Moving car with broken coil spring
 

I've got a broken front coil spring. Fortunately it happened when the car was parked up as the spring is sitting on the tyre - I've only found out about the protectors in the last couple of days :duh:
Unfortunately the car isn't at home so I need to get it there (on a tow truck obviously!!) But, I need to get it onto the tow truck then into my drive at the other end.

Is there any way of lifting the spring off the tyre so it doesn't catch as I would rather not have to replace it if I can help it - or do I just bite the bullet and hope for the best?

I'm not very familiar with broken springs as I've only had 2 previously in 35 cars - had one fixed & sold the other.

This also answers the dilemma of whether to take the car off the road when the MOT runs out. I had too many jobs to do anyway so I'll put it in the garage & take my time!

I am not sure if this will help but could be worth a try.Do you have the standard space saver wheel as a spare ?If you have try changing it for the standard road wheel The space saver is narrower in width and may just clear the broken spring enough to get it onto the two truck:shrug:

When one of my front springs broke it too settled on the tyre, the only solution I could think of at the time which would save the tyre was an angle grinder. I had a spring compressor to take up the slack and cut a few inches off the broken coil and then removed the tyre.

Mind you I never had to move the car as it happened in my driveway.

Regards

When my o/s coil spring broke on the M6 and took the tyre out, I put the spacesaver on and drove around 400 yards on it into Knutsford services. The spring was rubbing on the tyre wall but didn't puncture it, so you might be OK getting it onto the tow truck.

As Vitesse says, chop off the protruding piece of spring using an angle grinder, then pop on a space saver, all will be well.

If its of any use, a decent tow truck will have a trolley that they can put under a wheel so that it does not need to rotate.

Some useful ideas there. I'm sure it's got a full size steel spare but I'm not so bothered about the tyre on that so might just swap it. Or go to lidl for a cordless angle grinder! Cheers

If you remove the wheel you may find that you can't get full sized wheel back on as the spring will drop. A space saver will work if you smear the inside of the tyre with washing up liquid so it will slide against the broken spring. I know as I've done it to load one of mine onto a truck a long time ago.

If i'm called out to a broken spring in my work patrol van, I fit transportation blocks to the strut to take off the weight, then fit our emergency spacesaver with a spacer which normally leaves a good gap away from the spring and drive it to the garage.

My previous 75 broke a front spring while parked on the 2nd floor of a multi-storey car park.
The breakdown truck arrived but obviously couldn't get to me. I jacked the car up and the spring moved from the side-wall to the top of the tyre. As I couldn't do anything else with it, I lowered the car and drove it out like that. It sounded and felt dreadful but I made it down the ramps and on to the lorry. Half way home we had to switch lorries. I was sure my luck would run out but it made it off the lorry and on to the next one. Once home, the lorry wouldn't fit down my drive so I again drove it with the broken spring resting on the top of the tyre.
Once home I could swap the spring. There was no sign of anything more than rubbing on the tyre, I swapped it to the rear but it was fine.
I was amazed that I got away with it.