MOT Fail - Front Lower Suspension Arm

[EvilDonut]

My glorious Puma has just failed its MOT due to:
Offside front lower suspension arm has excessive play in a ball joint [2.4.G.3] **DANGEROUS**

Two questions:
1) Cheapest quote for replacing the lower arm was £95. Is this ok? Sounds about right as part is £30ish and hourly rate is £45.
2) Will replacing the lower arm actually fix this problem or could it be something else?

I should probably add that a couple of weeks ago whilst driving round a Tesco car park I noticed a creaking sound (possibly rubber but not sure) as I steered and went over bumps - sounded like it was offside too. Does this sound like the problem that caused the fail? If its rubber then its the bushes, will these be replaced as standard along with the lower arm?

Thanks!

 

[martinthrapston]

ball joints are avaible on there own so no need to replace complete lower arm,iirc k:

 

[starfire27]

If you replace the whole lower arm you will get a new ball joint and all new bushes ready fitted to it, if the bushes were bad they would have been picked up in the MOT tho

 

[ElDude at Allison Automotive]

maybe wear in the knuckle where the steering joint sits... so don't be surprised if a new ball joint isn't the end of it.. :idea:

a new knuckle will almost certainly mean a new ABS sensor too, as you'll never get the old one out if it's been in there for more than a year...

sorry to be the doom dweller... :lol: it may just be the ball joint..

Chris

 

[EvilDonut]

Ok thanks - fingers crossed the new arm is all it needs then!

I found on another post that you could do the ball joints on their own, but aren't they 'permanently' attached to the arm by rivets or something? (which can be drilled)

The cost of an entire new arm is only about 30 quid, the main cost is labour - so seemed like false economy not to do it as I'd be getting nice new bushes at the same time.

Since I got the 17" wheels the suspension seems to be under much more stress as I feel every little bump, I think this is just a knock-on cost of looking good and handling better then

 

[spike.]

yes you can get new ball joints, as you say the labour would be more to replace the ends than the whole wishbone.

£30 is very cheap for the complete wishbone, a OEM is about £100. source

Separate ball joints are shown here> here or here

OEM wishbone

 

[EvilDonut]

Hmm then I might be getting confused as to whats getting replaced - I dont think it is the wishbone if the cheapest is £100. They will just get a standard part off auto-factors or something.

Is the wishbone another word for 'front lower suspension arm'? I have long been confused as to just what parts make up the complete puma suspension system and how they fit together etc

 

[YOG]

Yes, 'front lower suspension arm' and 'wishbone' are the same.
It's generally thought that "pattern" lower suspension arms are inferior quality to the originals and won't last as long. One of their problems is that measurements are slightly different, for example, if you try to fit either a genuine Ford standard or FRP or Powerflex front rear bush to a pattern arm, the hole has been found to be too large/small and they don't fit securely - there are warnings on both Powerflex's and Pumaspeed's websites about this:
Pumaspeed:
( NON FORD FRONT ARMS can have poor quality bushings that fail after 18 months.They can also be a different size to the powerflex or original Ford items and therefore can never have the bushes retro fitted).

It depends how long you want to keep your Puma. I went a more expensive way and removed the original wishbones, derusted and painted them, replaced front bushes with Powerflex and got a company to press out old/press in new FRP front rear bushes, then refitted them myself.
This way would cost 2 x Powerflex front bushes (around £40+), 2 x FRP front rear bushes (around £13/14) and I used 2 x Febi lower ball joints (around £23/24). Plus the cost of having the bushes pressed out/in and rust treatment/paint.

It won't be worth doing only one side, as the other will also be worn, you should do both and will also need the tracking reset.

 

[yippeekiay]

I made the mistake of throwing my old wishbones away when there was bugger all wrong with them





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