HOLY CRAP.....!!!!!!
 

My daily driver (01 Saturn SC1) has been sitting in the driveway for the last 2-3 of weeks and today I thought I'd take it out just to run it for a while. The right front tire was low so I broke out the air pump and aired it up. Put the pump away and got in the car and put it in reverse. Tires were stuck to the asphalt by some ice and the car hesitated to move. Gave it a little more gas and it seemed to break free. Just then the left front of the car drops. I'm like 'what da fuq?' and I'm figuring that the tire was so stuck to the asphalt that the tire was pulled away from the rim and when I got out, it was flat. Go and get the air pump and hook it up, turn it on and nothing happens. So I figure the tire is off the rim and go get my jack. When I jack it up, I look in the fenderwell and see this:

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That is the spring off the strut and it snapped, appears to have spun around with some serious force and impaled the tire. I'm glad as hell it happened in the drive and not on the road. Holy Crap! Car just broke 300,000 miles. :cry:

Rust, culprit looks like rust.

Gotta say, nice on the 300k miles. :thumbsup:

this should be a reminder to everyone that SPRINGS DO INDEED WEAR OUT

Original water pump went 299,973 miles. Had a date stamped into the face of the impeller. Have not had many problems with it at all. Have replaced the radiator, thermostat, heater core, shifter cables, rear struts (huh, guess the fronts needed it too), intake gasket, valve cover gasket and normal brake wear and tear. Used to commute 100 miles round trip M-F but retired in August. Still gets 37 mpg on the highway, so I can't complain.

This is your car telling you "I desire to be lowered."

Awesome it's made it this far, and a good reminder that springs will f you up if you're not careful with them.

Not too much to complain about with those miles.. Good thing it happened to you when it was parked..

my 02 tdi wagon sat for a year while i got around to replacing the injection pump.

finally rolled it into the garage and replaced, got it running again

jacked it up, changed over from the snow tires it died with on to its warm weather set.

both rear springs broke.

on the upside, the tires remained intact.

That is pretty crazy.

At least it was an old tire... It looks like the spring had been broken for awhile (based on end rust) and finally came unseated when you broke it free from the ice. Strange indeed. Congrats on the high miles!

And that folks is why you don't drive a Saturn. Glad it happened when you weren't driving, could have been a lot worse.

Time to throw some coilovers on it! haha

Why not? 300,000 miles......can't beat that with a stick. I'll drive it till it drops. Just installed 2 new struts and waiting for my tires to get shipped here. Spring was for sure cracked and finally failed.

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I've also had a Saturn that was amazingly reliable. It was a 91 SL1 that had 320,000 on the odometer with the original OEM clutch. Sold it and the person I sold it to wrecked it...

Glad the damage was not too severe. And nice seeing you got that many miles out of the car.

Not going to lie, I kind of laughed when I scrolled down looking at the pictures :[