Squeaking leaves springs : a solution

[Gaurav]

14 hours ago, Srikumar said:

Whenever I used to overload the vehicle it would sag quite a bit at the back.

And then ppl say that leaf springs are made to take a lot of load than coil springs.

[Krishna R]

17 hours ago, Srikumar said:

@Krishna R did only one leaf break or the entire set? I don't think the spacers would have caused your leaf spring to break.

I have had a case where both my rear leaf springs set had failed at the same time. But this happened only once in about 7 years of offroading. This didn't happen all of a sudden, but over a period of time which I realised later in hindsight. Whenever I used to overload the vehicle it would sag quite a bit at the back. So what exactly happened is that out of the 4 leafs the smallest ones had already broken and during the final drive in Sweihan while cross-crossing the big leaf gave away. And the same must have happened on the other side as well. In my case the springs had no rust as well, infact they are made of hardened steel that don't fail so easily.

Your shocks are the ones that prevent the full flex of the leaf spring. Maybe it has a bit too much travel and allows the suspension to flex more than what it ought too.

Hey @SrikumarThe top leaf broke. The rest seem fine. 

It can be my suspension as well as I have profenders and they have much more travel than stock. However, there is nothing in my car except for a jack, shovel, air compressor and tow ropes.

 

[Srikumar]

7 hours ago, Gaurav said:

And then ppl say that leaf springs are made to take a lot of load than coil springs.

Not when 2 out of the 4 leafs were already broken

5 hours ago, Krishna R said:

Hey @SrikumarThe top leaf broke. The rest seem fine. 

It can be my suspension as well as I have profenders and they have much more travel than stock. However, there is nothing in my car except for a jack, shovel, air compressor and tow ropes.

 

From my understanding the shocks need to prevent the leafs from extending fully. If not you will have failure.

[Asif Hussain]

On 3/21/2023 at 5:42 PM, Krishna R said:

Turns out the rubber padding between the leaves had turned hard (not brittle) and rock solid and literally became a hard object between the leaves and were stressing at the contact point which ultimately cracked the leaf during a bump.

This might be the right reason @Krishna R. I was trying to figure out the reason how it broke when I was under your xterra fixing the leaves. I had noticed the rubber padding 3mm to 4mm thick given with gaps in between under each leaves.

The leaves were not resting on each other as seen in the pictures above and i believe this might had stressed the blades to become weak and gave up.

[Krishna R]

Final Update on my leaf springs,

So, after I changed one of the leaf springs after the incident, I felt the car had more lift on one side and decided to service and re-camber both the springs.

The shop guys basically dismantled it and took each leaf apart, cleaned them, made adjustments to camber and put them back together. 

The special bonus is they aren't squeaking anymore 😃

Also, the suspension guys told me that the rubber padding is of no use and does more harm than good.

I waited to post this after 5 drives and so far so good. 

 @Asif Hussain @Srikumar

[Frederic]

1 hour ago, Krishna R said:

Final Update on my leaf springs,

So, after I changed one of the leaf springs after the incident, I felt the car had more lift on one side and decided to service and re-camber both the springs.

The shop guys basically dismantled it and took each leaf apart, cleaned them, made adjustments to camber and put them back together. 

The special bonus is they aren't squeaking anymore 😃

Also, the suspension guys told me that the rubber padding is of no use and does more harm than good.

I waited to post this after 5 drives and so far so good. 

 @Asif Hussain @Srikumar

Get ready for squeaking the next time you bring it on sand 😁