MOT Fail........advice please

[johnmac]

Car failed its MOT today on the following..........

Offside headlamp main beam bulb

Offside front coil spring cracked

Front discs excessively pitted

Ive got new discs and pads,bulb isnt a problem but what about the spring?

do you change both of them? Is it DIY'able? where is the best place to get springs? Lastly should I do the shocks at the same time?

Car is a 2004 Vectra 2.2 direct with approx 62K miles

[parsco]

Change both the front springs mate. I wouldn't change the shocks unless you need to. If the MOT didn't mention them i'd leave them be

HTH's mate, good luck

[glenboy]

You should replaced springs in pairs John,there is a How2,but if your not confident enough then get a garage to do it for you,best place to get them,i'd say any decent motor factors or ebay if you don't mind waiting,good luck m8 and let us know how you get on,hth........

[johnmac]

Cheers.Just need to hold on to the car at the moment as it is paid for and I am being made redundant at the end of the year (if only I wasnt..........) so I have to maintain it the best I can

Is the Dealer the best place for the springs (I have a Trade card) or is there a better alternative?

[Teamtom]

as said above, only ever replace springs in pairs.

make sure you get the correct springs too. They are colour coded with a series of coloured dots about 10mm in diameter each.

Dont change shocks, no need to if nothing has been said about them.

about doing it yourself. I can't stress enough how dangerous it is when changing front springs. if you are not competant enough or dont have the correct tools, Dont even attempt it! I've had front spring fly out of a compression tool once when it was fairly compressed. And was using a decent tool correctly....... Fortunately all it did was dent our tyre machine at work, but could have been a hole lot worse!

as for where to get the work done. A dealer is a decent place to choose but a pair of front springs is usually allotted a fair bit of time on the books. basically you may end up paying quite a bit of labour costs for the job. A well known independant garage would be much cheaper

[solorider]

chances are you will only get the springs from a dealer as you have an sri

[wickedwillie]

Does Kwik-Fit or the likes not fit springs now?

[solorider]

most garages can fit springs,i would avoid kwik-fit though

[glynn]

for the cost of OE springs, i would get a lowering kit

[glenboy]