Peugeot Customer Care

Without warning, the nearside spring on the 1.4 broke (almost 6 year old car, 20,000 miles) and instantly deflated the tyre

Bear in mind that it is not just the spring failure that concerns, but the safety implications of the front tyre being slashed by the sharp end of the broken spring which caused instant deflation

Contacts with Peugeot (UK):
13th February 2012: Peugeot Customer Care:

Thank you for your recent enquiry made via the Peugeot website.

Here at the Peugeot Customer Contact Centre we do not hold technical information, so we would recommend that you contact your local Peugeot dealership who will be able to help you with your enquiry.

14th February 2012: The local dealer advises:

I have looked into your issue on your vehicle and there are no Recalls for this problem.
I have double checked for any suspension related faults with the 1007 and there are none on the Peugeot Connect dealer system.

We have not had any other 1007's that we can recall with this issue.
I can understand your concerns for safety and I would be more than happy to carry out a free inspection of the suspension for you.
If I can be of any more assistance then please contact me.

15th February 2012:  I replied:

With respect, the issue is not whether the front springs break or not - there are many records to show that Peugeot springs do break.

My concern is that when they DO break, the broken end can be forced down between the spring mount and the tyre and can stab and instantly deflate the tyre.  This appears to be a safety issue that I would have thought would have been of concern to Peugeot, even assuming ours is a unique occurrence.

I am disbelieving that not one Peugeot with a broken spring on this design of suspension (which includes the 207) has ever been recorded.  1007's are not very common, however I shall appreciate your confirmation that the failure and tyre deflation of my wife's 1007 will appear on your database for future reference for all Peugeot dealers.

I remind you that a recall was issued on the Partner model range, as apparently in countries where a large amount of salt may be used on the roads during the winter, there was an increased risk of corrosion and it was necessary to fit a support cup to each front suspension spring.  In the exceptional case of a spring breaking, this cup would help to prevent any risk of the spring coming into contact with the tyre.

You will see from attached photo that there did appear to be some discolouration in the area of the break; however it is less the mechanism of the break that concerns me than the resulting displacement of the spring.

As I have reported this problem, Peugeot will now be aware that it might happen to other cars of similar design.  We are sure Peugeot would wish to come up with a safe solution that will avoid this potentially life-threatening scenario happening to anyone else.

I have already drawn your attention to the Citroen C3 which had a VOSA recall to fit a device to prevent the broken end of the spring puncturing the tyre and this has similar, if not identical, suspension design to the Peugeot 207 and 1007 ranges.

15th February 2012: local dealer replied:

I will of course pass this information onto Peugeot UK.

All customer feedback, especially potential safety issues are important.

Unfortunately I am not able to give you a personal guarantee that this will not happen again - and I have not stated this in any of our correspondents.

I can assure you that I will forward this e-mail onto my Peugeot Aftersales Area manager who will make sure it gets to the correct people at Peugeot.

15th February 2012:  to which I replied:

Your previous email stated:

I have looked into your issue on your vehicle and there are no Recalls for this problem.

I have double checked for any suspension related faults with the 1007 and there are none on the Peugeot Connect dealer system.

We have not had any other 1007's that we can recall with this issue.

This means to us that I have your assurance (on behalf of Peugeot) that ours was a one-off event; to say otherwise is to assume it might happen again. 

Can you please check your database to see if there have been any similar reports of tyre damage following spring breakage in the far more numerous 207 range, upon which the 1007 is based.

I again attach the .jpg of the broken end - although I stress this is not the issue I am raising with Peugeot; we accept and understand that springs CAN occasionally fail.  Alternatively, the picture can be viewed on my site  here 

It is the resulting instant tyre deflation that concerns us and we want a solution from Peugeot that will ensure the tyre remains intact should a front spring ever break again.

15th February 2012: local dealer replied:

As promised I have contacted my Peugeot Aftersales manager who in turn has passed your issue onto the Peugeot Customer care department.

They are now dealing with your enquiry and will hopefully answer any further questions.

20th February 2012: REMINDER SENT:

Can you please confirm that the Peugeot Customer Care Department is dealing with our concerns as a matter of some urgency? I also need to know if it is safe to continue driving our other 1007 in view of the serious incident on my wife's car?

21st February 2012:

Peugeot Customer Care have agreed to replace the front springs on our second 1007 (almost 5 years old) at no cost to us.

2nd March 2012

Peugeot today changed the front springs free of charge on our other 1007 - having had one spring break and burst a tyre one gets very nervous! We should be OK now for the next five years (provided no salt is put on the roads!).