Broken rear spring

[Vivian]

Interested to hear if problems with the rear springs on Q7's are common? I have a 2016 3ltr S Line with a FF retractable towbar & have been doing regular monthly 6hr journeys towing one horse with the horse standing in the offside section of the box. Last week I took the car for an oil change & was shocked to be told that the offside rear coil spring had snapped. I asked to keep the spring. There is no rust evident but the cup looks extremely worn / damaged. Is this a common occurrence when towing & should the suspension have been upgraded when the towbar was fitted during the build?

[Magnet]

Hello Vivian,

It seems it’s not that uncommon for springs to break these days. Generally, the coils are of thinner cross section that they used to be and significantly hardened. Generally it’s better to replace as a pair, and I’m sure someone on here will be able to advise whether it’s worth updating your springs since you are towing loads.

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Markandgailh]

I have had to replace both my rear coil springs on my 2016 Q7 and have no idea why. It never goes anywhere near anything that is not tarmac and is supposed to be a 4x4 after all! Surely pot holes and speed bumps wouldn’t do it, it’s hardly been used in the last 12 months. I would love to know how many people are having similar issues as they are £300 each a pop to replace.

[St3v3 L]

Hi guys so interested in seeing your post as the same thing happened to me today.  Took the car in as I noticed the coolant levels kept slowly dropping and whilst they were inspecting that carried out a health check and was told off side rear passenger spring has snapped and if this was an MOT it would fail.  There was no issue with it in February 2021 when it had a service and MOT so this has happened between end of February and September.  They never mentioned replacing both having to replace both springs.  I am now waiting for parts to be sent in for them to do the job.

[Magnet]

Hello Steven,

If you look back to my reply to Vivian some 2 years plus ago. You will see that this isn’t uncommon. 

Why change both?

Not uncommon, equates to a likelihood that the driver side rear will also break in the longer/shorter even, term. Couple this with the fact that these settle, you could end up with a vehicle which is sitting slightly off level. Obviously your call Steven. 
It sounds as as if this work is being done at a main dealer ( your reference to ‘health check’). If so, I would question why not get a pair of new springs fitted at a trusted local garage, probably cheaper than the main dealer will charge for fitting one - I guess the main dealer labour rates are north of £100/hr plus VAT = £120 minimum.

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Ken Baker]

I had exactly the same experience. Coolant loss, manifold area. the free inspection found the offside rear spring broken. 

That was a month ago, both have been sorted. The car has done 31k miles never had a hard day in its life.

[neil-w]

Just to add that I too have just found a broken offside rear suspension spring on my 2015 Audi Q7 at 87k miles. Was replacing rear brakes when I saw it. 

Anyone had a go at changing these themselves? Struggling to find the part online and the Workshop manual mentions special tools required which might just be a fancy spring compressor.

[CB07799]

Hi - rear offside coil broken on my Q7 (2018, under 35k), luckily for me caught before doing heavy number of motorway miles.

2 x Audi dealership couldn’t help for at least a week so had to have it fixed by an independent as needed car for work. Audi will not cover it under the warranty or MOT cover as they didn’t fix it. Never had such problems with old Honda and pretty cross about the whole thing.

[RoyC]

34 minutes ago, CB07799 said:

rear offside coil broken on my Q7 (2018, under 35k)

Unladen, or were you loaded up.

[Q7owner]

Q7 66 plate went in for an MOT, warning light just came on for rear brake pads which was agreed needed doing. 
The garage called me and said take a seat, aswell as both front rear pads and discs, two front bushes have collapsed and I have two snapped rear suspension springs. 
all costing just shy of 3K. Gutted. 

Edited September 27, 2022 by Q7owner

[Magnet]

Hello Emma,

Sorry to hear of your issues. 
If this were mine, I would be seeking an alternative quote, since c£3k sounds rather expensive to me. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[RoyC]

53 minutes ago, Magnet said:

Hello Emma,

Sorry to hear of your issues. 
If this were mine, I would be seeking an alternative quote, since c£3k sounds rather expensive to me. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

Yes, I agree.

If it takes them 10 hrs @ £100 ph That's £1000.

I can't see the parts costing £2000.

[Autobarn]

Reading all these posts even though they do go back two years I am afraid the newer model of Q7 is not as robust as the previous 4L and 4M models, I work on many basic issues on more late models than earlier ones although I have more early models on my books for regular services, some of the components are sourced by Germany from China much like I phone do in the USA, Many, many large manufacturers do this now although they do not publicise it, unfortunately China are particularly bad at cutting corners on metal quality re-using all the scrap they buy from around the world which contains many impurities and results in weakness, I recently diagnosed a stretched timing chain set on a 56,00 mile 2017 tdi which had to go back to the dealer as extended warranty repair, it took three weeks?? and cost the warranty company £12,000.

 I would recommend anyone with a vehicle newer than 2014 to take out a warranty with RAC or warrantywise or even the dealer, the costs of repair at dealers is going through the roof and expensive electronic components run in to thousands not hundreds.

 On a brighter note it could be a lot worse, you could own a Land Rover, our local dealer charges £190 an hour and Quentin Wilson who owns Warantywise recently published the top three cars he pays the most claims out on; RR Vogue, RR Sport and Discovery!

[Donna]

My 2018 Q7 with 74,000 had both rear springs break in exactly the same spot. This vehicle does highway and around town driving.    The replacements cost $1800 - $2000 by Audi.   Seems Audi has a common issue they aren’t addressing as a recall?    

[GEF]

2018 Q7,  During my yearly state inspection it was discovered that the right side, off side, rear spring was broke.  My observation from what i could see is that the break was quite old as there was heavy rust/oxidation in the break area. My local garage,who did the expectation, recomended that it should be warrantied and that I should take it to the local Audi dealer.  No luck there!  From what I am reading here, Audi has an issue that they should warranty.

 On a side note, when my Q7 was new it had a loud squeal when breaking and I took it to Audi under warranty and they said that this was normal.  I lived with it but with a bad taste for Audi.  About 9 months later I took it Audi for State inspection and they replaced the breaks under warranty.

As a comparison, I have owned 25 different cars in my life time and this is the 1st time I have had a spring issue.  Needless to say that i am disappointed in Audi.  Note that the Q7 is the most expensive vehicle that I have owned.

[Magnet]

Welcome to the Audi Owners Club !

Good to have you onboard

Hello Grant,

I’m very much in agreement with your inference that spring breaks were rare in the past. Unfortunately no longer true (see possible reason in my first post under this thread), and certainly not restricted to the Audi marque. 
Now a frequent occurrence in the U.K. on many makes. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[RoyC]

It's pot holes. claim off the council.

[Magnet]

Pittsburgh - PA - Roy!