Suspension ball joint wear

[bcr5784]

Just had my 6 year service - at 22k miles.

Disppointed to find that the NSF upper arm ball-joint has a little play and needs replacement. Seems low mileage - but to be fair my wifes Ibiza had front suspension wear at a similar mileage. The roads near me are pretty terrible.
Much more disappointing was the cost of the repair - the arm itself is £420! - the whole repair comes to well over £700. Actually Alpine recommend replacing both sides at double the cost, but the Alpine mechanic thought that really wasn't necessary (thank goodness!)

Also surprizing was that the rear pads needed replacing (but not the fronts) - I assume that the e-diff has been working quite hard unbeknowns to me. That would have been another £400+ - so I'm very inclined to do it myself. Any recommendations on pad source - and is the job as straightforward as it appears?

Your thoughts/help appreciated.

[AlpineGuy]

Rear brakes you need to out into maintenance mode to carry out the replacement .
Wishbones are recommended to replaced as a pair on early models as seems to be a part supersession , but should be fine if replaced by itself.

I am doing a rear soon myself once the part eventually arrives .

You need to remove the wheel arch liners and front storage tray and couple of other bits and then drop the hub down .

[worldwidewebs]

bcr - are you on the FB group? Pooky put up a guide for putting the rear brakes into service mode and I put one up for replacing the rear pads (and discs).

[Miserablegit]

Is it not possible to have the suspension bushes/ ball joint replaced for a fraction of the cost? 20k miles seems very short. I’ve got an infrequent clonk and wonder if I need the same…
I don’t suppose anyone knows the part number do they please?

Edited by Miserablegit on Thursday 15th August 09:03

[bcr5784]

Miserablegit said:

Is it not possible to have the suspension bushes/ ball joint replaced for a fraction of the cost? 20k miles seems very short. I’ve got an infrequent clonk and wonder if I need the same…
I don’t suppose anyone knows the part number do they please?

Edited by Miserablegit on Thursday 15th August 09:03

It's the cost of the arm which is well over half the cost and the main factor. It's also about an hour and half's work because you have to drop the spring damper unit out of the way to get at the bolts. So I doubt there is that much scope to reduce the cost.

I'm also having difficulty getting rear pads - front ones are easier to come by, though most say they don't have wear sensors (which I assume the originals have). Not keen on fitting the Life 110 pads only to the back....

[Miserablegit]

I’ve just ordered these in case they are needed- genuine parts

https://www.simon-auto-shop.de/epages/Simon-Auto-A...

[bcr5784]

Miserablegit said:

I’ve just ordered these in case they are needed- genuine parts

https://www.simon-auto-shop.de/epages/Simon-Auto-A...

Wow!

[jont-]

bcr5784 said:

I'm also having difficulty getting rear pads - front ones are easier to come by, though most say they don't have wear sensors (which I assume the originals have). Not keen on fitting the Life 110 pads only to the back....

Hah, nothing changes. A couple of years ago I had to get a mate in France to send me some rear pads. His local dealer had them on the shelf, UK couldn't even give a date. I do actually have a spare set of OE rear pads if you're desperate as I ordered a spare set in last time the car was in for a service. Mine are due before long, but hopefully a couple of months use yet (or I'll move to something upgraded since it gets tracked, though the OEM rears have worked fine on track).

[bcr5784]

jont- said:

Hah, nothing changes. A couple of years ago I had to get a mate in France to send me some rear pads. His local dealer had them on the shelf, UK couldn't even give a date. I do actually have a spare set of OE rear pads if you're desperate as I ordered a spare set in last time the car was in for a service. Mine are due before long, but hopefully a couple of months use yet (or I'll move to something upgraded since it gets tracked, though the OEM rears have worked fine on track).

Not yet at the "desperate" stage, but if it would suit you to sell them either reply or PM me/

[Hoofty]

As this seems a good place to add it, I had a rear upper control arm replaced at 30k. Symptom was a light knock sound, particularly audible at very low speeds on broken surfaces. Was tricky to diagnose. Repaired under warranty but if memory serves costs were similar.

bcr5784 said:

Miserablegit said:

Is it not possible to have the suspension bushes/ ball joint replaced for a fraction of the cost? 20k miles seems very short. I’ve got an infrequent clonk and wonder if I need the same…

It's the cost of the arm which is well over half the cost and the main factor. It's also about an hour and half's work because you have to drop the spring damper unit out of the way to get at the bolts. So I doubt there is that much scope to reduce the cost.

Quite - pushing child parts of the arm assembly in and out would most likely merely swap parts cost for labour cost; you still need to remove and replace the arm. On balance it's preferable for OEs to replace assemblies (especially small ones) as it's quicker to do and doesn't introduce the risk of damaging stuff where standard workshop tooling/processes are less capable and repeatable than the production tooling used in plant. There can be a big difference between the two!

Nick