Time to replace struts?

Hi all,

When putting on new snow tyres back in March I found one of the rear springs broken. Changed the rear struts, but I did notice the front struts are kind of rusty too.

The car has nearly 200,000 miles on it and I've driven it the last 45,000 or so. The ride is fine as far as I'm concerned, but I didn't notice the broken rear spring so maybe my judgement isn't the best.

Can I keep driving or should I replace the front struts too? Should I be worried the front springs might break like it did on the rear? I guess I wouldn't like that to happen while on the highway?

 

No uneven tyre wear, and I've been keeping tack of it so I would have noticed.

Some road salt but not a lot. But the car is by now 18 years old with a lot of miles, and I suspect the front struts are original.

But none of you would be worried about the springs breaking while driving? That's the only cause for me to change them since I'm not noticing any bad ride quality.

 

Well say I'm doing 70 on the highway and an unexpected bump causes one of the front springs to fail, what could happen? Could the spring slash a tyre? Could the wheel well come into contact with the tyre? Is it plausible that a failing spring could cause an accident, basically?

 

Those types of search results are all I've found. Maybe that means that there is no danger unless you keep drivning after the spring is broken. Yeah I'll have to think about this one, got a quote for replacing the struts and its around 25 % of the car's value, and this is not the only issue with the car.

 

Yeah that's the risk I'm worried about. I haven't been able to find any information about how big the risk is though. Is it once in a blue moon, or an actual concern?

 

Changed the oil yesterday, got some more photos of the struts