General 2008 Fiat Panda 1.2 MOT Failure on ball joints

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General 2008 Fiat Panda 1.2 MOT Failure on ball joints

MyFiatPandaIsWhite

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I took my 2008 Fiat Panda 1.2 to Kwik Fit today for it's first MOT. I expected it to sail through...but it didn't. It failed due to 'Excessive play on both front suspension ball joints'. My Panda is only 3 years old and has only done 15,200 miles!! Although the car is 3 years old I have only owned it for just over 12 months, the pain in the ass thing is that my warranty ran out YESTERDAY!!! I'm still going to talk to Fiat as i'm pretty sure that ball joints should last a hell of a lot longer than 15,000 miles.

I'm quite surprised at this for a couple of reasons, firstly the car isn't very old and also because there were no indications while driving, no 'clunking' when going over bumps, no vibration, no problems with steering and no problems at motorway speeds. There was some slight uneven tyre wear on the front wheels but that could be caused by incorrectly set camber etc.

I will be getting a 2nd opinion as i'm pretty sure that Kwik Fit don't exactly have the best reputation.

If the 2nd opinion confirms the problem does anyone have any ideas on how much it could potentially cost to have both the offside and nearside suspension arms replaced?
 
How did you manage to fail, yet not have the work done to then pass? If that means you've had an early MOT, are you sure your warranty has expired?
Too late for you now if it has, but we took ours in amonth early for the first one as it still have four weeks warranty left.

You can't tell with something like ball joints, the lower mileae might mean more wear in a way due to different handling, much more frequent parking manouvers at low to no speed, for example.

Oh, and Kwikfit? Seriously? Oy veh, almost anywhere but those robbing, thieving, clueless, lying bas...uh, incomptent, over charging people.
 
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My 55 plate hasn't failed on that yet, just had another MOT and they failed to pick up on my rear wiper blade. They didn't even pick up this time on the lights being out of alignment due to a dent in the wing, although they did last time. My local MOT place even picked up on a FiatForum sticker apparently in my line of view (it's top left, far out of site).
Get a second opinion (y) Somewhere less corporate than kwikfit!
Sounds like you're being ripped off for what doesnt even sound like an advisory on such a new car!
 
My 55 plate hasn't failed on that yet, just had another MOT and they failed to pick up on my rear wiper blade. They didn't even pick up this time on the lights being out of alignment due to a dent in the wing, although they did last time. My local MOT place even picked up on a FiatForum sticker apparently in my line of view (it's top left, far out of site).
Get a second opinion (y) Somewhere less corporate than kwikfit!
Sounds like you're being ripped off for what doesnt even sound like an advisory on such a new car!
I think you'll find, Nathan, that a rear wiper isn't considered for an MOT as it isn't a requirement to have one. It's usually only a fitment on hatchbacks and estates so saloons and many coupes would fail as they don't have one at all. There are oddities with equipment that isn't a mandatory fitment such as spare tyres. I'm willing to be corrected on this but if you have one in the car and it's bald, for example, the car will fail whereas if you leave your bald tyre at home it can't fail on that count.

As for ball joints, I'd be surprised as my (MJ) has covered 65K so far without any problems in that department. Having said that, the only complaint I have had is when the front pads wore down to the rivets at 30K and scored the disc. Pads had worn considerably on one side and despite my complaints to the FIAT Main Dealer service department and FIAT themselves they stated that I might be harder on pads than some other drivers. It was only months later that I got someone with (Vernier?) calipers to check the thickness of the different pads and found that the good ones were twice as thick as the worn-out ones. If that isn't a manufacturing fault I don't know what is.

The pads I replaced them with have so far done 35,000 and according to the mechanic who serviced it last year should pass 70,000 miles in total. On that basis the new pads will have lasted 33% longer than the originals. Go figure.
 
It's hard to predict the life of the ball joints.
A brand one that gets a split in the boot and it's service life will be very short indeed, even shorter in a dusty atmos (it's dusty enough down there already with brake dust), where the grease and dust make a great cutting agent.

I guess the same can be said for things like suspension bushes, I don't expect mine to last that long 'cos I live in an area full of traffic calming measures, mountains of concrete and tarmac piled high in the middle of the road as far as the eye can see!
I've already had to replace nearly ever suspension bush on my other, 6 year old car and I'm sure it's these frickin' bumps!
 
I contacted Fiat today and they told me that because the car is out of warranty that they cant do anything. I continued to state that i feel that the ball joints had prematurely worn and they should last more than 15,000 miles. The conversation went back and forth for some time and resulted in me asking for a quote on how much it would cost for the repair and that i needed the car back on the road but was not happy with the fact that they cant help me.

They called later that day with a quote of £355 inc VAT and Labour but stated that as a goodwill gesture they have confirmed with the main Fiat office that Fiat would foot the bill for the parts if i agreed to pay £75 plus VAT for the labour.

I can't argue with that, I must admit that they did not have to do that. They could have just said no, it's £355 full stop but they didn't so I can't grumble.

The car is booked in for thursday and they're giving me a Punto courtesy car so I wont have to miss out on my wifes :woot: 20 week scan on thursday!!! WOOHOO
 
I've been very lucky this time so i'm going to make sure that I learn from this and extend the warranty! Also, i'm going to make sure that I say thanks to the guy I spoke to because I think he might have pulled some strings to get me this discount...that's some decent customer service. (y)
 
our 2004 1.1 failed on ball joints at it's first MOT , @30K,
local garage said it's down to speed-humps , we've changed our routes and NOT had a recurrence now in another 40K.

speed-humps add a LOT of wear and tear to cars , failed coil springs is 95% due to them ( doesn't seem to be a panda issue though).

We paid @£100 for our replacement so the £300+ quote is capable of a discount..!! ,
Charlie
 
our 2004 1.1 failed on ball joints at it's first MOT , @30K,
local garage said it's down to speed-humps , we've changed our routes and NOT had a recurrence now in another 40K.

speed-humps add a LOT of wear and tear to cars , failed coil springs is 95% due to them ( doesn't seem to be a panda issue though).

We paid @£100 for our replacement so the £300+ quote is capable of a discount..!! ,
Charlie
Failure of coilsprings isn't 95% down to speedbumps. It's the fact that they salt the roads here more than a fat man salts a pork chop.

Tbh I wouldn't have bothered calling Fiat up to get the parts covered if it were me, the parts are **** and they will only go again.

My pick from these would be the Febi arms.
http://seekpart24.com/fiat/panda-16...ks-wishbone-trailing-link-diagonal-arm-100571
 
Why is it so expensive on the Panda? I am sure I paid £35 for a ball joint on the Corsa, although I seem to remember he was doing the CV boots at the time too.
 
Why is it so expensive on the Panda? I am sure I paid £35 for a ball joint on the Corsa, although I seem to remember he was doing the CV boots at the time too.

Because if you actually follow threads you'll realise that the balljoint is part of the wishbone and not a seperate item.
 
Argh so my on my Corsa the ball joint was probably be replaced seperatly? Still a massive amount to quote for a wishbone though. So glad when my car gets a bit older I can avoid the main dealers ;)
 
Argh so my on my Corsa the ball joint was probably be replaced seperatly? Still a massive amount to quote for a wishbone though. So glad when my car gets a bit older I can avoid the main dealers ;)
Not really. The the wishbones on a Panda/500 are supposedly a bumper off job. As always you'll do better to go to an indi garage but I think the price quoted was probably quite fair.
 
Flipping ech :( Although to be fair I am comparing the Panda to the Fiesta, which seems to need a new wishbone every 20k because the bushes wear out, hopefully the Panda has better quality bushes which are not made out of cheese.

Where I live it is nothing but bumps, so I simply cannot avoid wear and tear driving. I should probably start slowing down for the bumps though ;)
 
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