any tips for protecting new springs?
 

I am after some tips for protecting new rear springs as then seem to be prone to snapping at the bottom.

I am contemplating spraying the end rubber with wax oil before fitting and then spraying the first coil or two

macafee2

The springs should come with a plastic coating on them, wax then with grease & for more protection you could always add some conduit, which can be taken off for the MOT

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...+15mm&_sacat=0

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Conduit-S...Tigl32cgmBNR8g

Good old coatings on items that simply used to get painted. The coil springs in varied states presented at MOT's is a concern as the great powder coating gets chipped, and the water ingress eats away behind the coating rendering the coating like pork crackling, as this peels away the corrosion is clear to see.
We cannot beat this issue, but a good coating of grease is a policy that I adopt, also there needs to be a good drain away for water to escape from the insulators especially on the rears. Once the coating is chipped, it's only a matter of time really before the spring lets go, depends how unlucky you are.

It doesn't matter very much if you paint them or not. They are very unlikely to rust away.

What makes them break is very cold weather usually.

The steel can get very brittle and just snap.

Some have been reported as breaking whilst parked on a driveway overnight. A sudden sharp drop in temperature seems to make them snap.---:eek:

Steel of any reasonable quality (let alone spring steel) will not alter state nor nature under the range of 'low' ambient temperatures we encounter in the British Isles nor usually in places like Siberia in January.
I would suggest that the phenomenum often reported here in relation to "..they snap when it's cold" is likely due to stress fractures that have developed in the steel (sometimes these originate at sites where there is local corrosion i.e. a sharp change of cross-section) and attract moisture that freezes at 3C or lower temperatures which then, as ice, expands and then acts as a high pressure 'wedge/wedges' to migrate the fractures to ultimate material failure.
Torsion of springs under these circumstances i.e. compression with movement induced by the vehicle just exacerbate the stress situation.

Taken from an AA survey of spring fracture numbers across the UK.


https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/2b...9mn6cloz6g.jpg


Unfortunately, the survey was withdrawn from their website three or four of years back.


TC

What about removing the coating so that the wkole spring is exposed to the elements. Sure it will rust, but over the whole surface, not at a concentrated point. Rover P4 front springs get all rusty like this, never known one of these break.

What I tend to do is inspect the spring, an d if I find any splitting of the powder coating, I remove it back to sound stuff, eliminating the corrosion cell, and after derusting and treatment, I paint the affected area.

In answer to the original question, nothing you apply over powder coated coil springs will be an effective rust preventative.

Brian :D

never had a spring snap on any other car so why do Rover 75's suffer from this problem?

macafee2

I had both rears snap and was told by an engineer that it's because of the way the ends have been cut - it causes a stress fracture further up the spring which then goes bang in cold weather. That's why they always break in the same place.