How are Coilovers failures recognized and what risks are there street-driving your car prior to getting it repaired?

[miracj]

A couple of questions about the failure mechanisms of coilovers while street-driving;

1. While street driving your car, what are the symptoms you might get with a coilover failure?
2. Is the coilover failure something that happens all at once, or does it start out small and get progressively worse?
3. If you need to continue driving it while waiting for a part replacement, are there risks to the car that could be permanent?
4. Is it faster or cheaper to get a replacement part rather than to repair a failed damper?
5. If you are getting a damper repaired, could you replace it with the original spring temporarily while waiting for the repaired damper?

Thanks!

 

[GeezerSquid]

I've been driving for a little over 61 years and I've never had, seen a spring or a shock catastrophically fail. Failed shocks will generally be more "bouncy" and there is often signs of oil leakage. It's normally a slow process.

 

[G2bme]

are you planning to track your car? Or are you looking more comfort?
1) bouncy or rough ride
2) depends, you’re street driving a car so if you’re hitting pot holes on purpose at high speeds you’re looking at maybe a noticeable failure. If you’re just aggressively driving cautiously it’ll be progressive over time.
3) possibly, can be a rough ride and your wheel well can start hitting the tire well, steering can be tough
4)that depends on the manufacturer, but you have the option to purchase a different set of dampeners to put on your coil over spring setup or have a backup in place. Just my opinion- you’re spending 60k for a new car, 5k for a coil over setup then another 1k for dampeners if you want to swap it out.
5) see 4

there are not a lot of coil over options out there so prices are steep. Also your car height would be dropped, so your closer to the ground and your tire might be tucked in

 

[miracj]

are you planning to track your car? Or are you looking more comfort?
1) bouncy or rough ride
2) depends, you’re street driving a car so if you’re hitting pot holes on purpose at high speeds you’re looking at maybe a noticeable failure. If you’re just aggressively driving cautiously it’ll be progressive over time.
3) possibly, can be a rough ride and your wheel well can start hitting the tire well, steering can be tough
4)that depends on the manufacturer, but you have the option to purchase a different set of dampeners to put on your coil over spring setup or have a backup in place. Just my opinion- you’re spending 60k for a new car, 5k for a coil over setup then another 1k for dampeners if you want to swap it out.
5) see 4

there are not a lot of coil over options out there so prices are steep. Also your car height would be dropped, so your closer to the ground and your tire might be tucked in

I won't be doing anything other than normal (If you call winter weather, potholes, construction patches and speed bumps normal). Just looking for a comfortable suspension. Drive height will be stock for the previous reasons. I never intentionally hit a pothole, but sometimes there are spread in a way you can't avoid them, or appear as puddle but are not!

The price to repair the dampers would run about $1000. So I kind of feel just buying a replacement would be cheaper, since even the most expensive kit (Redwood MotorSports Ohlins) run $3750 for the entire kit. But if the degradation is slow enough, there would probably be time to buy a replacement.

Thanks!