Need some help from car-savvy dopers out there, please.
Just had the rear brakes on my '02 Honda CR-V replaced today and the mechanic noted that the passenger side coil spring was broken. He showed me the piece, it’s off the bottom of the coil, not even a full circle. The coil is still resting on the support, so you can’t tell either looking at the car or driving it that anything is amiss. No telling how long its been like this, but the fracture surface of the metal is rusted pretty good, so its been like this at least, what, a couple of weeks, maybe more?
So, two questions:
about to go on a 4-hour each way drive to take the kids to camp, with a full load on the vehicle (4 people, trunk full of gear). Is it safe to drive it this way?
The mechanic gave me an estimate to repair this that was over $700 (US), because he says he needs to also replace the strut at the same time, and you have to do those in pairs, so that’s two of those with labor and associated parts. Is this reasonable? The spring itself would only be a $150 job.
I don’t see why they would have to be done in pairs. Though it’s way more common nowadays to just replace the loaded strut assembly (strut+spring+upper plate) than it is to disassemble the thing and replace just the spring. replacing coil springs is a rather cagey process involving spring compressors and if something goes wrong people can get hurt. your mechanic is probably recommending that you replace both because it’s an 11 to 12 year old car.
that said, from a safety standpoint there isn’t likely to be much danger; the corner with the broken spring will bottom out earlier than the others but the wheels aren’t going to fall off or anything.
I currently have a broken spring and what I was told is that the biggest danger is that I’ll hit a bump and the remainder of the spring might work its way loose and end up puncturing the tire.
I’m no mechanic but personally, it’s not worth the risk. If that spring has already failed to a certain degree there’s no guarantee that it wont fail completely, especially under a full load. Now, at highway speed, a failed spring will cause that corner of the suspension to drop completely and there is NO WAY that would be safe, ESPECIALLY on the front corner.
I’ve replaces springs only on a strut so I’m questioning your mechanics claim that it has to be done as a pair. It’s probably a good idea to replace the strut at the same time because you’ve already pulled a lot of the strut free from the chassis just to do the spring but I see no reason why you would have to.
How long was the piece that broke off? IIRC, there’s pretty much a complete coil of the spring that’s seated in the tray. A couple/few inches off the end isn’t going to hurt anything as long as there’s enough “meat” of the bottom spring still seated in the tray. Of course, if your trip involves bombing down pot-holed gravel roads, YMMV (both figuratively and literally).
Regarding the strut, if it isn’t leaking, frozen or otherwise beat to death, there’s no reason to replace it.
Your mechanic appears to be a “Gotta be OEM Spec” guy, as opposed to one who’s a “the car’s 12 years old, let’s just keep her rolling” kind of guy. Nothing wrong with that, but sometimes the latter is the better choice with a car that old, depending on the malfunction.
Wow, thanks for the fast response and great info, folks. I’m definitely leaning towards just letting it go for now. The trip is all good highway except for the last 100 yards on a gravel road, which I can certainly take very slow.
No it’s not safe especially for a loaded vehicle with your kids in it.
$700 is a pretty good price for replacing 2 struts and springs. If you plan on keeping the Honda, replacing the struts makes a lot of sense. You have to do the same labor, actually more, to replace just the spring. The mechanic can probably buy complete strut/spring assemblies which are cheaper that the struts and springs separately plus takes less time to install.
One question: Does you Honda has struts or springs? McPherson struts basically have the spring as part of the assembly. If it has separate shocks and spring, then you might be able to get away with just the spring. However I’d still recommend doing both springs as if one broke, the other ain’t far behind. Plus changing the shocks anyway can lead to better handling and could make a big difference in a panic stop.
