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Post by johnc on Jun 3, 2020 8:12:36 GMT
The wife of the same friend who has just bought the M2C was driving in to a petrol station at the weekend in her 2 year old Mini Cooper S when the suspension on one side collapsed. Mini were duly called and a flat bed arrived to take the car away whilst a courtesy car was delivered.
The car was taken to the joint BMW/Mini dealer in the centre of town that I refuse to use because they are rip off merchants and also damaged my car years ago. My friend received a call yesterday to say that it was not going to be treated as a warranty claim because she must have hit a pothole. The spring has broken and has gouged both the tyre and wheel (the same as happened to me) and they want over £1,200 to fix it.
No matter how my friend tried to argue his point, they refused to make a warranty claim and said they must have driven into a pothole or a kerb. He has had the car uplifted and refuses to let them do any work. Looks like they have just done themselves out of the M2 servicing as well.
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Jun 3, 2020 8:24:13 GMT
Women do tend to hit a lot of potholes...
Realistically, with modern manufacturing techniques on springs it's unlikely to be a manufacturing defect.
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Post by PetrolEd on Jun 3, 2020 8:25:35 GMT
When you hear things like this, I do have to think why they persist in it not being a warranty claim. I can only assume manufacturers are complete b'stards and don't pay the dealer if they do this sort of work and claim back from them the cost.
I had similar with Porsche when they didn't want to install a new part onto the GT4 under warranty. The heater unit wouldn't work and the fix was you had to go into the front compartment, unclip the plastic covering, open another plastic unit, stick you hand down some pipe and then spin the fan as it use to seize up. Porsche thought this was acceptable the customer had to do this every time and initially refused to replace the unit under warranty. To be fair to my dealer only a short bit of grumbling got them to do it for me free but you have to ask why they push back on doing work.
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Post by LandieMark on Jun 3, 2020 8:51:20 GMT
Dealers make a loss on warranty work as the manufacturers screw them down to buttons and time allowed, so they want to do as little as possible.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2020 9:22:45 GMT
Isn't the possibility of hitting a pothole one of the reasons why cars have suspension?! If a car can't hit a bump without the springs snapping then I'd say it wasn't fit for purpose.
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Post by Tim on Jun 3, 2020 9:38:09 GMT
Isn't the possibility of hitting a pothole one of the reasons why cars have suspension?! If a car can't hit a bump without the springs snapping then I'd say it wasn't fit for purpose. Agreed up to a point but I've hit so many in the 320 that I fear that at some point something is going to give way - be it the wheel itself or the suspension. In its defence it's nearly 7 years old and has done 119k miles rather than a presumably low mileage 2 year old. |
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Jun 3, 2020 10:25:14 GMT
Isn't the possibility of hitting a pothole one of the reasons why cars have suspension?! If a car can't hit a bump without the springs snapping then I'd say it wasn't fit for purpose. Some of the potholes you see if you were to hit them at speed the impact forces would be tremendous. I think, much like a tyre damaged in similar fashion, it's one of those things you just have to suck up. Maybe try an insurance claim? My mother had something similar years ago and when we interrogated her it turns out she'd clouted a curb on the way out of a car park. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2020 10:25:31 GMT
I've hit holes big enough to buckle wheels but I've never had my suspension collopse. That isn't normal.
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Post by johnc on Jun 3, 2020 10:49:49 GMT
There was no evidence of damage to the tyre or wheel from having hit a pothole. The only damage was from the sharp end of the broken spring which took a fresh gouge out of the wheel and tyre. My broken spring was covered under warranty but the damage to the tyre wasn't, which I found rather distasteful since the failure of the spring caused the damage.
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Post by michael on Jun 3, 2020 10:58:52 GMT
My broken spring was covered under warranty but the damage to the tyre wasn't, which I found rather distasteful since the failure of the spring caused the damage. Volvo did something similar. The plastic cladding on the roof started to peel away and it scratched the front wing. I suggested they repair it and they claimed it was nothing to do with them. It's that kind of utterly shit service that has you avoiding a brand at all costs. |
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Post by Tim on Jun 3, 2020 11:50:40 GMT
The only time it happened to me was driving my original Stilo and fortunately the jagged end of the spring didn't damage the wheel or tyre as I'm sure Arnold Clarks would've been similarly unhelpful.
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Post by Roadrunner on Jun 3, 2020 17:59:18 GMT
I had a spring break on the ZT-T, but that was a common problem with them. Fortunately there was no other damage and it was easily replaced. Many other owners were not so lucky and, through the ZT-T Forum, there was a plate available which you could easily fit to the front strut to catch any errant broken springs.
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Post by LandieMark on Jun 3, 2020 18:35:53 GMT
The MX-5 had a broken spring for ages without us even knowing!
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Post by PG on Jun 3, 2020 18:45:01 GMT
Before we had our drive properly surfaced, the A3 we had at the time broke two front springs over a three year period (both at the same side). Ironic really as we had not had the drive done as we didn't have the spare cash. So that was daily extra wear and tear rather than one big pot-hole.
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Post by Tim on Jun 4, 2020 8:15:05 GMT
The MX-5 had a broken spring for ages without us even knowing! That's common, I had both fronts replaced at separate times on the Coupe and both rears on the white E46. It's when they go with a bang that its most startling. It happened on my 2nd Stilo one time I shut the passenger door. I thought someone had fired a shot! |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2020 8:19:33 GMT
The MX-5 had a broken spring for ages without us even knowing! Same with Mrs 12th's A3. Not sure what that says about suspension tuning or my sensitivity. It was the noise that alerted us! |
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Jun 4, 2020 8:24:42 GMT
What tends to happen with vehicle springs is a single or a number of heavy impacts can compress the spring to the point the coils rub together and this removes the protective paint applied in manufacture. Once that happens you get corrosion, which leads to corrosion pitting and crack propagation. Then it's just a matter of time and compression cycles before it fails, so it can suddenly fail even in normal use.
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Post by Roadsterstu on Jun 4, 2020 8:28:26 GMT
Broken springs are surprisingly common. And I'm not surprised given the way some drivers - and I seem to notice it being women more often than not - hammering over speed bumps.
How sure are they that it hasn't been caused by a pothole or a series of bashings from speed bumps? I see the garage's point to be honest.
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Post by Tim on Jun 4, 2020 8:31:49 GMT
Just remembered that the M5 snapped a front spring 3 years ago.
While it was parked for a few weeks in my parents garage!
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Jun 4, 2020 9:09:52 GMT
Just remembered that the M5 snapped a front spring 3 years ago. While it was parked for a few weeks in my parents garage! They'd obviously been out hooning about in it, doughnuts, J turns etc. |
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Post by Tim on Jun 4, 2020 9:16:12 GMT
Obviously!!
They managed to camouflage any damage on the wing from the tyre rubbing well though....
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Post by racingteatray on Jun 4, 2020 11:15:15 GMT
On the black Z1, the handling at the rear started to be interesting at one point, so it had to go to Munich Legends for some TLC. Some 7-8 yrs later, I cannot however now recall whether it was one of the rear springs or shock absorbers that had failed.
That was the last time I ever had anything like that happened. Although the adaptive suspension on the M135i used to occasionally loudly clonk maddeningly at the front from new. It was one of those "oh they all do that Sir" things. The adaptive suspension on my GC hasn't been so afflicted.
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