Broken coil spring at 53,000 miles?

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BillK01

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This past Friday the driver's side front coil spring on my wife's 2008 Toyota Sienna broke. We had just put new Bridgestone Blizzak tires on it the Sunday before (to the tune of $644) and thankfully when it broke the broken piece fell into the pocket that holds the spring and didn't fall out and shred the brand new tire.

It wasn't a terribly expensive fix - only $256 total - but am I crazy in thinking it breaking at 53,000 miles is crazy? Both her van and my F150 are kept in a heated garage - it's not like they sit out in the bitter cold.

I've owned dozens of vehicles over the years and never once had a broken coil spring - and most had a lot more than 53,000 miles on them.

Anyone else have a coil spring break so early on? Thanks.
 
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Thanks guys. I thought I wasn't crazy.

I did email Toyota - but never thought to CC NHTSA - I might do that now.

Take care.
 
Coil spring or front strut? Some struts come with their own coils and are not designed to last forever. They get replaced every 50K-75K.
 
Not springs.....

Never had a spring failure but I've had other expensive parts fail prematurely just after the warranty expired. I think for $265 you came out really good because I can't get away from a car shop for less than $500.

I think the worst was a transmission that went out about the same time yours did and it cost me several thousand to get it rebuilt (supposedly by the best transmission people in town). When it broke again a few thousand miles later I gave the car away to the Kidney Foundation.
 
I've run some cars into the ground but have never had a spring break.

Which means it'll probably happen tomorrow. :-)
 
I've seen it before in the UK. Sometimes the causes were obvious (rally cars) while others were just "one of those things". I would guess that a spring can occasionally be made with a bad batch of metal just like anything else. FWIW GM had a bunch of torsion bars go flaky on Tahoes and maybe Suburbans in the early 2000s. It's not a perfect world, sadly.
 
Little by little the Japanese cars are beginning to be like our cars once were. The pressures of mass producing will affect them someday soon in quality too. It's started already.

I love my Japanese cars they been the best cars we as a family have ever owned but so have my 4x4 jeeps too.
 
Our 2004 Sienna is pushing 200,000 miles and we haven't had any issues with coil springs. It's been in the shop for other reasons, but overall it has been very reliable.
 
BillK01 said:
Both her van and my F150 are kept in a heated garage - it's not like they sit out in the bitter cold.
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I wouldn't be surprised if this is a contributing factor. Drive it in snow and salt then park it in the warm garage where conditions are more favorable for corrosion to set in. The primary issue was probably a defect in the spring, either the base material was flawed or the protective coating failed prematurely. If you lived further south and didn't need snow tires for the winter conditions, I bet the spring would still be ok. Did the shop inspect the ends to determine the failure? If the was a small flaw that allowed some corrosion to occur, you'd see some rust at the crack and not smooth, shiny metal from edge to edge at the break site.
 
CBus660R said:
I wouldn't be surprised if this is a contributing factor. Drive it in snow and salt then park it in the warm garage where conditions are more favorable for corrosion to set in. The primary issue was probably a defect in the spring, either the base material was flawed or the protective coating failed prematurely. If you lived further south and didn't need snow tires for the winter conditions, I bet the spring would still be ok. Did the shop inspect the ends to determine the failure? If the was a small flaw that allowed some corrosion to occur, you'd see some rust at the crack and not smooth, shiny metal from edge to edge at the break site.
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Yea - I looked at the broken piece and there was nothing at all on it - looked practically brand new (after wiping the dirt off it). The break was spotless - just bare metal on the actual break - not a spec of rust or corrosion anywhere.
 
Well last year my son had a rear LEAF spring break on his Tundra 4x4. We got lucky and spotted it before it pivoted more and took out the tire and could have also made a very fast out of control let turn occur. Wired it in place and the next morning he brought it to the Toyota dealer he bought it from for service.

Now understand this truck was not abused, never carried heavy loads and only pulled a small jet ski trailer a few times in the summer.

He had an x warranty on the truck but service said SPRINGS WERE NOT COVERED. I did at that point look at his warranty book and mine and it was not listed as a covered part (needless to say I never heard of springs on a non commercial used truck not covered). Went back to the dealer and had a nice chat with management and as they realized they were going to lose not only my son as a customer but his wife, me and my wife, his best friend and his father,mother that they made a few phone call while we waited..

All of us had Toyotas, mostly top of the line vehicles all from that dealership and they understood our continuing as being customers was at stake Toyota agreed to change out both rear springs as they wanted the old ones back to run some tests. They gave him a loaner Tundra 4x4 for the week it took for the springs to come in. Since then I heard from a few other people about problems with some Toyota springs!
 
Toyota has been cheapening up their vehicles for 9 years now. They made a public announcement about it back then. You could have replaced that spring for less than $50.00 if you took the time.
 
Just a quick update - Toyota emailed me back to get a copy of the work order etc - so they may end up working with me on it. We'll see.

And other than changing the oil & filter/rotating tires I'm not one to be doing any major vehicle repair work - including changing out coil springs. I don't have a spring compressor and don't want to have to learn how to use one. We need 2 vehicles and couldn't be waiting around for me to learn how to do it and deal with it over the weekend.
 
You can get them out without a spring compressor. Knew a guy who did that. Came time to put the new one in, he took the spring to a shop to get it compressed. They tied it up with coat hanger wire while compressed. On the way home it let loose in his trunk. Tore things up a bit.
 
Zipdog said:
You can get them out without a spring compressor. Knew a guy who did that. Came time to put the new one in, he took the spring to a shop to get it compressed. They tied it up with coat hanger wire while compressed. On the way home it let loose in his trunk. Tore things up a bit.
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That would make me want to tackle this job on my own! :rolleyes:

Actually, I've done that job in the past, but it's been a long time. I had the use of someone elses spring compressor and a shop. I used to do all of my own work, but now I'm too old and the cars are mostly too complex.

BillK01, Toyota is very customer satisfaction oriented. At least my dealer is and the service manager tells me that corporate is all over them if a customer calls with a complaint. If you emailed Toyota directly and didn't try to resolve it with the dealership, the dealership is going to hear about it.

My experience is somewhat like NYlakesider. I've been buying from the same dealer since 2001 and my sister and her family have been buying from them since the mid 1980s. They like return customers and will often make accommodations to keep them happy.

I've been happy with my dealer and my Toyotas and don't plan to change either.
 
GaryS said:
BillK01, Toyota is very customer satisfaction oriented. At least my dealer is and the service manager tells me that corporate is all over them if a customer calls with a complaint. If you emailed Toyota directly and didn't try to resolve it with the dealership, the dealership is going to hear about it.
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Well I did grumble a bit about it to the service girl but she really didn't seem overly concerned since the warranty was expired. Which is why I emailed Toyota directly.
 
Zipdog said:
You can get them out without a spring compressor. Knew a guy who did that. Came time to put the new one in, he took the spring to a shop to get it compressed. They tied it up with coat hanger wire while compressed. On the way home it let loose in his trunk. Tore things up a bit.
Click to expand...

Coat hanger wire? And not a chain? That is wild. He's fortunate it let loose in his trunk and not while trying to install it. People have died when not handling those kinds of springs safely. :(
 
Got this reply from Toyota today. Very happy with Toyota (and totally didn't expect this outcome).

Dear Mr. XXXXXXX:

Thank you for your patience while we reviewed your documentation.

In the interest of maintaining your patronage as a Toyota customer, and in response to your appreciation of our product, we are willing to reimburse you $256.24 towards the front coil spring repair. The current reimbursement timeframe is approximately six to eight weeks.

Your email has been documented at our National Headquarters under case number XXXXXXXXXX. If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact us.

Brett K.
Toyota Customer Experience
Click to expand...
 
Harrison said:
Coil spring or front strut? Some struts come with their own coils and are not designed to last forever. They get replaced every 50K-75K.
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This. That model has struts and should generally be replaced every 50,000 or 3 years. The shop should have atleast tried to sell you 2 new struts they struts with the springs attached and also with the mount as they are a wear item and should be replaced as a pair. You wouldn't replace a tire on one side but not the other. Or do a brake job on one side and not the other. Yes many of us will go well over 200k without every replacing them. It doesn't mean we should or that we should be upset if they need replaced. I knew a guy that swore oil never breaks down and refused to change his. I guess it could be an opinion but they are intact a wear item. And yes I am certified in this matter. Not that it matters lots of good wrenches that aren't but I'm not just shooting the breeze about the subject. I ask a lot of questions here I'm very happy that I get knowledgable answers that I was excited to be able to give some knowledge back. Sorry if its kinda long
 
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Both front coils broke

I have a 2009 Toyota Sienna CE, front wheel drive, 66K miles, and upon bringing it to my local repair guys due to "noises" just last week, they informed me both front coils springs had broken, and they had two other Sienna's at the same time with the same broken springs. This is a small town, so that seemed too much to be a coincidence. They suggested I contact Toyota to find out if there might be a recall. The springs had to have broken recently, since they were fine when I had a front end check just about 2 months ago, and what are the odds both would break? They estimated $150. or so per spring parts, and 3 hours labor each side. I found this thread when I began my search to find out if many others are having this problem. Any others out there? I will email Toyota and NHTSA, and will post back if/when I get responses.
 
I had a coil spring break on a 1980 Dodge Colt at less than 50K miles. But, I drove like a maniac, back then. I probably hit a really bad pothole. I remember it was in the spring.

I went to a junkyard, and bought a used spring, so I didn't have to buy a pair of new springs. I installed it myself, an easy job, and I never had a problem again.

Suspension parts can break 'early' if they are subjected to rough roads, especially with the mini van fully loaded. You articular spring may have had a manufacturing defect.

You were indeed very lucky not to shred a new tire. It seems like when a front coil spring goes, it takes the tire with it. It's so close to the rim, after all.

Chalk it up to just bad luck.

BTW: some cab companies tried using minivans in NYC taxi fleets. The biggest problem they had was suspension problems. I think they were using Chrysler (shudder!) products.
 
Broken coil spring

I too have a broken front coil spring on the driver's side of my wife's Toyota Sienna. Thankfully it broke while parked in the garage and the broken piece fell into the pocket that holds the spring and didn't break while she was driving. Her Sienna is a 2007 and has 85k miles. I have an estimate from the dealership to replace the spring and realign the front end for $440. I too thought a spring breaking was unusual so I contacted Toyota. They took my feedback but could not offer anything else. I didn't expect them to do anything but maybe they break more than we think.
 
Not that I have all that much faith in the NHTSA, but I have to wonder if an inquiry to them might be in order. If enough people report this, they might start to look into it and prompt Toyota to look into it as well. I wouldn't be surprised if Toyota gets computer copies of all the service reports from dealers.

Re-coil said:
I too have a broken front coil spring on the driver's side of my wife's Toyota Sienna. Thankfully it broke while parked in the garage and the broken piece fell into the pocket that holds the spring and didn't break while she was driving. Her Sienna is a 2007 and has 85k miles. I have an estimate from the dealership to replace the spring and realign the front end for $440. I too thought a spring breaking was unusual so I contacted Toyota. They took my feedback but could not offer anything else. I didn't expect them to do anything but maybe they break more than we think.
Click to expand...
 
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