the tyre. Common fault on Vauxhall's perhaps, or just unlucky?

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Of course snapped springs on MX5s / Eunos are common - found I had one myself.

But have just bought a '98 Legacy and that has both front springs snapped at the bottom coil too.

 

Could it just be the potholes and bumps / ramps or do cars with open wound springs suffer this more?

Presume a spring that only has 4 or 5 coils will actually be working harder than a closer wound one and maybe that leads to earlier fatigue?

Or is it just poorer quality steel?

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Works for me...were you on a mobile?

No I wasn't, but it did work now :)

 

Still that didn't answer the question unfortunately, just brought up the insignia :D

 

Don't think Sigma exists - maybe it was cross between a Signum, Sintra and Insignia?

If it was, then no wonder its falling to pieces!

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Signum that's the one :smile_anim:

Ahh the signum, I didn't think there was a sigma, but couldn't think of anything else similar that it could have been confused with............the signum's the weird 4 seat estate thingy isn't it?

 

Yeah that's the one..... odd looking thing.

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