My 2008 1.3MJ has just failed its first MOT (its just 3 years old). Its had an easy life having covered 19000 miles with one elderly former owner. It failed on front ball joints but also had a couple of advisories ie oil leaks.

Whilst the work was covered by the fiat warantee Im a bit dissapointed that it had developed such serious faults in such a short life. Any comments?

Well, I'm not sure that I would refer to worn front ball joints as particularly serious.
I can imagine that elderly drivers could grind front ball joints to dust in 19,000 miles with all their low speed manoeuvring, possibly with the "girly" button switched on. (OK, that's me been ageist and sexist in one sentence!).
I'm not sure what your oil leak advisories refer to, I suspect dampers. Again, an elderly driver driving only in a town or city might drive over speed bumps thousands of times in a relatively short mileage.
Don't lose faith in your Panda. Drive it sensibly and care for it and you will get many tens of thousands more miles out of it yet.

consider yourself lucky to have it covered by warranty, but I too wouldn't expect a failure on the first MOT

My 100HP had its first MOT at 74k and passed with no advisories. Given the use it gets [lots of manoeuvres, poor condition urban roads with speed bumps, etc.] I was worried about things like ball joints, bushes, etc.

So yes, at 19k, I would be disappointed too. However, as Chris has said, the car will last for hundreds of thousands of miles if maintained sympathetically

Front balljoints is serious enough as it will significantly impair the handling. At 19K miles, that really is rubbish, still, not too expensive to fix.

Where are the oil leaks?

Maybe it went through a flood early on in its life.

Strut top mounts can go but not heard of balljoints before. (on a newish car)

Strange one this, 80K on my MJ and nothing picked up at MOT or during servicing. Are they pulling a fast one!!

only problem is that you can't just replace the balljoints, they're part of the wishbone

doctorchris said:

19,000 miles with all their low speed manoeuvring, possibly with the "girly" button switched on. (OK, that's me been ageist and sexist in one sentence!).

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Mine (punto) has done over 80k with 'girly' button on! Wonder just how worn they were because to fail they must of been hanging off...did they show you the old lower arms?

Really depends on the type of mileage. The Fiesta does mostly town work and the bushes fail every couple of years. In the 30,000 miles and three and a half years we have had it is already on its third pair of front wishbones!.

My Panda will probably on about 12k by its first MOT and I wouldn't be surprised if any of the suspension needed work simply because all that 12k is on residential streets full of pot holes and speed bumps.

JD82 said:

Really depends on the type of mileage. The Fiesta does mostly town work and the bushes fail every couple of years. In the 30,000 miles and three and a half years we have had it is already on its third pair of front wishbones!.

My Panda will probably on about 12k by its first MOT and I wouldn't be surprised if any of the suspension needed work simply because all that 12k is on residential streets full of pot holes and speed bumps.

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TBH 30k and needing suspension work is poor. Our Subaru has 210k miles on the clock and I only changed the balljoints, front bushes, rack ends and track rod ends because I knew they hadn't been done in a while and wanted to get rid of some woolliness in the steering and give it some more feel. Other than the rear bushes on the front arms nothing was really in need of replacement.

Wth the way the balljoints seem to go on 500's I'll certainly be going non-genuine for our car!

306maxi said:

Wth the way the balljoints seem to go on 500's I'll certainly be going non-genuine for our car!

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If you can find them. There are about 4 different types of non Fiat ones and no one seems to know the difference in quality. The lead times are longer than Fiat as well. I replaced mine week before last

jnoiles said:

If you can find them. There are about 4 different types of non Fiat ones and no one seems to know the difference in quality. The lead times are longer than Fiat as well. I replaced mine week before last

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Well I'm keeping mine long term so I'm happy to have a pair of wishbones sitting in the shed I'd imagine the QH stuff would be decent enough.

306maxi said:

Well I'm keeping mine long term so I'm happy to have a pair of wishbones sitting in the shed I'd imagine the QH stuff would be decent enough.

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If you find a decent place, let me know. I'll grab a set and leave them on the shelf for the 128k service

Were they really worn?
Warranty claim generates work.

kipster1 said:

Were they really worn?
Warranty claim generates work.

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I don't know what Fiat's terms are but I know that in a lot of industries warranty work is done at a loss and the real money comes from servicing, MOT's and repairs.

Thanks for your comments folks. For your info I had the MOT done at a garage down the road, but the repairs done at a fiat dealer several miles away. Thus its unlikely to be either garage finding unnecessary faults as they both agreed on the necessary work.

The oil leak was the timing chain cover gasket. Aparently its a 4 hour job to replace 'cus of all the other stuff in the way.

Anyhow Im very happy with the Fiat warantee service and its good to know Ive got fresh ball joints fitted for nothing.

I'm in the same situation as you, however, i've not had any repairs done yet. My Pandas first MOT was due yesterday, I booked it in for today expecting it to fly through but got told that it had failed due to 'excessive play on both front ball joints'. I was gutted. My Panda is a 58 plate and has only done 15,200 miles. I can't believe that the ball joints are knackered, i haven't noticed any knocking sounds during driving or any problems with steering or any vibration at motorway speeds so i'm really surprised. I'm taking it for a 2nd opinion as the garage that carried out the MOT was Kwik Fit and they haven't exactly got the best reputation. Any ideas on cost for both front suspension arms being replaced? The pain in the ass thing is that my warranty ran out...wait for it...YESTERDAY! Talk about a kick in the nuts.

Panda's and 500's have a reputation for going through balljoints. Personally I'd buy some aftermarket arms if I were you.