Quote Originally Posted by JohnL View Post
? I don't understand!
stick a cup of water in your cup holder without a lid. if your shocks and springs are working properly, then on a straight and flat piece of road, the water should sit flat or ripple a little on imperfections on the road. in my car, it splashes at every little imperfection of road, even if it is just a 1cm high bump, or just a rock on the road.

Quote Originally Posted by JohnL View Post
The spring coating is quite thick, not 5mm though, and I'm 99% sure it's some sort of powdercoat. It's certainly thicker than paint. If it's lifting in places and generally roughed up it might possibly give the impression of being thicker than it is(?). Peel a bit off and see.

In any case I can't see the "chunks" being depressions in the steel, flying stones etc certainly couldn't cause such damage, and not even severe corrosion is likely to be that bad (unless they'd been left in salt water for a few years!). Even considering that the springs are exposed to the elements and that the protective coating is damaged, IMO they just wouldn't stay wet long enough for more than surface rust to appear, even after 18 or so years (also considering that they are good quality steel, and good steel as a generalisation tends to corrode less than poor quality steel).

I've seen old leaf springs that have been sitting exposed in paddocks for decades, and while they'll be rusty there would be no corrosion on them even remotely close to 5mm deep, unless they were at least partially buried.
haha, actually, it looks like someone got hungry. and im pretty sure its not powdercoating because i've peeled off a little to compare, and you can see the bits missing on the actual spring.