Technical Checking lower ball joint

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Technical Checking lower ball joint

zazakra

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Aug 3, 2015
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Hey guys,

So after I fixed the horn it's on to the next issue:
The garage that sold me the car told me about the issues of the car. One of those issues was the lower ball joint, on the left side.
Now I tried checking this by jacking up the car in the designated spot, high enough so that the wheel comes off the ground.
Next, I do the hands at 12 and 6 rocking motion, no play.
Crowbar underneath the wheel and lift it up slightly, there also seems to be no play.
Rubber covers for the ball joint seem to be in order (not damaged, cracked etc.)

So, did I check correctly and did the garage make a mistake or am I checking the wrong way? This is the last of the issues, and I was about to order me a lower control arm for the left side but I thought I'd check it first..
 
drive it to where they check cars for registration and tell them to check front arms free of charge of course

Really? I don't know if the cheap Dutch will do that though, but I'll get on the phone
 
check if they need to do it per law, cuz here if its more than 30 days since you need to do that test again, every company will do preventive test for free cuz is stated in law and they simply cant say no unless they wanna pay a big fine
 
have you actually driven the car?? Does it make any knocking noises when driving? If not i'd not worry about it, if it does knock it warrants further investigation - could be a falsely diagnosed problem and its knocking from somewhere else but i would give it a short drive around and listen for any noises first before i worried about it. What you did is the correct procedure so only thing you can do is check other parts for play if there is a knock - if you can't find anything then the mot tester shouldn't either.
 
Thanks for the help guys, turns out a local garage did actually check it for free.

As for the result, there is a very small amount of play only to be seen with two people, one of them rocking the wheel and the other looking at the balljoint with a flashlight pointed at it.

I've ordered a new lower control arm, as it was only 40 euros and now I'm sure it will pass MOT.
 
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