MOT: Will it fail? Advisory? Condemned?

Howzat

Howzat

Senior Member
T6 Legend
So I jumped in my van today and there was a "TWANG".
Thought it was the door spring as I was closing the door but that was fine so my 2nd suspision was the H&R coil but when I looked there wasn't a noticable drop.
Anyway, went for a drive and there was some knocking going on then part of my coil fell off. :(

IMG_1314.JPG

So it looks like 0.5 of the bottom of the coil has snapped off!
Looking at the van there doesn't seem to be a noticable further drop and the knocking has stopped and seems to be driving OK so far.

Problem I now have is it's booked in for an MOT on Thursday which expires 25th Jan.
If I took it for the test would this be an advisory, condemned or fail?
 
  • Wow
Reactions: CAB
brokem spring is an MOT fail im afraid. I had a rear one on my van fail it. atleast you know in advance, you could always buy a new pair and get the garage change it first before the MOT?
 
Bummer, but I suspected as much.
Problem is getting a replacement spring in the next couple of days. All I can find in the UK are full kits. Nobody seems to sell individual springs or even a pair in the UK.
I can only find pairs on Autodoc and they wont be here by Tuesday so I can get them fitted Wednesday.
To make matters worse the MOT is booked uner the ALL IN plan at a VW dealer and there's not a cat in hells chance I'm paying their labour rates to fit it.
 
Howzat said:
Bummer, but I suspected as much.
Problem is getting a replacement spring in the next couple of days. All I can find in the UK are full kits. Nobody seems to sell individual springs or even a pair in the UK.
I can only find pairs on Autodoc and they wont be here by Tuesday so I can get them fitted Wednesday.
To make matters worse the MOT is booked uner the ALL IN plan at a VW dealer and there's not a cat in hells chance I'm paying their labour rates to fit it.
Click to expand...
Pop down to see me for a coffee in Birmingum, there's a place next door to us that will do you an un-contested MOT for £60... cash obviously..!
 
Drive Wayne said:
Pop down to see me for a coffee in Birmingum, there's a place next door to us that will do you an un-contested MOT for £60... cash obviously..!
Click to expand...
Very tempting especially as I'm fairly certain it's only that spring that would fail.
Think I'm gonna have to get a kit on next day, use one spring, buy a pair on auto doc then return the original kit. What a faff.
Will also have a spare 1550 front H&R spring available if anyone else gets in the same situation.
 
Howzat said:
Very tempting especially as I'm fairly certain it's only that spring that would fail.
Think I'm gonna have to get a kit on next day, use one spring, buy a pair on auto doc then return the original kit. What a faff.
Will also have a spare 1550 front H&R spring available if anyone else gets in the same situation.
Click to expand...
Have you tried crs ?
 
I don't understand why I'd change both with the extra cost involved.
I had a spring to on another van go and only changed one side and ran the van for another 3 years before selling it so that's my experience.
If the other goes its the same cost and at least I'll have a spring ready if I do have to buy a pair.

@CRS Performance. Do you supply single springs?
 
My understanding is that springs change over their lives so a new one will behave differently to a used one. Good enough reason to have them changed in pairs for me. Presumably this is why they are rarely sold singly. False economy to change just one and have the chance of the handling being affected.
 
I can see the sense in that. Will mull it over. Springs failing after less than 20k is a pretty poor show.
 
Howzat said:
I don't understand why I'd change both with the extra cost involved.
I had a spring to on another van go and only changed one side and ran the van for another 3 years before selling it so that's my experience.
If the other goes its the same cost and at least I'll have a spring ready if I do have to buy a pair.

@CRS Performance. Do you supply single springs?
Click to expand...
Yes we do
 
Howzat said:
I can see the sense in that. Will mull it over. Springs failing after less than 20k is a pretty poor show.
Click to expand...
ALL the spring manufacturers give a similar account of what makes springs break . There are factors like highly stressed lowering springs , Weight carried , etc but the general consensus is the cold weather . I have met a representative of the company that supplies all the spring steel to pretty much everyone in the industry and there isnt a difference in quality of the Silicon steel that they all use . we have probably sold over 25 000 springs in the last 5 years so we have a lot of kits out there and this time of the year is when clients get breakages more so.
Standard VW springs also break BUT not as often because they aren't stressed as much .

Generally from a safety perspective ,SHOCKS should be replaced in pairs but not springs , some OCD clients like to replace the springs in pairs of course , there is no harm in it ,.
 
European manufacturers tend not to profile the spring ends like the Japanese manufacturers do, thus they are more prone to breaking by design.
 
Sasquatch said:
European manufacturers tend not to profile the spring ends like the Japanese manufacturers do, thus they are more prone to breaking by design.
Click to expand...
That and our roads are a disgrace to drive on... keep increasing tax etc but roads are getting worse... broken springs getting more and more common to fail :mad:
 
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