WTF: Trunk lid torsion spring ~> Violent failure

I was sitting in my 2010 Honda Accord today. It was not running and parked in a parking garage. Without any warning, I heard a loud bang. At first I thought someone had backed into me, but the car didn't really move. Then I thought maybe I got hit by a chunk of falling concrete. I got out to take a look but didn't see anything. Later, I pressed the trunk release button and the latch released but the trunk lid didn't pop up. I lifted it open and it immediately dropped closed. I opened it up again and found that one of the two torsion springs had broken and the hooked end had gone flying around inside the trunk.

I have never heard of these things failing before and can't figure out what would have caused it, short of a manufacturing defect in the spring steel.

Wild! I've never heard of that either. Not even once.

I've had the torsion spring pop out of its hole and make a helluva bang in my Fairmont. I never want that to happen again.

Unless you overstuffed the trunk with pointy stuff and tweaked a spring, I'm going with a manufacturing defect in the spring steel. I had a garage door spring break just sitting there. It was a similar experience-lots of noise I couldn't explain until the opener started stalling.

I have replace a few over the years and never found a reason for the failure, must be a fracture in the part itself.

They fail for the same reason a suspension spring breaks...whatever that is.

Take a look at the edge of the broken mettal. If only part of the metal is shiny, that break has been coming for a while.

We had to reinstall the trunk torsion bars in our '69 LeMans once. How no one ended up dead, I still don't know.

I added a spoiler to my 2011 Accord and you have to change one spring. Not fun but it was done at home. Honda sells a tool for changing them out but I used a pry bar.

Be careful putting the replacement back in. I put new ones in a 240sx (previous owner removed them as part of his weight reduction for the car.......and the guy was 350ish pounds himself) and had one slip out during the install. It whacked my hand and I thought it broke it. Not fun. Many choice words spoken too.

Spoolpigeon wrote: (previous owner removed them as part of his weight reduction for the car.......and the guy was 350ish pounds himself)

But think of how lively and feather-lite the 240 was after removal! That's all past-the-axle weight right there!

My cousin built a trick setup with hatchback shocks for his Impala rather than put the springs back in. They were a little strong and could pop the lid open with a cat sitting on it when you hit the button.

Yeah there's a lot of potential energy in a wound-up torsion spring. We had one let loose in our garage door and from inside the house it sounded like a gunshot. Installing them is fraught with peril as well, but is straightforward.

I was able to order a replacement from the Honda dealership for less than $15. It will be here tomorrow. Unfortunately, the installation tool is $40 online, but I may be able to use something else. I'll make at least one attempt before ordering it.

If you have an old box end wrench, you can cut a piece out that is big enough for the spring to fit through and use that as a lever to get it where it needs to go.

Try looking at this 914 tech article about trunk springs for some ideas

After stressing out for a couple of days over whether or not I should pop for the fancy-pants Honda trunk spring tool, I decided to make a few attempts with assorted garage flotsam. My initial attempt with a long offset box end wrench failed but the subsequent attack with my largest pair of Channel Loks got it to pop right into place. In fact, it was so easy that I had to double and triple check to see if I had it in the right spot. Overall, it was not so bad. The hardest part was actually figuring out if I had the spring oriented properly and in the right position in relation to the second one.

kb58 wrote: Yeah there's a lot of potential energy in a wound-up torsion spring. We had one let loose in our garage door and from inside the house it sounded like a gunshot. Installing them is fraught with peril as well, but is straightforward.

Came here to post this. I was in the room over the garage when it let loose. I momentarily thought the commies had nuked us.

I don't like working with springs.

Woody wrote: I don't like working with springs.

Glad you got it sorted. I agree with you, too. The past few times I've needed suspension work done, I paid somebody to do it instead of of futzing around with spring compressors.

Should hear the ones on the 13x10 aluminum and glass doors at work. Had one break when i was under a car, thought i was going too die

You should hear when an Achilles tendon ruptures, not a good sound.

Brett_Murphy wrote:

Woody wrote: I don't like working with springs.

Glad you got it sorted. I agree with you, too. The past few times I've needed suspension work done, I paid somebody to do it instead of of futzing around with spring compressors.

That actually came up today too. My truck needs new front struts. I was dreading the spring swap. I ordered full drop-in assemblies instead.

Wall-e wrote: My cousin built a trick setup with hatchback shocks for his Impala rather than put the springs back in. They were a little strong and could pop the lid open with a cat sitting on it when you hit the button.

I've got a feeling you aren't using hyperbole here...

Hate to bring up an old post but I registered just to chime in and say that I have a 2012 Honda Accord LX Sedan and the same thing happened to me. Since you have a 2010 I'm guessing they fail at about 6 years.

Toebra said:

You should hear when an Achilles tendon ruptures, not a good sound.

Damn straight. If you're lucky you don't fall and break an arm a second later.