Hi!

Please anybody can help us out.
Our 1995 55 S Punto is due for Mot and i am affraid that it won't pass.
When turning right the rear offside wheel touches the chassy.
When you pull the wheel from the top there is a big movement.
Plase let us know what is the fault. My father suspects some worn bushes but unfortunately we are not experts.
We might change the worn stuff ourselfs (to save money) but we do not know what new parts to buy.
Thank you in advance.

Kind regards,

Ramona

That will either be a worn radius arm bearing, or a collapsed wheel bearing. Whatever it is, it's BADLY worn, get it fixed ASAP. Look under the car (when properly supported) and observe the arm when rocking the wheel. If the whole arm wobbles, it's the radius arm bearings, otherwise it's the hub/bearing assembly.

It is most likely the rear radius arm bearings though (the bit that hinges the arm to the subframe). Now you have two options here, one is to get a bearing kit and replace the bearing on your current trailing arm. This is a messy process but there are guides on it. The easier, but more expensive route is to buy a new arm and new hub/bearing assembly (you can rarely re-use the old one since the inner ball race gets stuck to the stub, wrecking the wheel bearing). Here you just transfer everything that was on your old arm onto the new arm and re-fit.

Thanks a lot for your very prompt and professional reply!
We will do the appropriate checks.
Kind regards,
Ramona

Hi Ramona,
I agree with all Mikes comments . My sons had the same fault 2 mots ago but not as bad as yours i picked up the fault on the pre mot check . I did both sides though only one side had play. i went for the complete arm to save any hassle.
The mot test station told me this is very common on older mk1 puntos.

MikeSalt said:

That will either be a worn radius arm bearing, or a collapsed wheel bearing. Whatever it is, it's BADLY worn, get it fixed ASAP. Look under the car (when properly supported) and observe the arm when rocking the wheel. If the whole arm wobbles, it's the radius arm bearings, otherwise it's the hub/bearing assembly.

It is most likely the rear radius arm bearings though (the bit that hinges the arm to the subframe). Now you have two options here, one is to get a bearing kit and replace the bearing on your current trailing arm. This is a messy process but there are guides on it. The easier, but more expensive route is to buy a new arm and new hub/bearing assembly (you can rarely re-use the old one since the inner ball race gets stuck to the stub, wrecking the wheel bearing). Here you just transfer everything that was on your old arm onto the new arm and re-fit.

Click to expand...

just noticed my rear right wheel is slightly tilted inwards, while left one is normal

so i should just change whole arm or is it some ez change

flisko said:

just noticed my rear right wheel is slightly tilted inwards, while left one is normal

so i should just change whole arm or is it some ez change

Click to expand...

You need to confirm first if there is play in the arm to confirm radious arm bearing. Then if the arm bearing is not worn too much it can be replace with a bearing kit. Whatever way you use to fix (bearing kit or whole arm) is not that easy.

jacked the car up, was moving wheel and couldnt hear any free play around it

flisko said:

jacked the car up, was moving wheel and couldnt hear any free play around it

Click to expand...

Looks like radious arm bearing may be OK. If the bearing is bad you should hear knocking from the rear when you drive over rough ground.

to check this properly you need to jack the car up ideally on rear sill (i know its an old car so probably dodgy)
anyway with wheel of ground grab it at 12 o'clock and six o'clock and waggle it whilst someone looks at the radius arm bushings for you

it must be 7 year+ since i did these but i used to unbolt stub axle and then backplate and brake pipe from the arm and just put them out of the way whilst i replaced with a reconditioned arm this way no bleeding etc needed
a hard part was getting the long bolt out if its seized in so a 1/2 inch long extension was used held with a pair of mole grips whilst i had someone knock ten bells out of it
we only missed once and hit the sill
1/2 extension will be peened and ruined of course

dont buy a bush kit it will seriously dampen your enthusiasm once you attempt a rebuild at home without the use of say even a decent vice
i never rebuilt them

Rear swing arm bearings. Good luck with that!

yep another thing they found on mot excessive play in rear right swing arm bush

was reading some horror stories here about how that swing arm bolt is supposedly seized in and hard to remove

i got another mk1 just for parts and was thinking of swapping whole rear subframe, would that be easier than trying to remove just swing arm?

fix 1 thing another one just pops up

"new" rear subframe is ready to be installed, looking forward to the brake pipes cracking

not even 1 brake pipe cracked when changing subframe, also passed mot on 20 year old rot box