Broken coil spring

[Ars Gladius]

Next question. Tires? Should I go with good summer tires and also snows or good all season tires? Difficult to get snows with the right speed rating.

Good set of all seasons, and a good set of winters.

Winters almost never have a high speed ratting. They are made out of a softer rubber to give you grip in colder temperatures. The trade off is a lower speed ratting, which BTW is still WAAAY above our posted limits here in Ontario, or North America for that matter.

[Astro14]

+1 on what Ars Gladius said.

There is simply no comparison between all-season and winter tire performance...it's like comparing sneakers and snow boots...the braking and handling improvements from dedicated winter tires make them worth every penny...particularly where you live.

I know my profile says Virginia Beach, but I've lived in Colorado, Vermont and Winnipeg...believe me, you want snow tires...

[melsulliv]

Coil Spring front passenger side broke on my 2005 xc70 with 127,000 miles, while backing slowly out of the driveway. Luckily it didn't puncture my tire. I heard load bang, got out and didn't notice it at the time, drove on it for 5 days before I rechecked the area and noticed it broken. I did notice a bit of slight handling problems when driving, nothing bad just a bit of a wandering feel in the steering. Any costs estimates?

[Ars Gladius]

OEM spring is about ~$120 ish + ~2 hrs labor. You should always replace front suspension parts in pairs.

Also, since you (or your mechanic) have to take the strut assembly apart anyway, consider replacing the strut, spring seats, etc while you are at it (if it hasn't recently been replaced) as you will only be paying for parts if done at the same time.

I completely rebuilt both sides myself when mine went. Took about 6 hrs (first time doing it).

[JRL]

If your front suspension has over 100K miles, you really should consider replacing everything.
Struts are essentially shot after 75K anyway, (more so if you drive on rough roads, less so if you live in the deep South, like Fl with their ultra smooth roads).

When I bought my 07 last year with 110K miles, it was "fine" but a bit tired.
The rear shocks had recently been replaced but I decided do everything now and not be bothered for the rest of the time I would own it, so I replaced EVERYTHING;

Timing belt, serpentine belt and lower tensioner and a complete new breather box system.
Front struts, front springs, strut bellows, spring seats, bearing plates, rear shocks, all sway bar links, rear shock mounts (and 1 control arm). Spark plugs, air and cabin filters and probably more, just can't think of it at this moment
Also added a rear S60R sway bar
Seafoam before the plugs and the oil change over to Synthetic.

Obviously everything was worn even more than I thought, the car sat at least an inch and a half taller after everything new was installed!
It may have settled back down 1/4" now, a year later.
Now bear in mind this was a car with every single service stamped by one anal (but normal) owner, he just followed the book, every 7500 miles (with dino oil, hence the breather).

The moral to this story is if you plan to keep your XC (and have the funds), replace everything at around 100-115K miles, you will be happy you did as mine literally drives like a new car.

It's not cheap but doing it at this mileage pretty much assures you that you probably won't have to do it for another 100K miles!

...and also change your transmission fluid.