Broken front coil springs

I was away for 11 months.
The cars hadn't been used and had been sitting under cover but not in a dry place.
I drove the '05 Golf and broke the front coil spring after a 500m. Also the brake calipers are seized. But I can limp to the garage to have that fixed.

Then I drove 200m with the '10 Golf Wagon and also broke the front coil spring.
I wonder why after sitting for a year the springs are brittle and break like glass. The lower end of the coil is sort of sitting between the shock and the vertical rod with a rubber bushing.
I am wondering if there is a way to turn the coil so it doesn't damage the rubber bushing because I'd rather like to drive to the garage 20km away.
The last turn of the coil is sitting askew on the side of the bottom receiving cup.
There is also more trouble: I can't engage the reverse nor the 5th gear. Where is the problem? What is the likely cause?
On the '05 Golf I can shift but the gears are also quite hard to shift.

we just changed a broken 1 on the 2010. Car was being used every day. We suspect that the seized top bearings torqued the spring too much.

I've got a broken front spring on my 2010. Lost 1/2 of a coil. Daily driven.

Also had a broken RF coil probably at 52k miles or so (67k current). Daily driven. Drove to shop about five miles away, no issue.

As for the gears, maybe you just need to get the fluid hot and moving throughout the gearbox.
Get the coil fixed, then take it for a drive and get the car and fluids hot and see how it shifts.
If it's still bad then I'd inspect the shifter mechanism under the hood (on the top of the gearbox) and see if anything is bound up. Then maybe a gear oil change?

Thanks for the replies. The seized bearing makes sense.
Less an hour of work on the '05 Golf to replace the spring. 2 hours are forecast to replace the one on the '10 Golf.
The gears are now working somewhat better on the '05. Thanks for the suggestions for the '10.
The mechanic says I can drive with broken spring hanging out of the cup as long as it's not going to hurt the tire.

Broken rear spring on 2011 Sportwagen

i just had a broken rear spring on my 2011 wagon. Weak metal,I'm guessing

I came to the same conclusion as Yatzee that the bearing seized and the coil torqued too much and broke. Next time if there is one I'll would spray Rust Check on the coil bearings before leaving.

Picture questions about top bearing?

I had my rear coils out on our 2011 JSW TDI but did not see any kind of bearing on either the top or bottom (only rubber). What is the purpose of the bearing on the top side of the front coils? Is the top bearing sealed or open to the elements? Never hear of a bearing on a coil-over suspension spring (at least not on any car I have ever owned). Does anyone have a picture or a link to a picture showing the top bearing?

Thank Much In Advance!!
Regards, Ron

See #7 on

http://www.vwpartsvortex.com/auto-p...front-suspension-scat/?part_number=5qm411105e

The front elements are McPherson struts, the top bearing is to allow the wheels to steer. At least that is what I believe. I had my right front coil break at around 96,000 miles and my left front coil break at around 105,000. Each time $500 repair out of warranty! I wonder if VW just has a batch of poorly made springs. Not annealed correctly and thus too brittle? Just dropped my car off for 120,000 miles service, new rear brakes, repair of the left front spring and replace of timing belt: $3,300 bill. This on top of the whole dieselgate fraud. I am not a happy driver.

Timing Belt + brakes are wear items, with 120,000 miles on the car you have nothing to complain about there. The springs breaking are a surprise though! I personally would have gotten both replaced after the first one went.

Sent from my XT1097 using Tapatalk

Like others have said, I suspect the front springs failing is due to the Mount Bearings locking up causing the spring to heavily torqued in most cases.

I had a Tiguan thats top mount bearings failed right around 100k and you could see the spring rotating under much more tension. Combine that with a load on the spring and Im sure it would finally break one.

yatzee said:

we just changed a broken 1 on the 2010. Car was being used every day. We suspect that the seized top bearings torqued the spring too much.

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aneblanc said:

I came to the same conclusion as Yatzee that the bearing seized and the coil torqued too much and broke. Next time if there is one I'll would spray Rust Check on the coil bearings before leaving.

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kgieskes said:

The front elements are McPherson struts, the top bearing is to allow the wheels to steer. At least that is what I believe. I had my right front coil break at around 96,000 miles and my left front coil break at around 105,000. Each time $500 repair out of warranty! I wonder if VW just has a batch of poorly made springs. Not annealed correctly and thus too brittle? Just dropped my car off for 120,000 miles service, new rear brakes, repair of the left front spring and replace of timing belt: $3,300 bill. This on top of the whole dieselgate fraud. I am not a happy driver.

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evantful said:

Like others have said, I suspect the front springs failing is due to the Mount Bearings locking up causing the spring to heavily torqued in most cases.

I had a Tiguan thats top mount bearings failed right around 100k and you could see the spring rotating under much more tension. Combine that with a load on the spring and Im sure it would finally break one.

Click to expand...

When the RF spring on my '04 R32 let go, the mechanic at my dealer told me it was because the upper strut bearing was shot, and that they usually don't last much more than 60,000 miles or so. I offered that if the strut bearings are failing that predictably, then they aught to be listed as regular maintenance items in the service schedule. He said they'd never do that because then they'd be responsible for them under warranty...

vanbcguy said:

Timing Belt + brakes are wear items, with 120,000 miles on the car you have nothing to complain about there...

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I have 82,000 miles on my '11 Golf TDI and was worrying about my impending timing belt change so I checked in the maintenance schedule and found out that it doesn't need changing until 130,000! Wow...have they improved these things, or what? And, I didn't see the serpentine belt listed at all...I must have missed it. When is that due? I looked at it recently when I had the car on a hoist for a brake bleed, and it still looked excellent...

Maybe something to use the $500 dealer only customer goodwill card on?

I think the customer should be able to use the diesel dust-up "Good Will Card" on normal maintenance, accessories, and things of a nature that will result in some kind of "plus" or gain to them (the point of this card being to at least partially-alleviate the negative effects incurred by the customer due to VW's diesel wrong-doing), rather than having to use the card/money in order to prop up some previous (and unrelated) design defect like this fast-wearing strut bearing issue...an issue that's been on-going at least as far back as the mkIV. Long ago, they should've redesigned the strut bearings and then issued a recall, but instead, after all these years it's still an issue, and now we're expected to use our "Good Will" cards (issued for yet another, new, and entirely different, problem!) to pay them to Band Aid their own previous poor design. Seems like total BS to me, but what do I know...

As far as a strut bearing redesign, how hard could it be to put Zerk fittings on the darn things and then make greasing them part of the maintenance schedule? I know the industry has long since eliminated grease fittings from u-joints, ball joints, etc., but in instances like this, where it's apparent that "sealed for life" simply isn't going to work, wouldn't you think they'd just give up and declare that some kind of strut bearing maintenance will be necessary? Once they become grease-able, they're probably a lifetime deal, right?. But maybe that's the reason they haven't done it...they wouldn't be selling us as many parts anymore.

Car in a shop.

Replacing the timing belt (185k) 650$ CND
I've got two broken front spring coil on my 2010. Daily driven. Cost 450$ CND

First real repair on the car.... Never went in a VW dealer. I'm happy with it

duboutdumonde said:

Car in a shop.
Replacing the timing belt (185k) 650$ CND
I've got two broken front spring coil on my 2010. Daily driven. Cost 450$ CND
First real repair on the car.... Never went in a VW dealer. I'm happy with it

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How many KM?