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Car made the same thunk sound as reported above. Took the car into a local mechanic referred by state farm - who did the work and charged me $850.00. What I did not know at the time is that a Ford dealership would have done work for free. Ford Motor told me if I had been getting my car serviced at a dealership I would have been in their "system". I also found out that if I had known about flmowners.com I would have known in time. I went into the shop that did the work and got in the owner's grill but he cried about not having the financial resources to use a database (that his competitor up the street uses); also he did not know about flmowners.com I laid into state farm and told them to recommend the loser mechanic for oil changes, if that.

Front Coil spring snapped in two. and I was lucky I wasn't driving too fast or I would have run off the road or into an oncoming vehicle.

Before setting off for a 5 Hour trip across the state. I checked with Ford to clear up what I found was a recall on the front coil springs. They said bring it in. I did and they told me they only checked the springs and only replaced when they actually broke. Though they were known to break. So I took my 5 hour trip across state to the country. spent 3 days there and with all bags packed up in the trunk went to get gas before heading back another 5 hours when all of a sudden. I heard a lound THUNK. I pulled over and to my surprise, there it was. My coils spring was broken in half and pinned to my tire. I had to spend another 4 days off work trying to get it inspected, parts flown in and installed. I was furious. They installed the new spring for free. but I still have not been compensated for my ordeal. I'm one "on the fence ford man" This is one of those ordeals that you could state was the final straw and bought foreign cars since then.

Today, a beautiful sunny day up in Markham, Ontario after an annoying winter, I decided to change my winter tires back to the regular tires. As I drove out of my garage the first little bump that I take the car made a huge cracking noise and I realized something was wrong. After 10 min my dad and I found that the spring on the right front tire was done and that the left front spring is in the process of breaking. Anyways, I am going to replace it somehow.

Update from Apr 24, 2009: Well...the only way we could fix this, it was by replacing it. Almost around $800 Canadian. Including both springs and struts and alignment by Canadian Tire.

My son has owned his 2001 Ford Focus ZX3 for about three years and has had nothing but trouble. Just last night (Dec 22, 2008) while attempting to leave his place of employment @ 9:30 p.m. he discovered his car wouldn't move. He discovered the spring on the passenger side had broke and was rubbing against his tire. He had to have it towed (cost-75.00) plus the estimate to repair is around 450.00. So now I'm wondering if we should have the other spring replaced as well so he doesn't have to go through this bs again. I hate to think what could have happened had the spring decided to bust while in heavy traffic on ice. I will never own or recommend a Ford to anyone ever!!!!!!

I had 2 Focuses, 2001 & 2003, Both ended up with broken springs. The 2001 passenger spring snapped a year ago but the story is still worth telling. Car full of kids going to a baseball game on the interstate cruising along between 65 & 75 miles per hour. When by a factory area and noticed the air smelled like a tire factory was burning. Looked out my passenger mirror to move from the fast lane to the middle lane and saw a trail of white smoke pouring out along the side of my Focus. Thought the engine was on fire!! Worked my way to the slow lane and exited up a ramp that happened to be right there. Pulled in a parking lot next to the exit ramp and had everyone bail out. Popped open the hood and no fire, the engine looked fine but smelled terrible. I walked around to the front passenger side and noticed black rubber shavings on the ground and hanging from the wheel well. The spring snapped and drove down into my tire. The end of the spring was grinding down thru the rubber and wearing a groove into the steel belt, just as if it was machined. The steel belt was super hot. Had the car towed to Firestone who replaced the springs with a new spring strut combination. I took it there since I had Firestone tires and my Tire was damaged. Only after the repairs were done did I find out about an extended recall. Ford should have done a recall on these springs. After going back and forth between Ford Customer service and the dealer 2 times and writing a detailed letter requesting average compensation, I received $700 from Detroit. The car was better off with the new Spring/struts. Sold this car last year to a friend with 108,000 miles with a new suspension. This year my 2003 Focus' driver side spring broke. Took this to the dealer to have them replaced under the extended warranty and all they replaced were the springs. Again, A recall was in order. The 2003 broke and caused the car to sag. The 2001 snapped and I had to bail off a freeway with a load of kids like I had been shot with a sidewinder missile.