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, Fri, 11 Nov 2005 20:36:41
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I am not looking to make trouble. I am surprised that SaabUSA has been so difficult instead of cooperative. They should be most concerned with making sure they get my parts for failure analysis. If it is a warranty repair, I doubt I can keep anything, but I will try. Maybe the dealer can hold them and if Saab doesn’t want them give them to me. I am curious as to what went wrong here.
Of course I was using fatigue informally. Is it possible that the springs are susceptible to plastic deformation when loaded for too extensive a period of time or that under static load plus some high dynamic load of say a large road bump the springs fail? As you say, the factor of safety should be more than high enough to prevent such a failure, although they did not crack so the factor of safety might be ok. Suspension design is a delicate balance between too little and too much stiffness. Maybe someone misjudged things or just cut the margins to thin. Maybe it is the particular stock spring/damper combo that is problematic. Maybe there is a metallurgic manufacturing issue. There is no way to know without some analysis. If the springs fail, I doubt the dampers can support the car and so fail as well.
What is most odd about it all is that both rears are out of spec and that the right rear is so much worse (1 degree more negative or about 2 degrees total unloaded). Also, while the car hasn’t been on an alignment rack loaded, it sags a lot when loaded. I think the springs have deformed plastically and lost some of their spring constant, possibly due to the deformation.
I think the auto companies take advantage of consumers by not always adequately supporting their product from a technical perspective. I doubt GE Transportation or Boeing treat their customers this way. Clearly whatever happened to my car is not normal and does not appear to be due to anything I have done. The dealer’s only solution is ‘I don’t know, let’s just replace it all and hope it stays fixed next time.’ SaabUSA says ‘we have no clue, the dealer’s are supposed to know and you can’t possibly have any knowledge because you are not a dealer.’ This doesn’t sound too scientific to me especially when people I trust more are saying I will have the same problem all over again with the same parts.
posted by 69.113.12...
, Fri, 11 Nov 2005 14:07:19, Fri, 11 Nov 2005 20:36:41, Sat, 12 Nov 2005 11:59:45, Sat, 12 Nov 2005 20:04:02, Mon, 14 Nov 2005 04:51:12, Sun, 13 Nov 2005 08:23:24
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