Hi all.
I’ve replaced both front coil springs of my wife’s MK3. They basically went almost at the same time and it never seizes to amaze me how often coils spring break in modern cars. The rear ones were done by the previous owners and the car has just passed 62k miles.

Ford wanted nearly £500 to do the job, but I paid less than £100 for the original Ford springs and saved a bunch.
The focus mk3 shares a similar front suspension setup with the mk2 as well as the second generation Volvo S40, Volvo V50 and Volvo C30. Part numbers may differ as well as the strut braces.

 

 

2 minutes ago, gentil79 said:

They basically went almost at the same time and it never seizes to amaze me how often coils spring break in modern cars. The rear ones were done by the previous owners and the car has just passed 62k miles.

It's not the modern cars that's the problem. It's the prehistoric potholed roads that's the problem. 😧

1 hour ago, unofix said:

It's not the modern cars that's the problem. It's the prehistoric potholed roads that's the problem. 😧

Yes, roads are terrible these days, but I had many 20+ year old cars that still had their original springs. My 1974 BMW 520 still has the original shocks and springs, although, the front shocks are shot. 

 

4 hours ago, gentil79 said:

My 1974 BMW 520 still has the original shocks and springs,

Agreed.

Might be a combination of causes, but I avoid potholes as much as I can and have owned cars since the 1970s but it's only my current 2013 Ford that has had coil springs snap.  I think it's age rather than mileage/use that kills them - corrosion, I believe is the major issue.

17 hours ago, unofix said:

It's not the modern cars that's the problem. It's the prehistoric potholed roads that's the problem

Hmmm . . . both front springs went on our old Mk3 by around 30K miles. Our 12-year-old Mk2.5 is still soldiering on at over 50K so I think there's more to it than our third-world roads (It really enrages me when I hear people saying what a rich country the UK is when our infrastructure is crumbling and our care system is on it's knees!!).

Pigtail spring design is one of the reasons modern springs snap more often.  The difference in force through the spring creates weak points.  However they are better for comfort, design is always a compromise.

Modern cars also generally have lower profile tyres.  The tyre is the first 'level' of suspension...if there's no give in it, all the force it transmitted up into the spring.

Then there's poor mounting design, that allows water (and salt!) to sit in the base of the spring cup waiting for a tiny nick in the spring coating to start causing rust.

And lastly...everything is made 'worse' nowadays thanks to CAD.  There's no longer a need to waste money & material over-engineering parts when you can see exactly how good they need to be to outlast the warranty period.

31 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Pigtail spring design is one of the reasons modern springs snap more often.

Do any modern Ford cars have Pigtailed springs?, I can't remember seeing many.

I thought it was the other way round and forming the pigtail tempered the spring and made it stronger. I fully agree with everything else you said though.

I guess you could say it's more of a taper than a full pigtail, but even the latest generation of Fords (MK4 Focus, Mk8 Fiesta etc) don't use straight springs.

2 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

I guess you could say it's more of a taper than a full pigtail, but even the latest generation of Fords (MK4 Focus, Mk8 Fiesta etc) don't use straight springs.

That does surprise me, I must have a look the next time I'm under the car.

3 minutes ago, Tizer said:

That does surprise me, I must have a look the next time I'm under the car.

Ford have even patented the rear springs on the latest non-IRS models.  They're 'force vectoring' which is meant to be so effective it'll even compensate for the lack of IRS on the Focus...as well as being lighter weight and of course cheaper to produce.  They were initially used on the Fiesta ST.

As the spring itself is specifically designed to take forces in certain areas, I would expect the most modern Fords to snap rear springs even more often than older ones...  And because of the force-vectoring, they're sided and not interchangeable.  I can see a lot of budget aftermarket spring manufacturers getting this wrong in future, and knocking the precision balance out of the handling.

On my wife’s car they snapped at the bottom and almost exactly in the same place. 

8 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

lack of IRS on the Focus

but not on the Estate 😀 🎉

mind you I've no idea if I have side way mounted Jedi springs - May the force be with you !!

It just occurred to me that my wife had a mk1 KA before the Focus and in 8 years of ownership the car never had a broken spring. And it was daily driven in the notoriously crappy Surrey country lanes.