Tuesday 5 November 2013

Hope Springs Eternal - or - How Our Motorhome Was Let Down By Fiat Suspension

Hope Springs Eternal - or - How Our Motorhome Was Let Down By Fiat Suspension

It's not often that I feel like putting pen to paper and writing a letter of complaint, but I was recently compelled to do so after both the front coil springs on our motorhome collapsed. The surprising thing about this was that both springs failed within a week of one another, whilst the van was standing still, as it had been for a few weeks. So, this wasn't the result of hitting one of the many potholes that seemed so abundant until very recently, because that would have broken one spring, not both. Nor was it the result of high mileage on the vehicle - the van had only covered 22800 miles from new.

The vehicle, which we have owned from new, is a German coach-built motorhome built on a Fiat Ducato Maxi chassis. It was first registered, by us, in 2007. We have given the vehicle fairly light use, including a little light weight towing. The coil springs both gave up the ghost after six years of averaging roughly 3500 miles per year, which hardly seems like an arduous workload. My trusty Ford Mondeo is the same age and has covered approximately 4 times the mileage, towing exactly the same loads as the motorhome - yet the Ford's springs (like just about everything else on the car) are still strangely intact.

So the target of my complaint was Fiat, who I thought might be interested - and hopefully concerned - that one of their vehicles had developed a safety critical fault quite so readily. Our vehicle has been regularly serviced and passed all its MOT tests apparently without fault, yet our springs failed catastrophically and without warning. My contention is that no vehicle owner or service agent would expect a pair of heavy duty springs to fail after such a low mileage. As a result they would not be regularly checked, so there is a considerable risk that they could fail, and this would be most likely when the vehicle is in use. 

So what happens when your springs break? If it was just a case of suddenly developing a more aerodynamic Red Bull style stance then you could probably hunker down and complete your journey, hopefully safely, and survive to tell the tale. However, what we discovered was that when the springs break it is the bottom turn of the coil that breaks off - leaving a very sharp point on the end of the remainder of the spring. If you're lucky it will do what our nearside spring did - and stay put on the cup partway up the strut. If you're less fortunate, it could do what our offside spring did - dislodge from the cup on the strut and instead decide to embed itself in the inner sidewall of the tyre. This is not only bad for your tyre - which will need replacing - it also prevents rotation of the wheel. Now suppose that this happens when you're travelling at a sensible 50 mph on the road. The result could be spectacular - for all the wrong reasons. It seems very likely that spring failure whilst driving could cause a serious accident and injury, as well as considerable damage to your vehicle and others in the vicinity.

So what did Fiat think of my concerns? Well to be quite honest they were rather dismissive. They apparently take safety "very seriously" and are not aware of any safety concerns with vehicles of the same type as ours. This is despite the fairly obvious safety concern above. They pointed to the 2 year warranty on our Ducato, which they assert is long enough "for any manufacturing issues to become apparent". They also claimed that they "make every attempt to ensure reliability and durability of all components" - so I was somewhat surprised that they declined my offer to send them the broken end of the spring so that they could inspect it. I'm not a metallurgist, but I am a professional chartered engineer and the broken spring appears to me to have broken as a result of metal fatigue.

So what of Fiat? Well, they don't seem too bothered that there could be a large number of vans and motorhomes running around on springs that could be on their last legs. 
  • Am I impressed with their attitude to safety? No. 
  • Would I buy another Fiat car or van? No. 
  • Did I replace the broken springs with more Italian metal? No. 
  • Would I buy anything else made from Italian metal? No. 
  • Do I think Fiat are more concerned about discovering or admitting any liability that could hurt them financially? Probably, yes.

What should you do? I would strongly recommend ensuring that your van is turned off and the handbrake is on - then peer under the front bumper. Look at the lower end of each coil spring - they're easy to locate. You can run your finger round the spring - if you discover any crack, edge or discontinuity then contact your service agent straight away. 

If you do discover a problem please email me at brokensprings@wallisgd.plus.com, and I will update the blog. I don't want to open the blog up to comments because it just attracts lots of pointless and offensive posts.