Front springs BMW 5 series
Turbo Mini Forums

Anyone ever changed them? Just found one of mine is broke, God knows when that happened it drove fine on the way home from work yesterday (through country lanes going faster than I should have been going) but just went to take our son out to get a motherday pressie and the spring is all bound up against the tyre and I cant get new ones til Monday lunchtime. Bugger!

I seriously doubt it!

Undo hub pinchbolt, undo and remove rear lower arm (inner) bolt, undo droplink bracket bolt, turn steering full lock so the rack is shortest on the side in question, undo 3 topmount bolts, hold onto strut carefully lower and pull down a little and itll clear the arch(remeber front lower arm and tie rod end still attached) once clear of arch lightly wedge a chisel in hub to open it a fraction of a mm. Pull out strut. Spring change is then as-per any macpherson strut but be aware of orientation and position of washer below strut top bearing, and also use vice grips and a section of old timing belt(or similar) to clamp strut shaft where it enters damper as they pull themselfs in making spring fitment near impossible.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

Wow, nice advice, cheers.
Looks like I wont be going to work on Monday morning, Ill be fitting springs instead.
I take it its best to do them in pairs?

I seriously doubt it!

I've always done springs in pairs like dampers but plenty of mechanics will happily just replace the damaged side only. Not my preference though

Edited by Rob Gavin on 5th Mar, 2016.

I advise to change as a pair but wouldnt and dont feel the slightest but guilty just changing one. Depends how much you can be arsed to do as the springs arnt too dear, even from bmw.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

I would do a pair, i did the touran a few weeks back.

I could see one was broken so bought a pair, went to change the one that did not look broken and it came out in three pieces.

Edited by wolfie on 7th Mar, 2016.

Is it common for springs to break in suck a way that the car is still drivable? Do they tend to break close to one end?

generally break at the ends, and generally a car is still driveable if the spring seat can catch the spring. my e60 broke a front spring and itwas undriveable as the spring shimmy'd down the strut around the spring seat. on your average motor, broken springs dont affect the car atall and are only picked up come MOT time.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

When the one on our BINI went, it ripped out the abs sensor and left the tyre almost rubbing the arch.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

Thanks Denis, your step by step guide was spot on, not that Id expect anything else, Was a little awkward but the broken spring is now replaced, Ill do the other one at the weekend since I had to take a days holiday Id rather spend some of it on the Sprint

I seriously doubt it!

no worries, glad it helped, took a bit to find a technique that avoided splitting any ball-joints and fresh in my head as the same technique is applied to most any bmw made after 2005 ish

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

Great bit of info there Denis, clearly you've done a few! I'll have to try and remember this should I ever have to do one on mine.

Had a spring go on the clio, it snapped at the top and sat about 100mm lower. Other went en rote to change the other side, end up replacing all springs in the end

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-Rover 100 VVC #2 - track project

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