406 Suspension 'collapse'

Just started to back the car off the drive when there was a jolt accompanied
by graunching noise. Got out to investigate and saw front drivers side 40mm
(ish) lower and definitely unsprung. AA man jacked up and reckoned he
couldn't tell if the spring had broken or if the spring cup on the strut had
failed. Moving forwards or backwards (very slowly) gives lots of grinding
noises, so it's gone to the menders.

Is this a common fault with 406s? This one is a 99 V6 S-reg with 158k. Also
can't help wondering what if it happened on the motorway at speed.

Thanks

Peter

 

I had the same on a previous 306 and it happened at 60mph - quite a fright
(even more so for the tailgaiter!). Thankfully it happened whilst
travelling in a stright line and also covered by warranty.

Jim

 

Sounds quite nasty! Sounds like thspring has broken, but as you say it could
be something else, May be the bottom link to the subframe lower wishbone
arm, this happened to me with my escort; the bottom ball stud had actually
broken, and so the whole strut was able to move pretty much any direection
it wanted, which could have cost me a new drive shaft as it could have
pulled it out of the constant velocity joint head at the either end of the
shaft!! i wouldnt really like to think what would have happened if it had
failed at speed, it certainly wouldnt be a very positive thing anyways. I'm
glad it didnt, and that you are okay!

best regards, mark.

 

"> Is this a common fault with 406s? This one is a 99 V6 S-reg with 158k.
Also

Mine went in the dark and shredded two tyres before I realised. Incidentally
if it is the springs they are NOT standard for the V6 and could be a long
wait, unless you local has contacts. From memory the parts, ie springs were
about £80 plus all the extras.

 

Often wondered if this might be a problem. On the 406, the spring appears
to
be tapered towards the spring cup which is smaller than the spring diameter.
Thus
if the spring breaks it could slip over the spring cup and drop further than
it needs to.
Previous MacPherson Strut systems I have owned have straight springs
limiting
the likely potential collapse to one or two spring turns (and probably a lot
of
distressing noises).

Chris K

 

First report from garage suggests it's the spring but they won't know until
later today. Also Peugeot have put in new computer system so can't provide
parts until friday .

I suppose it's a result of the state of our wonderful roads - half of them
full of potholes - the other half fixed at great expense and then the
puddung brains come along and spend loads more taxpayers money building
lumps in them.

 

I think the 405 has those springs that get smaller at the top as well.
Weird, I'd not seen them like that until a few days ago. I'm not in the mood
for thinking too hard about it at the moment, but could it be possible that
such a spring might be more prone to failure?

Chris.

 

Is this a common fault with 406s? This one is a 99 V6 S-reg with 158k.
Also

There was a recall in Sweden for all 605:s regardless of age
and 406:s up to -99 (parallel to 605 production yrs) some year ago,
due to safety issues with springs breaking due to metal fatigue in
combination with corrosion.

Apparently the Nordic climate together with salt on the roads at
winter time made the springs corrode and some alarming incidents
cased the recall.

I got brand new springs in front of my 605 -95 for free, so I
was very happy about this recall... The interesting thing was
that *all* 605:s were recalled, including those old from 1990
and onwards, due to this problem...

That's kind of exceptional, isn't it? So I guess there is some kind
of general material fault in the 605 & 406 up to -99 since they
share the "same" components in the front suspension...

/Juhan