We bought a 2004 SE in December. It had 24,000 miles on it. I have put about 6,000 on it since then. One of my leaf springs broke and I am wondering a few things.

1. Is this something that should have been seen during the intial inspection? I am leaning towards no, but it seems like one of the clips holding it together broke and one of the smaller springs shifted.

2. Does this seem early for something like this? This seems to me like it should not have broken at 30K. I have not gone offroad at all and pretty much babied it so far. I have a 95 Wrangler that I have both taken offroad and beat the snot out of, with no issues.

Any input is appreciated

you can get new leaf spring clamps at autozone...basically just u bolts....

jack the truck up so the weight is off the suspension, then use a BFH to knock the spring back aligned with the other springs, then put the clamp on...

is the spring itself cracked or broken? if so, which spring?

doesn't look cracked or broken at all

This is not an uncommon problem with the first gens, particularly with the '03's and '04's when they put on lighter spring packs to make it more comfortable for the grocery getting crowd...then they made the next gen X's for them, but I digress.

If the spring itself is not broken you can put on an aftermarket clamp and be done with it. Jack up the back of the truck, slide the spring in and clamp it to keep it in place. The best way to do it, however is get a bolt on clamp and drill out the old rivet and bolt the new one in place. You may have room to do this without removing the spring pack, but I doubt it.

Take a picture and show is what it looks like.

even if the clamp is still there just bent, you can hammer it back into shape....i did that after smashing mine on a rock on time and its holding up just fine

Like Dagger said take a pic and let us see. I also agree with him that it has happened alot to the 02-04's. As a matter of fact I had it happen to me as well. The leaf's breaking that is.

Just dont let the Modd Bug bite you... instead of fixing.. you;ll be replaceing with Aftermarket and your ass end will be high ...