Re: Coil Spring Life

["Graydon D. Stuckey" <graydon@apollo.gmi.edu>]

On Mon, 17 Mar 1997 Turbo2s@aol.com wrote:

> My Mechanic ( lazy bastard )  told me that there is no need to ever change
> the springs.  Please confirm that I am not an idiot when I decipher that
> springs have GOT TO wear out sometime.  I'm ready to do suspension in my
> 89200T, and I gotta know soon..Help?

I suppose in rally racing, where the springs are routinely compressed to 
extremes, you might find a spring "wear" out, but generally, in everyday 
driving, it very seldom happens, unless the spring was improperly 
designed in the first place.   It is possible for the spring to rust 
away,m which would decrease its wire diameter, and hence its spring 
constant.   Springs, by design work in the elastic region of the material 
(usually steel) so they tend to be well within the stress region where 
they rarely fatigue, and they rarely are stressed into the inelastic 
region, which would cause them to collapse.

HTH.

Later,
Graydon D. Stuckey 
'86 5KCSTQ, getting more toys every day...