Those comments on what would have happened when the spring goes at speed:
Back in 2005, I was driving my 190e to town and about 6 miles into my 40 mile round trip, I heard a loud bang from the right front and the car sagged. I saw something fly into the long grass, so I assumed I hit something. Went in, picked up my mom, evaluated the situation and realized what happened. The spring broke and shot out of the wheel well.
On the way back, I stopped and retrieved the busted spring for inspection. Rust corroded the spring and it failed. No major damage to the car. I ordered a replacement set and installed. Now these are separate coil springs and struts, so not quite the same.
My Mini, when it was owned by my sister-in-law, broke a rear spring last year. Tore up the abs wire, and drove badly she reported via text.
I had installed new Bilsteins using the original springs. The springs appeared ok so I ran with them. I replaced them with ready struts because I could not find a reasonable price on original springs. Coils that are sold aftermarket automatically assume you are lowering your car two or more inches and thus no one sells stock springs.
. The Mini is back to normal.
It happened twice but it didn’t destroy either car. And it happens, it seems, more on German cars (Mini is British, I know, but it’s really a BMW under the skin
). The 190e is moldering out in the yard, but I think it could be back on the road with some work.