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BAT Euro Suspension

S

SVTCANUK

CEG'er
Joined
Jun 4, 2002
Messages
241
Location
Brampton, Ontario, Canada.
Happy New Year everyone!

I woke up this morning and decided it was finally time to put the snow tires on the car. I started on the passenger side and to my surprise this is what I found when I removed the tire

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After cursing and swearing and my poor wife having to listen to me for about 20 minutes I decided to check the rest of the suspension and this is what I found on the drivers side

DSCN0624.JPG


WTF is this? The suspension is only 3.5 years old and only has 45K on it. Has anyone else with this suspension experienced similar failure? I don't know how long it's been broken because the car never showed signs of failure and it hasn't really been driven for the past 5 weeks.

The next question is for Chris if you read this, does BAT have any kind of warranty on their products or am I SOL?
 
That just seems to clean of a break. Was there some sort of seam there?

I'm not sure what BAT covers. I found this on their website:

Warranties

All parts are covered only by the manufacturers warranties and/or guarantees. BAT Inc. can assume no responsibility or liability for use or application by the user. Claims for goods damaged in transit are the responsibility of the carrier. You should always examine the contents of your package and notify the carrier immediately if there is any sign damage.
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Per their site, here's the contact info:

7630 Matoaka Rd.
Sarasota, FL 34243
USA
(941) 355-0005 fax (941) 355-4683

Maybe see if Chris has a better 'in' with BAT to see whether something can be done.

Happy New Year (well, as happy can be with broken springs).
 
Thanks Chris. It only looks like the fronts but once I get the fronts swapped out with old SVT springs I will have a closer look at the rears for problems. Will the BAT struts be OK with the stock SVT springs?
 
SVTCANUK said:
Thanks Chris. It only looks like the fronts but once I get the fronts swapped out with old SVT springs I will have a closer look at the rears for problems. Will the BAT struts be OK with the stock SVT springs?
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The struts should be okay, since the strut lengths were the same from stock to BAT.
 
What a job replacing the springs, thanks Mark for the replacements. I froze my butt off yesterday doing it and it fought me all the way. I've done this job a few times before and never had this much trouble. BTW I'm going to have to replace the passenger side LCA because I ruined the ball joint while separating it.

BTW both coils snapped right where the rubber tube begins at the bottom of the coil. Perhaps this was a collection point for moisture and corrosion weakened the steel over time. I will post pictures later.
 
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SVTCANUK said:
What a job replacing the springs, thanks Mark for the replacements. I froze my butt off yesterday doing it and it fought me all the way. I've done this job a few times before and never had this much trouble. BTW I'm going to have to replace the passenger side LCA because I ruined the ball joint while separating it.

BTW both coils snapped right where the rubber tube begins at the bottom of the coil. Perhaps this was a collection point for moisture and corrosion weakened the steel over time. I will post pictures later.
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Rob, PM or email me. BAT has a solution, but it won't be absolutely free.
 
I've been thinking of purchasing the BAT kit for my SVT.

It would be very interesting to know what BAT has said about why this happened, and what the company is doing to resolve the problem - assuming there's not some reason to keep it a secret.
 
steener said:
I've been thinking of purchasing the BAT kit for my SVT.

It would be very interesting to know what BAT has said about why this happened, and what the company is doing to resolve the problem - assuming there's not some reason to keep it a secret.
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My early BAT did not have the rubber hose on the bottom coil, and it is still intact. They may have included the rubber to reduce squeaking or maybe to adjust the ride height since the hose does add a bit of height to the spring.

What you do notice is that both springs broke right at where the hose stops. I think that there was two things, water and rust within the area where the hose contacted the spring, and secondly, since the spring was not sitting flush on the spring perch, there was probably vertical and bending stress created on the coil right where the hose stopped. Best thing, cut off the rubber hose and reuse any factory spring isolator instead.

For this customer, BAT is willing to replace the springs for nominal fee (very reasonable), and the price is quite good considering the broken springs are 3.5 years old. In other words, they provided a solution for the customer.
 
That sounds like one of the best warrenty's for lowering springs I've ever heard of.. Guess I'm getting a BAT setup come spring.
Mike
 
The BAT kit I got off of Chris around a 18 months (45Ks or so) or ago (IIRC) didn't have the rubber on the spring, probably only shipped for a limited time.
 
Chris@CTA said:
For this customer, BAT is willing to replace the springs for nominal fee (very reasonable), and the price is quite good considering the broken springs are 3.5 years old. In other words, they provided a solution for the customer.
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Yes BAT did replace the springs for a discounted price but shipping, duties, brokerage and taxes would have made it bad deal if I didn't have family that spend the winter in Florida who will bring the springs back with them.

You also have to consider the associated cost of removing the broken springs, reinstalling the factory originals and then finally installing the replacements when I get them. If I didn't do all that work myself it would be a hefty bill to pay. Not to mention lost time from work because the car was not drivable.
Springs should last a lot longer that 3.5 years before they rust through.

In the end I don't think I am getting any kind of a deal here because ripping apart the suspension is not fun. I appreciate what they have offered but I would rather have not had to do any of it.
 
Given my experience with all four of my SVT's springs breaking, if I had to do it again, I would buy some Eibachs with the BAT struts. Hard to beat shot-peened and powder-coated. Either that, or take the stockers in for powdercoating, or coat them with some POR-15.
 
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