After power steering pipes, thermostat, coolant leak. 

Driving home yesterday the front coil spring broke.

Are they easy to do yourself, most garages quoted me 160-180 each side. 

Thanks guys again

I wouldn't recommend doing it yourself in all honesty.  One small slip with the spring compressors and you could get decapitated as the spring flies out.

If you can get a complete strut and spring from a breakers yard then it's easy to swap the whole lot as one assembly.  Just need to make sure it's off roughly the same engine and spec of car.

1 hour ago, madman said:

Are they easy to do yourself

Don't do it !!

 

2 hours ago, madman said:

After power steering pipes, thermostat, coolant leak. 

Driving home yesterday the front coil spring broke.

Are they easy to do yourself, most garages quoted me 160-180 each side. 

Thanks guys again

Get it towed to a garage and do not attempt to drive it. You need a team with the right tools to get it done for safety. Having broken springs on the road is a criminal offence, best to get a guarantee from a garage

2 hours ago, madman said:

Driving home yesterday the front coil spring broke.

Are they easy to do yourself, most garages quoted me 160-180 each side. 

Thanks guys again

You're a lucky man. I bought my car with advisories that all coil springs were corroded. After I got new tyres, I spoke to several local garages about the coil springs and the general advice was that one fast turn or one pothole and a piece of the spring could jam the wheel or pierce the tyre and cause an almost definite crash. 

For something like that, I'd advise you ask a garage to replace all of them if you already have one gone. 

I paid about £450 for all coil springs and an o/s/r suspension arm from a local independent garage. My comfort level has drastically improved. 

Think you may need to factor in replacing the springs as a pair - partly as preventive maintenance before the other side decides to fail too, and also to balance the front of the car either from having new and old springs mixed or struggle to find a match for the original factory spec spring

13 hours ago, troy45 said:

Think you may need to factor in replacing the springs as a pair - partly as preventive maintenance before the other side decides to fail too, and also to balance the front of the car either from having new and old springs mixed or struggle to find a match for the original factory spec spring

While that is best practice, I've replaced quite a few singly without an issue.  Obviously wouldn't recommend it on a performance car, but on a normal car it's likely to be fine.

Fair enough 👍

Well car is done

Took out this morning it was fine, gone out tonight and the thing don't moves.

Loose pedal and extremely high clutch pedal. 

Scrap heap incoming 

Had a quote on it 500 pound to do it 3 part clutch. I'm thinking not worth it on on age and mileage, others saying yeah get the repair.  

Any helpful sensible advice please.

55 minutes ago, madman said:

Had a quote on it 500 pound to do it 3 part clutch. I'm thinking not worth it on on age and mileage, others saying yeah get the repair.  

Any helpful sensible advice please.

Personally I'd repair, enjoy the car some more. The paperwork involved in swapping cars is enough to put me off lol.  Up to you.

1 hour ago, madman said:

Had a quote on it 500 pound to do it 3 part clutch. I'm thinking not worth it on on age and mileage, others saying yeah get the repair.  

Any helpful sensible advice please.

If the rest of the car is in good nick, id repair it. Then you know exactly what you have. Spending 1000's on another car means you'd be buying someone else's trouble in all likelyhood. Just my ramblings.

For balance, I'd have already scrapped it.  Too many failures in a short space of time.  I wouldn't trust it.  And I wouldn't be able to justify the costs financially either.

There isn't any paperwork involved in swapping cars, just change the V5 online, tax it online and change insurance either online or over the phone.  Takes a matter of minutes.

Now having to deal with real people in the real world for buying and selling, that's what puts me off!

I've contacted the scrap yard they buy cars but they said yard at full capacity this month.

They has been a lot. 

Thermostat been gone a about 8 months just left it until few weeks ago to replace. 

Then that was followed by rad hose splitting.

The steering pipes the Union nut went in December. 

The coil spring drivers side broke Sunday just gone was rusty, already replaced the passengers 5 years back.

Then yesterday the clutch went loose and biting point very high, still goes in gear but pedal biting point at very very very top. It's a struggle to move it. I put it in 3rd gear on driveway last night and let clutch up and it didn't stall just carry on.

Think it's unusual for clutch go suddenly usually a slip.

 

What u guys think 

Had a small local garage mechanic today checked it over and clutch is gone.

I've been quoted 380 for 3 part clutch.

What u think

Sounds like it'll be a cheap brand and fail again within a year.  Probably Transmech...

44 minutes ago, madman said:

What u guys think 

Had a small local garage mechanic today checked it over and clutch is gone.

I've been quoted 380 for 3 part clutch.

What u think

Does that include the coil spring? Have you replaced the coil spring yet? It's illegal to have broken coil springs so just checking you've done it? £2500 fine, points on licence, driving ban, and possible prison for driving a car unsafe. 

Also 380 for clutch sounds a little too cheap

 

4 minutes ago, Eli_P said:

Does that include the coil spring? Have you replaced the coil spring yet? It's illegal to have broken coil springs so just checking you've done it? £2500 fine, points on licence, driving ban, and possible prison for driving a car unsafe.

I think you'd be surprised by how many people are driving around with snapped springs right now.  It's one of the most common MOT failures.  People don't even realise until they get to MOT.

18 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

I think you'd be surprised by how many people are driving around with snapped springs right now.  It's one of the most common MOT failures.  People don't even realise until they get to MOT.

Very true. Brakes is another I see all the time. Walk past an older car and see the disks are rusty to the point they'll probably barely stop the car, if at all.

Just shows the importance of regular servicing and inspection. For safety as well as saving ourselves fines etc. Very rare that the police on the road would notice a coil spring broken but if they did stop someone thinking something doesn't look right you can be looking at a very bad day. 

1 minute ago, Eli_P said:

Very true. Brakes is another I see all the time. Walk past an older car and see the disks are rusty. 

Just shows the importance of regular servicing and inspection. For safety as well as saving ourselves fines etc

It depends on the area you live in and, I'm sad to say, what you look like as well.  In a decade of driving I only ever got pulled over once, and it was raining so they didn't bother to even check the basics such as tyres.  I was pulled over for 'looking young in a sporty car'...  

Police checks don't happen often unless you drive a car that stands out or have personal features that stand out from behind the windscreen.  Most people would have to be very unlucky to get pulled over for a police check in the real world.

I do agree that we should all be making basic checks regularly, particularly tyres, wipers and bulbs (the number of bulb failures I see is ridiculous!) but I feel the idea of fines and prison needed to be balanced in this case, that's very unlikely to happen.

On 3/24/2025 at 6:58 PM, madman said:

After power steering pipes, thermostat, coolant leak. 

Driving home yesterday the front coil spring broke.

Are they easy to do yourself, most garages quoted me 160-180 each side. 

Thanks guys again

Speak of bad luck! 
 

I’m suffering worsted luck!

My previous focus 1.0 EcoBoom that I had for six months till coolant pipe decided busted it leading head gasket blown requesting £3K to repair. Not meant to one month earlier before head gasket fail, it’s got new suspension arms done due mot failure. End up breaker due found better Focus for price value.

 

Now I purchased same model Focus but different Ecoboost engine, got month owned till someone decided couldn’t use their eyes and hit my lower front bumper part left scene with damaged. Then, three days after I got my Focus back from insurance, the warning of Engine Service Now lit up dashboard.

 

Comparing my bad luck and your, I can say your luck is better than mine…

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

I was pulled over for 'looking young in a sporty car'..

Yes but back then the police were still on push bikes 🤣

Every broken Front Coil Spring that have seen has broken at the bottom where it sits on the Pan and rusts because the mud there is nearly always wet and with most cars you need to jack the car up a bit and run your hand along the Coils to feel the break.

Also with a break like this you will struggle to notice the difference in height between the sides.

Yeah that correct it's at the very bottom in the pan nearly at the very end of the coil. 

Update in clutch prices. A friend who works in garage will do it as private job 390 but he's yard is out in sticks and hour on 2 buses and 15 mins walk

The local garage 5 mins away said about 400, I said to confirm final price before it's booked in and now 420 and he said he can collect it and deliver back on his truck also. 

What u guys think. 

Cheers

8 hours ago, madman said:

Yeah that correct it's at the very bottom in the pan nearly at the very end of the coil. 

Update in clutch prices. A friend who works in garage will do it as private job 390 but he's yard is out in sticks and hour on 2 buses and 15 mins walk

The local garage 5 mins away said about 400, I said to confirm final price before it's booked in and now 420 and he said he can collect it and deliver back on his truck also. 

What u guys think. 

Cheers

Yes sounds reasonable for clutch to me. But please confirm you've book in for coil replacement too? XD sorry to be the one who keeps asking