Looking at a ten year old car with a Tow Bar and the rear suspension looks lower than normal would this indicate heavy loads/compressed springs

Or snapped springs, or worn bushings.

Have you looked at other similar cars to see if it’s normal, Kia’s always look odd so the wheels not being concentric with the arches might be a design feature!

That said, the number of Octavia sized cars you see wheeling their way up the M4 on a saturday with 4 blokes inside and 4 bikes on the back, it’s not just a towing problem!

Looks knackered. I’d suspect: clutch, brakes, the whole of the rear suspension and underside from dragging its arse across campsites, and big ends. Anyone who loads a car up like that will have no mechanical sympathy and be in 5th at 10mph. </judgmentalPreconception>

Could be broken coil springs. I’ve had a couple go in the past, the end few inches that sit in the carrier snap off making the car sit a bit lower, rather than collapse by failure in the middle. Not immediately obvious when you look underneath.

That does look a bit low.

Posted in the wrong forum sorry, I’ve looked at another estate kia and the rear suspension looks low as well with no tow bar, But I suspect the car has been towed to death with 150k on it, still only a cheap car with no advisories for a run about.

It’s probably just broken springs – this happens with age, nothing to do with towing.  They don’t ‘compress’ over time.  Springs on mine broke after having done few towing miles.  It also went through a fair few MOTs too – when it finally failed I thought back and remembered hearing a couple of loud bangs a while back that I’d assumed were me hitting something on the road.  It’s not obvious even if you check.

Towing isn’t really abusing the suspension if you do it properly.  The nose weight of a light caravan could be 60kg which isn’t a huge amount to place in your boot is it?  Four adults and a load of kit would put more stress on it. And driving 130mph on the Autobahn probably puts more stress through the engine and transmission which is what European cars are designed to handle.

Fixing springs is cheap though and should be done since the car suspension will be working properly.  Broken springs on mine put a sawtooth pattern on the inside edge of the rear tyres which meant they needed premature replacement.

That looks higher than our golf which we load up to the roof and then put on a bike rack and a family of fours bikes plus said family of four, just for that low rider look 🙂 And Hot fiat i would never drive at 10mph in 5th the golf has SIX gears!!

Ours has snapped both rear springs and the underside hits the ground a lot though so check underneath, its mainly cosmetic scrapes though but i expect our luck will run out at some point.  So as mentioned above check the springs and the underside and probably unless its dirt cheap don’t bother

Can’t quite make it out, but do I see a grey “12S” electrical connector there, along with a normal black “12N”? If this is the case then the only reason you would ever need one is if you are towing something sturdy, normally a caravan but possibly a trailer tent. Anything less (e.g. a camping trailer or bike rack) and you’d only need to have a 12N installed, rather than the more expensive “twin electric” option, which includes split-charge relays and all that guff.

In short, it’s always best to assume that any car with twin, 7-pin electrics has been used to tow a caravan and assess it as such. Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad (caravanners are often at the steadier end of the driving scale, so often their cars get an easy life and are polished twice every weekend), but it can mean it’s had a miserable life dragging around 2t of caravan in top gear with a driver who hasn’t a clue what they are doing.

(Note: harder to tell on modern cars as the UK has finally caught up with Europe and 13-pin electrics are now standard for all installs, whether for a bike rack or a caravan)

Looking at the advisories throughout the years no mention of springs, I understand its most likely. I’ll Have a look anyway. Its on fleabay

Yup, deffo twin ‘leccy points. Caravanner’s motor, there.

Towing isn’t really abusing the suspension if you do it properly.

Therein lies the problem. Half* the caravans you see on the road definitely aren’t loaded properly! My boat has a lower nose weight than my bike rack!

*8 of ten cats would agree in a scientifically controlled study.

I wouldn’t write the car off yet, a lot of cars may well tow caravans, for one or two holidays per year with most of the time spent gliding along motorways there is not that much wear.  (may differ for a retired couple that go away every month)

I reckon bad habits tear up clutches just as much as towing, I was in a car last week where the driver held the car at an uphill traffic light on the bite point, that’s just torture to the car!

Caravan drivers are generally fairly well educated re: nose weights, its not that often you see cars jigging along on the bumpstops nowadays.  I’ve dished out far more abuse taking stuff to the tip 🙂

 If this is the case then the only reason you would ever need one is if you are towing something sturdy, normally a caravan but possibly a trailer tent.

A car that size hasn’t towed much, unless the owners are total idiots.  I’d rather have that than a car that’s been ragged everywhere by a young lad.

It’s a Kia Ceed isn’t it?

I’d rather have that than a car that’s been ragged everywhere by a young lad.

Good point Ive seen plenty of high mileage 1.0l petrol corsa’s micra’s fiesta’s Ragged to **** most likely.

oooh its won awards…

I’d rather have that than a car that’s been ragged everywhere by a young lad.

It’s a Kia Ceed isn’t it?

I reckon those two statements might be mutually exclusive anyway 😉