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2007 Mazda 3i touring, 100,000km.
I just discovered that the reason my car was making a rattling noise every time is went over a bump is that the last 2.5 inches of my drivers side rear spring had sheared off and was clanking around in the bottom of the spring holder.
It looks like is sheared a while ago, as the sheared end is now rusted. Oh… and I live in a land of potholes and rust, but it’s dry here now and will be for the summer.
Is it safe to drive this thing (only city driving)? The rest of the spring looks solid, no rust.
If I am going to replace it, is it a giant pain? I have taken the front strut off before to replace the strut mount, so not a total newbie at the job.
Thanks!
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At the very least, you’re setting yourself up for weird tire wear and handling issues, which may have an impact on safety. Besides, operating a machine with busted parts causes other parts to wear out and/or fail sooner.
Get both rear springs replaced. Since both are the same age with the same mileage and have been operating under the same conditions, I wouldn’t trust the surviving spring to last too much longer.
Agreed with the above. It will be harder on the rest of the system and can break something which could lead to an accident. Suspension is not something to ignore
If the spring is broken, you should consider replacing the springs and shocks. If the potholes are as bad as you say, the shocks are probably coming to the end of their life as well. You replace both sides because the opposite side is likely to fail if the other side already has, it’s also widely accepted best practice to replace items like springs and shocks in pairs. If the components were much newer, it might be worth the effort and savings to replace just one side, but given the mileage and the item broken, your best course of action is to replace both sides.
You will should really get an alignment performed afterwards, so you should check the rest of the suspension components as well.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/diagnosing-noises-in-your-car?start=6#FindingSuspensionNoises
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