Mot Fail Question

[badgerfax]

The Toad failed its MOT today on:

Offside front (top) suspension arm ball joint dust cover excessively deteriorated

Nearside front (top) suspension arm has excessive play in pin/bush

Now i have the wheels off and yep the offside ball joint rubber is cracked so new one needed.

The nearside play is not from the top pin/bush, its coming from the ball joint which is obviously really bad.

If I go ahead & replace both ball joints is the MOT inspector going to be looking for new pin & bush as this was only done couple of years ago.

Also while i'm taking the track rod ends off is it worth replacing these as the rubbers look pretty ropy

[Ian Hulley]

No disrespect but are you sure you can test it the same as he can ? Different vehicle admittedly BUT I had an irritating rattle on the Passat and tried everything to find it .. nothing, took it to the local garage and he found it straight away £20 upper/front arm (there are 4 on each front side) plus £20 labour and it was sorted.

Ian

[Wychall]

If you just need rubbers for the track rod ends, I can recommend this chap. Fast turnround and good quality rubber.

http://www.balljointboots.co.uk

[badgerfax]

No disrespect but are you sure you can test it the same as he can ? Different vehicle admittedly BUT I had an irritating rattle on the Passat and tried everything to find it .. nothing, took it to the local garage and he found it straight away £20 upper/front arm (there are 4 on each front side) plus £20 labour and it was sorted.

Ian

When I move the wheel with the van jacked up you can see the upper ball joint moving so this is definitely shot.

As for the track rod end rubber, They sound great

[AdrianC]

The nearside play is not from the top pin/bush, its coming from the ball joint which is obviously really bad.

If I go ahead & replace both ball joints is the MOT inspector going to be looking for new pin & bush as this was only done couple of years ago.

He's going to be looking for movement. If the _real_ cause of it's been done, then he'll be happy. The fail items are all off a picklist on the computer, so they're used to finding the next-best-but-not-quite...

Also while i'm taking the track rod ends off is it worth replacing these as the rubbers look pretty ropy

<scratches head>
Do you need to take the TRE off to do the upper balljoint? I don't recall Andy at Campershack touching 'em on ours when he did the BJs for the MOT last year.

Otherwise, you're the man looking at 'em. What do you reckon? Bad 'nuff to do this year, or leave until later? They'll need doing sooner or later, sure.

[badgerfax]

Thanks Adrian, I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to mechanics, but keen to get stuck in. My neighbour is pretty experienced tho, and as we don't have air tools, dropping the track rod end we can get better access

The track rod end rubbers look pretty cracked so this makes me wonder if its best to save myself a job in the future.

I am torn between renewing the rubber or the whole track rod end tho

The bushes / pin rod look pretty new to me, same as in the brickwerks pic of them. The movement in the damaged ball joint was very noticeable. Even to a novice like me, that would seem the likely fault, although I do take the point that Ian made that they have different ways of testing than just me pulling the wheel about.