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Alarming News! Suspension and tyre blow out

3K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  mutu 
#1 ·
Hi Guys,

Without wishing to be alarmist, you must consider the following. Saab 9-3 aero convertible 2004, 30k. Parked in Fly and Drive terminal 4 10 days ago having driven down from Bristol without any signs of a problem.
Returned one week later on Wednesday 10th December. Started the car and immediately thought from the loud grinding noise something was caught under the car. Not finding anything, I moved another small distance
then decided to phone the service engineers in Bristol. They suggested due to cold weather the disk breaks might be binding and I should give the car a good run. So I left the car parking bay and turned into a lane got the car to
aprox. 20 miles a hour when there was a loud bang accompanied by smoke and the front of the car dropped on the driver's side. The cause was obvious, the front spring had broken, dislodged from the cup and the point had
perforated the inside wall of the tyre like a knife through cheese.
Subsequently the service department admitted that they have problem with spring breaking and it's currently being replaced. However I hate to think what would have happened if this had happened at speed
on the M4 back to Bristol.
The collapse of the spring would be bad enough but coupled with a blow out of the front tyre would surely have been catastrophic.
Believe or not the only reassurance I had from Saab to date is that it is unlikely to have happened on the Motorway because they are familiar with the problem at low speed at a roundabouts !!!
Although I have now being advised it's fully repaired, it's my intention not to drive it again until I have reassurance that modifications have been carried out to at least prevent the broken spring puncturing the tyre.

Can get no satisfaction of Saab UK Customer Care

Has anybody experienced a similar problem?


Mike
 
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#3 ·
According to SAAB UK they dont have a problem even though the dealers i know are seeing 3-5 cars per week with suspension spring failure.

My car failled last month and i had the Hirsch springs fitted, i have never heard of suspension springs failling at all until i got the 9-3ss, i bet they are made from cheap imported steel (ie rust) melted back down and re-formed as GM springs, the springs themselves suffer from rust forming between the metal and the plastic coating on each spring.

Over time the water between the plastic and the metal itself cant dissapate and hence rust will form resulting in the spring going ping.

I kept my spring and you can see the rust under the plastic coating and around where the breakage appeared, mine failled at the bottom of the unit about 6' off the bottom, i pulled the broken piece out until it went in to be replaced.
 
#6 ·
Hey,

This happened to me on thursday last week.. only i was doing about 65mph on a dual carriage.. went through a bit of a dip in the road and BANG!!
I have a 2004 9-3 Aero Conv with about 50k on it. Lucky for me the coil broke right at the bottom in the gas strut so it did not pop out and skewer the tyre.
I pulled and could not see anything so drove it to the nearest mechanics who confirmed the spring had snapped. I did not know this is a common problem until reading this thread. My car is covered under warranty so I will get the £115 back it cost me to get new spring fitted. But should i be thinking about getting them all changed? Do we know if there is a stronger spring manufactured now?

Cheers
 
#11 ·
thanks
I found on one online shop for saab the springs at 330 euro and with transport the total amount is 404 euro. Still a little bit cheaper. :D
This subject got me a little worried because i'm about to make a long journey and a realy hope nothing bad will happen.
 
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