Little Panda Eco (2009 / 70k miles) failed its MoT. A leaking front passenger shock absorber needing replaced and a front suspension arm bush with excessive play needing replaced. Quoted circa: £201.60 to replace the shock inc fitting and £170 for the bush. I’m clueless on whether these are typical prices so wanted to seek opinions. Need to decide whether to repair or scrap,....regards, Kevin.

Sorry hear is the exact description:
Nearside Front Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak (5.3.2 (b))
Offside Front Lower Suspension arm pin or bush excessively worn rear bush (5.3.4 (a) (i))

A responsible garage will replace both shocks, Shop4Parts have them listed at £36 each.
Bushes are cheap but require a lot of effort to replace, however complete front arms are only £31 each, I'd replace both personally but it's not a safety issue like the shock absorbers are.

Thanks for the tip, ordered off of shops4parts and given the saving bought the pair of shocks. Cheers, Kevin.

Get both front arms replaced when you have the shocks replaced. They need to be in similar condition both sides as they will otherwise affect the tracking and handling. I mean things like tramlining on motorways or pulling one way under power and the other on brakes.

What you might save on parts you waste on tyres and ultimately grip and safety.

Eklipze3k said:

A responsible garage will replace both shocks, Shop4Parts have them listed at £36 each.
Bushes are cheap but require a lot of effort to replace, however complete front arms are only £31 each, I'd replace both personally but it's not a safety issue like the shock absorbers are.

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Totally agree. Both arms replaced on our 169 1.2 a month back at the main dealer £240 approx. Dampers are easy to fit but also require top mounts at the same time. I paid 132 for the dampers (Monroe Gas Filled with top mounts and dust dirt shields. It took 2.5 hours to do the job. You do need an impact socket wrench to undo the top nut though and spring compressors.

The dealer has been very good at sourcing and fitting good quality parts and it has the benefit that I have a 12 month warranty on the fitting job as well as the parts. The Monroe dampers seem very good. Better than Fiat standard parts for sure.

It was worth every penny for the vast improvement in the car. I also did the rear dampers at the same time these were as worm out as the fronts!

hi, i know this was 2 weeks ago, but thought i would comment on this post. who can afford main dealer prices when the work can be done at small, local garages at a lot less, if you cant do the work yourself.. i changed my o/s front wishbone & n/s front strut. same problems, i.e leaking shocker/ rear wishbone rubber.( common problems on the panda) passed m.o.t as of 17th july. so im happy with my multijet, as i love working on it. best regards, steve