Here is a wild one!

[artbuc]

Just got an email from a friend re his 2000 Toyota Avalon. Discovered his left front tire was flat. Upon inspection, coil spring had broken puncturing tire in several places. Has anyone hear ever heard of a suspension spring breaking, on a parked car no less?

Friend is not able to DIY and way too far away for me to do it. I am hoping Toyota may offer a big goodwill discount. Another option would be Monroe Quick Struts. I checked the KYB website and they not show an quick-strut assy for that car. Do you think Monroe would work assuming he keeps the car just a couple more years and drives very low mileage?

If he decides to just replace the coil spring, I assume you would recommend he replace on both sides? Thanks.

 

[exranger06]

Mid-90s Ford Tauruses were known for breaking coil springs and sometimes puncturing tires. Don't know if it typically happened when parked though.

 

[Sam2000]

I have heard of this happening but not on Toyotas.

Kyb show they have replacements for a 2000 Avalon. Parts 334245 and 334246 for the fronts.

Kyb are often preferred for Japanese vehicles. Monroe would be fine too.

Yes you usually replace in pairs. In this case it would be a wise thing to do as you don't want this to happen again say when driving.

 

[Astro14]

On a 14 year old car, good will is unlikely. My local Toyota dealer gives me 10% for loyalty, however.

Volvos have been known to do this. It's rare but a few % break now and then. High miles and salt exposure seem to be the common factors in those cases.

 

[Kira]

Doing both sides with quick-struts is the way to go and your friend needn't "drive few miles" over their life. These quick struts are so new to the market there's no "common knowledge" about them; at least in my circles.
I'd bet KYBs are better quality than Monroes, but if he's only going to own the car for 2 or 3 more years then the Monroes might be the ticket. I assume they still use 50,000 miles as their benchmark. Kira

 

[earlyre]

happened to my mom's 99 taurus in late 2011. it was the last straw as far as dad was concerned. they were the original owners of that car, got it in fall 98 w/ 126mi. relatively trouble free over the years, but seemed like every time it went to the Dealer for service, something else was found to be wrong with it. but they wouldn't take the car anywhere else. always back to the dealership. sold it in jan/feb 12 w/ 12x,xxx mi, for something in the tune of $2,500.
Replaced it with CPO 09 Taurus Limited w/ 35k mi from the Same Dealer. (who had also been the original dealer for the car, and where the original owner(a local Ford Plant Retiree) had always serviced it.)

 

[JHZR2]

Yes, this was a known issue with saabs for a few years. Mine had it. Drove it home one day, no issues. Next day, had this problem. The spring had missed the tire but somehow damaged the wheel so they replaced both springs and one wheel, IIRC.

What happens is that the corrosion protection and/or shot peening is bad and allows some corrosion to start.

 

[morris]

sounds like a frame rust trouble.

 

[michaelluscher]

For the Taurus's that were affected (fingers crossed on mine)
There was/still is a recall/satisfaction campaign
(fordpartsguru) please confirm details

As much as I've had it up to here with mine, its a problem that can happen with any car. Perhaps a notice that we should all check our suspensions carefully for corrosion.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Broken coil spring ? Never hear of this type of problem in So Cal. Shock/Strut failed after 100-200k miles is common, but broken spring is as rare as chicken tongue.

 

[KitaCam]

Originally Posted By: artbuc
Just got an email from a friend re his 2000 Toyota Avalon. Discovered his left front tire was flat. Upon inspection, coil spring had broken puncturing tire in several places.

Friend is not able to DIY and way too far away for me to do it. I am hoping Toyota may offer a big goodwill discount.


Why? What makes you think a 14 year old car would get a "goodwill" discount?

 

[artbuc]

Originally Posted By: KitaCam
Originally Posted By: artbuc
Just got an email from a friend re his 2000 Toyota Avalon. Discovered his left front tire was flat. Upon inspection, coil spring had broken puncturing tire in several places.

Friend is not able to DIY and way too far away for me to do it. I am hoping Toyota may offer a big goodwill discount.


Why? What makes you think a 14 year old car would get a "goodwill" discount?


I was able to get Subaru to 100% pay for new head gaskets on a friend's car which was out of warranty. The car was much newer and she had all work done by the dealer on a regular basis. I do not know much about Toyota even though I have owned nothing but Toyota and Lexus vehicles since 1974, except for my wife's current car which is a 2010 MDX. I do all of my own work. The Toyota owner has had 100% of his maintenance and repair work done by his dealer. He has been consistently ripped-off, eg paying for new brakes and rotor resurfacing on all four corners every 25k miles. He knows nothing about cars and just pays for whatever they do and they do whatever they want. Given all of the $$$ they have stolen from him over the years, thought they may want to pony up something on this unexpected failure.

 

[hattaresguy]

Not terrible unusual in a state that uses salt on the roads.

Goodwill? Seriously?

 

[artificialist]

I highly doubt Toyota will give you any discount on this repair.

Get 4 quick struts or the equivalents and install them before something else goes wrong. Just the cost of springs and new mounts would exceed the price of quick struts or their equivalent, and given the age and mileage of the car, I am certain that the strut mounts would fall apart if you tried to re-use them. Also, removing the nut from the strut mount would be difficult, and the studs on the strut mount could easily break.

I have only encountered 2 broken springs that were never exposed to road salt. One was on a Ford Foucs, and one was on a Pontiac Grand Am. Both had about 140,000 miles on them.