Bad timing or what

[davyayr]

So, we are heading for Dornafield in Devon with arrival on Saturday 23.09.23.
Starting our journey late afternoon Friday 22nd with a sleepover somewhere on the journey.
Caravan ready to go. Washed, polished and deep cleaned. M'Lady is OCD on cleaning.
So going to work today, I hear a "clunk" while sitting at traffic lights.
Quick check later and one rear coil spring has snapped on car.
Booked in, or more like squeezed in at my local garage for Thursday for 2 springs.
Talk about bad timing but at 112k miles not so bad.
So if anyone there from 23 Sept on, Blue BMW 5 series and Bailey Unicorn Madrid.
Feel free to say hello.
Chilled beer always available. 👍

 

[Fraseb01]

Thankfully the rear springs is a quick easy job , enjoy your trip

 

[woodsieboy]

Lucky you weren't towing at the time

 

[Beachball]

Would agree with 112k on car and a coil spring is not bad at all pleased you are putting a pair on enjoy your trip to Devon

 

[audiorob]

Loved Dornafield when we were last there - spacious pitches with water, drainage and Chem disposal points between pairs of pitches as well as two excellent facility blocks and oodles of greenery! Good food in the pub at the end of the lane. Is it C&MC now? Have a great time!

 

[otherclive]

I had a rear spring break on a Subaru Forester XT. I had both replaced and the fitting charge at a local garage was £70.

 

[Milkfloat]

Sounds like good timing to me - bad timing would be on the M5 on your way down with a caravan on the back. Good luck with the repair.

 

[Jcloughie]

Have a great time. When we had the van we usually went away at this time of the year in decent weather. Hope it improves for you.

John

 

[Sam Vimes]

There's never a good time for this sort of thing so I hope there's not too much disruption to your life.

I drove around for almost 2 years with a broken rear spring. We only realised it was broken when we bought the caravan. There was the occassional 'crack' sound from the rear when we went over sharp bumps like speed bumps on sites. I thought it was just some stuff in the locker of the caravan bouncing around. Spent some time putting in some damping material in the bottom of the locker and wrapping stuff up. It never seemed to make much difference.

Come the MOT and the car sailed through so we kept on towing for another year. Then the second MOT found the cracked spring. Not split in half but just the last few centimeters which meant most of the spring was intact but it wasn't securely fixed in place - which explained the cracking sound. So much for MOT thoroughness.

 

[davyayr]

Loved Dornafield when we were last there - spacious pitches with water, drainage and Chem disposal points between pairs of pitches as well as two excellent facility blocks and oodles of greenery! Good food in the pub at the end of the lane. Is it C&MC now? Have a great time!

Hi. Yes C&HC site now, since November 2022 I believe.

Beautiful site and fairly well occupied, even given the dates we were there.

First impression was good but couldn't help thinking that costs are being cut already.

Simple things like the site roadside lights (one's where bins are) all switched off. Needed a torch to go to the loo.

The grey water waste point was tricky. Had to do a bit of nettle removal to see the drain.

Silly things but you know what I mean.

Still love the site and will be back next year at sometime.

Loved Dornafield when we were last there - spacious pitches with water, drainage and Chem disposal points between pairs of pitches as well as two excellent facility blocks and oodles of greenery! Good food in the pub at the end of the lane. Is it C&MC now? Have a great time!

 

[davyayr]

Thankfully the rear springs is a quick easy job , enjoy your trip

If only it was an easy job. It's a BMW 5 series M-Sport with the optional Airbag suspension upgrade. Very rare. Now I know why. Bought used and would never had specked it if I was buying new.
On the plus side I still have both kidneys.

 

[davyayr]

There's never a good time for this sort of thing so I hope there's not too much disruption to your life.

I drove around for almost 2 years with a broken rear spring. We only realised it was broken when we bought the caravan. There was the occassional 'crack' sound from the rear when we went over sharp bumps like speed bumps on sites. I thought it was just some stuff in the locker of the caravan bouncing around. Spent some time putting in some damping material in the bottom of the locker and wrapping stuff up. It never seemed to make much difference.

Come the MOT and the car sailed through so we kept on towing for another year. Then the second MOT found the cracked spring. Not split in half but just the last few centimetres which meant most of the spring was intact but it wasn't securely fixed in place - which explained the cracking sound. So much for MOT thoroughness.

I'm a mechanic to trade and never had a spring break anywhere else than the last few inches. It should have been found though on MOT 1. Hope you go somewhere else for MOT's now.

 

[Jcloughie]

If only it was an easy job. It's a BMW 5 series M-Sport with the optional Airbag suspension upgrade. Very rare. Now I know why. Bought used and would never had specked it if I was buying new.
On the plus side I still have both kidneys.

My son had airbags fail on his 5 series estate in France. Once home he had it fixed and was pleasently surprised at hope quick and cheap a job it was.

Probably 20 years ago, but might be similar today.

John

 

[davyayr]

There is a recall a recall on drivers Airbags now. 6 months waiting time a least

 

[Jcloughie]

There is a recall a recall on drivers Airbags now. 6 months waiting time a least

Just to be clear, I meant suspension airbags in my previous post. I should have realised there are two types.

John

 

[otherclive]

My son had airbags fail on his 5 series estate in France. Once home he had it fixed and was pleasently surprised at hope quick and cheap a job it was.

Probably 20 years ago, but might be similar today.

John

Last year the offside rear spring on my Forester XT dumped the lower section on the drive. Subaru parts were not available quickly so I bought a set of Pedders coil overs, but they didn’t have the self levelling function of the OEM units, but separated the roles of the spring and damper. After a recovery truck took the car to a local garage it was an hours Labour to fit the new units. Around £70 ish and they gave an improved ride and loss of self levelling was not noticeable.