“Coil spring fractured or broken”

Most of what a tester writes down describes wear heading somewhere. This describes something that has already happened, and the test treats the two very differently.

A major defect means the car cannot be issued a pass certificate until it is repaired. It is not a judgement about severity in the way spring corrosion is — a spring is either fractured or it is not, and there is no threshold to argue about.

The safety reasoning is specific. A broken coil end is a piece of hardened steel with a sharp edge, held loosely in place, a short distance from a tyre inflated to around thirty pounds per square inch. Suspension movement can bring the two together. A tyre cut at speed is the failure mode this rule exists to prevent.

Handling is affected too, though less dramatically than people expect. That corner sits lower and carries less load, so the car pulls slightly, leans further in one direction and brakes unevenly. Noticeable rather than dangerous on its own.

What this is not is a car that must be recovered on a truck. Unlike a brake fluid leak, a broken spring is a major rather than dangerous defect, so driving it carefully to a garage is normally acceptable. Driving it for weeks is not.

Your car has no valid MOT if the previous one has expired. If the old certificate is still running, it remains valid until its expiry date even though the car has just failed — but driving a car with a known major defect is a separate legal risk from the MOT itself, since it must be in a roadworthy condition.

If the previous certificate has expired, the car can only be driven to a pre-arranged repair appointment or to a booked MOT test. That is the narrow exception, and it depends on the appointment being genuinely booked.

Retest rules are worth knowing because they save money. Leave the car at the test station and have the work done there, and a partial retest is usually free within a set period. Take it away and bring it back within the allowed window for a limited list of repairs, and a partial retest is often free too. Take it away and return later, and you pay for a full test. Our MOT cost guide covers the current rules and fees.

Which creates a real decision: the convenience of your own garage against the cost of a second full test. Where the price difference is small, having the work done where the car already is usually wins.

Corrosion, most often. A spring fails at its thinnest point, and corrosion creates thin points. The bottom coils collect salt and water and corrode first, which is why breaks there are so common. That is the direct connection between the advisory version of this defect and this one.

Fatigue. Steel flexed millions of times eventually develops microscopic cracks that grow. Springs are designed for this and normally outlast the car, but a spring that has spent years compressed further than intended — on a car regularly carrying heavy loads, or one lowered without matched components — ages faster.

Impact. A deep pothole hit at speed can crack a spring outright, particularly one already weakened by corrosion. This is the version that produces a bang followed by an immediately noticeable change in the car’s stance, and it is worth remembering if a council pothole claim is on the cards — our pothole claim guide covers the evidence you need.

Cold weather concentrates all three. Springs break disproportionately in winter, because cold steel is more brittle, roads are worse, and salt has been working on the corrosion for months.

This is the question worth asking before the work is quoted, because a broken spring is rarely the only line on the invoice.

The tyre. A broken end that has contacted the tyre leaves a score or a cut in the sidewall, and sidewall damage cannot be repaired. Even a shallow-looking gouge is a reason to replace the tyre, because sidewall cords carry the load. Worth inspecting closely rather than glancing at.

The shock absorber. On strut suspension the spring sits around the damper, so a broken coil can score the damper body or damage its seal. That would turn a spring job into a spring and damper job — and since both are already apart, doing it then costs far less than doing it later.

The other spring. Both springs on the axle have lived the same life in the same conditions. If one has corroded through, the other is very likely at the same stage, which is the honest reason pairs are recommended after a break rather than a sales tactic.

The spring seat. The rubber or metal seat the spring sits in can be damaged by a broken end grinding against it. Cheap to replace while everything is apart, awkward afterwards.

£130–£320 per spring fitted at an independent garage. The part is usually the cheaper half; the labour reflects dismantling that corner and using a spring compressor to handle the tension safely. That tool requirement is also why this is not a sensible driveway job — a compressed road spring stores enough energy to cause serious injury.

Both sides is the standard recommendation after a break, and here it holds up technically: matched springs keep the car sitting and handling evenly, and the second spring adds parts without much extra labour once the car is up.

Get the tyre and damper checked before agreeing a figure. A quote given over the phone for a spring cannot account for damage nobody has looked at yet. Ask for the inspection first and the quote after.

An alignment check afterwards is sensible because ride height has changed, though it matters less than after replacing a track rod end, where it is mandatory.