Technical Balljoint gone again!

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Technical Balljoint gone again!

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Jun 12, 2009
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Drivers side balljoint gone again!
I'm a mechanically sympathetic driver FFS!

This is the third ball joint and will be 4th wishbone in 3 years...anyone replace just the balljoint?
Wishbones are cheap but replacing them very year is a bit if a joke!

Other than that multi has been going great...had a maintenance free year or so, so can't complain(unlike year 1 ;) )
Marty.
 
Where have you been getting them from?
I've had my birth wishbones on for nearly 3 years and 45k miles so they have lasted well.
Bought from shop 4 parts
 
I forget where i go the last one..
The first pair were from ziggya2z and in fairness the nearside one is still in tact(~20 months and 20K later)...I replaced the offside one since but i think i may have been the cause of its death myself!!

Back to original question though...anyone press out the ball joint??

Marty
 
Sorry to hear that Marty, but not surprised I'm afraid. ALL of the parts bought from ziggya2z on ebay that I fitted to my Multi a couple of years ago have worn out/broken and have been or are just about to be replaced, some of them as little as six months after fitting. The list includes brake discs and pads, drop links, front wishbones and rear slave cylinders. That's after less than 18k miles.

Which is fine if you're fitting the car up to sell (caveat emptor!), but if you're looking to keep the car, I'd buy parts elsewhere.

I've got some Meyle drop links that I'll be fitting shortly, to replace the Birth ones that replaced the crap ones from ziggya2z. I'd never heard of Meyle, but a quick google of BMW and Volvo forums yields many glowing reports from long term users. At first inspection, the look to be very nicely made. They also carry a 4 year guarantee. Meyle also make front wishbones for the Multipla, but they're quite hard to find. I've got a pair of new Birth ones waiting to go on, but having read about the grief folks on here have had because the mounting holes are drilled in the wrong place and don't line up with the chassis, I'm very tempted to put them aside and get the Meyle ones. If the ball joints on those are as well made as the ones on their drop links, it would be money well spent.
 
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I've also had to fit new drop links within a year of the previous set....
Service items?
No, my fault, cheap items off ebay, but when I double checked. the bearing? material seemed to be hard plastic? rather than metal, where the Fiat originals are proper metal, so no surprise really. How sh*t is that, people.
 
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