What is the average life span of springs?

[detroiter]

Just curious what the average life span of springs such as the df's,nf's and trd's are? I did some searching but couldn't really find a definative answer.

[severous01]

coils will usually outlast shocks 4 or 5 times over...but you'll notice when springs are weak. they'll sart to sag. they'll get mushy. shocks will 'seem' to be mushy but it's actually more of a bouncy feel.

there's no real way to check a spring other than send it back and see if it's still within tolerance....but unless you dropped a 3500 series truck on ur car i'd imagine the springs are ok.

shocks should be replaced at an interval of a max of 50k miles. any shock company will tell u that...but i've had experience with decarbon, tien, bilstein, monroe (suck balls), QA1/hal, kyb.... and bilsteins are the very best followed closely by KYB for oem replacements.

[detroiter]

Well I'm going to be running some used TRD's with about 20-25k on them and I just ordered a set of Tokico blues today. I don't see any reason why this won't be awesome when I throw them on :) I've often heard that springs usually outlast the life of a car or close to it, but just wanted others opinions on that.

[thebarber]

depends on how much salt they use in your area

had a guy on matrixowners.com break his trd springs last week....i think he's in the mid-west...but had high mileage..

[hatchbackkid82]

I remember on this one accord i had the spring was actually broken, idrove around like that formonths before i realized the spring was broken

[AlexNet0]

shocks should be replaced at an interval of a max of 50k miles

I have 60k on my 07 hatch stock suspension and I hardly notice a difference from when I got it, maybe its just me

[detroiter]

I know shocks depend on how hard are driven and road conditions. Potholes, big bumps and all those other evil doers shorten the lifespan. But as far as springs, I don't see any reason for them to wear out too quickly.

[yaris prime]

Average lifespan for springs for most is a long time.
Average lifespan for springs for you and I driving on Mi roads- not so long.

I had a spring break on my last car while it was sitting in the parking lot at work. I noticed my tire was flat, jacked it up to change it and could not get the tire off. Finally realized that the spring shattered and the sharp end punctured my tire and was stuck inside preventing me from taking the tire off. Brand new tires too, luckily I had road hazard insurance.

[Yaris Hilton]

Average lifespan of springs = average lifespan of cars they're installed in. Shouldn't have to replace them, but sometimes you do.

[Loren]

Interesting to read some of the misconceptions about springs. Rust-induced problems aside, a suspension coil spring should last 20 years or more. (as stated above, "the lifetime of the car") Rust changes things greatly, of course, and can reduce the spring rate and lead to breakage.

What happens when a spring "sags" over time? It doesn't become softer. The rate of the spring remains constant as it is a factor of the thickness of the spring wire, the diameter of the spring and the number of coils. All that changes when a springs sags is the free length of the spring... until/unless it sags enough that the coils of the spring touch (coil bind). In the case of coil bind, the spring doesn't become softer, it becomes STIFFER. Fewer coils in the spring rate calculation yield a stiffer rate.

What happens more than anything else is that shocks (and/or struts) wear out. Almost all modern shocks have a nitrogen charge in them to help prevent the oil inside them from foaming under hard conditions (bumpy roads that move the shock shaft rapidly up and down and create heat). A side-effect of this nitrogen charge is that it adds to the spring rate of the suspension, and the suspension designers account for this in their design. Usually, the first thing to go in a shock as it ages is the nitrogen charge... which removes that added spring rate and makes the whole suspension feel softer. Often, it will even cause the car to lose some ride height... up to an inch or so.

So, if you think you have "bad springs" because your suspension feels soft, think again. Take a look at your springs. Unless they're eaten away with rust, they're NOT any softer than they ever were. If they're eaten away with rust, obviously they need to be replaced. If they're not rusty... put new shocks/struts on the car and be happy.

Factory shocks on most cars usually start losing some of their performance by 20-30k miles and are pretty weak by 40-60k miles. "Completely shot" is a matter of what you expect from them, but with the exception of OEM Bilstein shocks, pretty much any shock is going to be completely dead by 60-80k miles.

Oh, and fitting stiffer aftermarket springs with stock shocks will cause those shocks to wear out about twice as fast. Fitting springs that are too short and/or cutting bump stops will often allow the shock (either aftermarket OR stock) to go beyond its designed range of motion and bottom out doing instant damage to the internal shock valving.