Hi all... We recently replaced both our vehicles - went electric on both. Its great. But that's not what I am posting about. Our old Saturn Vue which hoarded many many woods, we gave to our son. Its reliable, dent proof and good on gas. Ride quality however has been terrible of late, so we ordered up pretty much a full rebuild worth of front and rear suspension parts from rockauto. Anyway, rear shocks and links were our first target. After dropping the rear cups, we were surprised to see that both rear coils were cracked and broken off with more than a full wind missing from the passenger side and about three quarters of a coil split and cracked on the driver's side. Both coil isolators were split into two as well. Shocks were completely gone and one of the control arms was bent as if it had been overloaded. I have never seen coils break before. Do I think it was the wood hoarding? Probably. I recall having the nose in the air a few times with some big oaks and the like. More than once a pothole on the way home felt particularly violent. Sourced up a set of springs, a used control arm, and along with the new shocks, links and isolators the vehicle drives like a new one again... So thankfully no permanent damage. Front suspension was relatively fine... With only the sway bar down links showing signs of needing replacement. I replaced all the parts anyway, but nothing else was broken blown out or shot the way the rear was. Parts for Saturn's are cheap, but if you had to pay someone for the wrenching it would be a pricey job. Just an FYI to my fellow hoarders... Saving money on wood may cost you down the road. I will stick to using the trailer from now on. Its suspension consists of two leaf springs.
I had an old Ford Escort as a daily driver. Had one 165lbs person in it 99% of the time. Never put anything heavy in the trunk. One year I took it in for yearly inspection and both rear springs were cracked. I blame salt for the failure. I never washed this car as it was just a beater with peeling paint. Pick up truck drivers should also beware of overloading. Filling a stock light truck or 1500 series pick up bed with green oak will go over most of the manufacturers suggested payload capacity.
sign this guy up...or is he already a member here? Now thats what i call a load of wood! Howdya like to be driving behind this guy? Id be picking up the splits when he hits a bump!
We have 2 saturns (like the older ones...before 2004 models).....wife drives a 1999 SC2....now has 182000 on it....burns some oil..but hey. Now i have a 2002 LW300....when i was workin in the vincity where i was gettin shelled corn from a grain farmer...id pick up 700-800 lbs. of corn every 3-4 months in that....low n behold...i get home one evenin n decide to park in a different location....walk by where i normally parked it...whats this?....piece of coil spring on my stones...after farther investigation...looked at the wagon n yes...broken coil spring. No more....now the trailer gets hooked up to the 4 runner...
Glad to see that I am not alone in this. All Saturn's enjoy a wee bit of oil. The S series 1.9L twin cam was notorious for drinking a quart or more between changes, especially if you repeatedly spun it to the 6750 redline. Great performance for the day... I owned a 92SC. This was before it became the SC2. Was quicker than any Integra except the type r, and was a great handling and great looking car. Even came with factory headers. Owner since new. I had a 50 shot nitrous wet kit on it, which really made traction at low speed a problem. Wish I still had it. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Always liked them... And I think I would stab at one of the Saturn Sky roadsters if I came across a clean one that had the turbo... Or the super rare mallet V8!
My '01 Mercury Sable has broken 3 of 4 coil springs over the years...hauls nothing but me most of the time. Breaking springs was apparently so common on the Taurus/Sable of this vintage that Ford called these things back and added a shield to keep the broken springs from popping the tires...I personally think they were still a little gun shy from that whole Explorer/Firestone thing...
I never put firewood in my Audi wagon. I only used a trailer. Beyond the mess wood can make, it can break stuff. Stuff you can see, and other stuff you may not see right away. Even with a truck now, I'll still mostly use the trailer to haul wood. I did put a few nights worth of firewood for campfires into my bed this past weekend though. That's because I was hauling ski boat, and nothing dirty goes into that boat. I don't even allow people to wear shoes on it.
