It's not that hard to jack it up onto blocks/axle stand, then jack up the wheel station, undo the bottom suspension ball joint, pop out the joint and give it a wiggle to see if in fact it is knackered, or that the tester is an asshole.
The arms were brand new just 3 weeks before the MOT so they can't be worn out. I fitted them on 2nd Jan, had the tracking adjusted the week after, and then the MOT on 21st Jan, so there isn't anything to see there.It's not that hard to jack it up onto blocks/axle stand, then jack up the wheel station, undo the bottom suspension ball joint, pop out the joint and give it a wiggle to see if in fact it is knackered, or that the tester is an asshole.
Try looking for your local council MOT test centre, seeing as they only do an MOT test and do ZERO work on the car they give you an honest MOT as they aren't looking for work.The MOT form says "Offside Front Suspension arm ball joint excessively worn (5.3.4 (a) (i))" so I assume it's the suspension arm pin where it joins the hub. The arm is brand new, the pin was brand new (came with the arm) and it looks and feels brand new, so I'm not sure what he means, to be honest. I cleaned some grease off the pin and it looks shinier now...
I'll check the drop links.. but they're just 20,000 miles old or thereabouts. I think they're Borg which aren't too shabby... but the Stilo doesn't kill drop links. The previous ones were okay, but I had to replace the dampers (broken spring on the nearside so I replaced both struts with all new parts) at 180k... I replaced the drop-links at the same time since the nut was very stiff on the ball joint and spinning it round.. so new ones was easier. If they weren't changed by the previous owner then they were the ones out of the factory.
Anyhow... next job is to find an MOT place staffed by wiry looking old geezers who remember four star petrol and no catalysts, to check the smoke.
I might try and rig up a phone camera on the exhaust and run it through the MOT test procedure just to have a look at how bad it really is. I seldom just rev the car stationery... the last time was after I replaced the fuel filter but had forgotten to re-connect the fuel line, so the engine was flooded. When it started I had to give it some gas to clear it out.. and the smoke cloud was so thick it made several species of dinosaurs extinct.. but in normal driving, I can hardly see any smoke at all, so it seems a harsh interpretation of the MOT regs, if the Doctor is just being a bit jobsworth.
Ralf S.