senwar said:

Nope - you don't. As I've stated previously - this is in theory a final straw issue. Not a single one. The sum of all parts etc.

Anyway, lets leave it at that

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I quite agree. But don't forget it's all your fault by the way...

:d:d:d

super uwe said:

i quite agree. But don't forget it's all your fault by the way...

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Well just a final update.

Dealer called Tuesday evening to say claim was still being dealt with and they were still awaiting approval from Fiat. However to speed things up they ordered the parts. Said I appreciated the update and I'd call if I'd not heard by Thursday.

Called me last night to say claim had finally been approved, booked car in for today on the proviso we could live without it till Friday as they were really busy. Happy to do so. Anyway spoke earlier and they'd completed the work and all parts were replaced under warranty (washer jets, wishbone and a gear seal). Mrs just collected and happy as.

So - just for anyone else who may encounter this issue, ball joints are/can be covered up to end of year three. So challenge any other response.

Overall, can't speak highly enough of the service manager he's done a lot since we spoke Tuesday and for that I'm very grateful.

Thanks for the responses on here regardless of whether we agreed or not. Thanks to the forum in the past too as altho I've been a minimal poster I've been a reader and its helped us solve some issues in the past. Car goes tomorrow as planned. I'll be sad to see it go but the mrs is happy.

Cheers again

Glad it's sorted in time

Glad to hear you got it sorted Senwar. My Mrs now has a 500c she's had it since new and its just done 15000 miles. The ball joint was totally kaput it was making a knock now and then. Anyway the point is I changed it tonight myself, what a job! somebody wrote 20 mins book time!!! What a load of rubbish you have to take the bumper off then a chassis member just to get to it. I was at it for 1 hour 30. It was £40 and can understand why they charge £250 supplied and fitted

Just reviving this thread as my 1.2 Lounge (61 plate with 20K) failed the MoT last week with this wishbone having too much play in the ball joint. I've just paid £269 for it to be done, not a Fiat dealer but a garage that I trust and have been using for years.

As I have replaced the front end recently and hadn't put all the screws in yet, they mentioned on the invoice "has had some work done on the front bumper and several clips/fastenings are missing, so bumper refitted as well as could be", so they obviously took the bumper off to do it. I thought £269 was a bit hefty. The part is down as about £110. If it's just 3 bolts, I'm starting to wish I'de had a go myself.

typecastboy said:

Just reviving this thread as my 1.2 Lounge (61 plate with 20K) failed the MoT last week with this wishbone having too much play in the ball joint. I've just paid £269 for it to be done, not a Fiat dealer but a garage that I trust and have been using for years.

As I have replaced the front end recently and hadn't put all the screws in yet, they mentioned on the invoice "has had some work done on the front bumper and several clips/fastenings are missing, so bumper refitted as well as could be", so they obviously took the bumper off to do it. I thought £269 was a bit hefty. The part is down as about £110. If it's just 3 bolts, I'm starting to wish I'de had a go myself.

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Its quite involved, front bumper off as you say. Why didn't you get it done under warranty though, or is it just outside 3 yrs old

Yes, it was 3 years old in December, but it's a Cat D anyway, so probably wouldn't do anything even if it was still under warranty.

typecastboy said:

Just reviving this thread as my 1.2 Lounge (61 plate with 20K) failed the MoT last week with this wishbone having too much play in the ball joint. I've just paid £269 for it to be done, not a Fiat dealer but a garage that I trust and have been using for years.

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Failure of the bottom wishbones is quite often reported here, sometimes at mileages as low as 10k.

The cost depends a lot on what part you buy and how you choose to repair it. Franchised dealers will charge you a lot of money to fit OEM parts, but if your OEM parts have failed prematurely, why would you want to fit another one just like it .

A quick look on ECP shows Lemforder arms (top-quality) at around £100; OCAP arms (no idea of quality as have never used them) at just over £40. Both are normally in-stock items, which gives you an indication of how often they fail.

The job requires more dismantling than it ought to (the price you pay for style; the front bumper has to come off), but I wouldn't describe it as hard.

Typecastboy, I'm surprised you didn't do this yourself; some of what you have done already is way harder than this.

Fiat sometimes, but not always, change these under warranty but I'd certainly expect the warranty to be automatically invalidated on a CatD status car.

And perhaps I should also add that it's good practice to change them as a pair, and to check wheel alignment afterwards. Warranty repairs are generally only done singly, not as a pair .

In hindsight, I wish I'de had a go, would have saved me a few bob. Next time I will.

The Abarth's went at about 18 months old. Warranty covered the fix.