I wish these MOT tests were consistent.
After sorting all the bits that needed doing from the failed MOT test when I bought the car at the beginning of October, it turns out at the retest that I now need to replace the offside front wishbone due to "excessive wear". What I'd like to know is why this didn't come up in the test earlier in the month?
The car has hardly been driven over the last couple weeks while I've attended to the repairs - which have included stripping and refreshing all four disc brakes. Because of the low mileage whilst in the care of the previous owner the brakes had become semi seized and that was effected the brake balance test. They're confirmed working perfectly as is the handbrake after a simple adjustment inside the left rear wheel.
But now I need a new front right wishbone as the ball joint is not replaceable by itself. This is the darkside of german engineering. Earlier 944 models featured a steel wishbone much like the Golf Mk1, but this 1986 model features the newer aluminium wishbones, but for some unknown reason Porsche decided that these ball joints would not be able to be replaced without exchanging the whole wishbone assembly. Erm... too much Hasseröder chaps?
Now there are some replacement ball joint kits available on eBay and from the USA for around £35, but they're not easy to fit apparently. The alternative to buying a new £400 wishbone from Porsche is to exchange the worn one with someone like Hartech who'll supply a refurbished one for £175+vat. Then there's trying to find a suitable one from a breaking 944 - I guess I was fortunate, because I found one earlier on the TIPEC forum for reasonable money - and the car it came off recently passed the MOT test. So now I'll wait for that to arrive before I yank the old one out. I've got 10 days to get it done for a free retest.
After sorting all the bits that needed doing from the failed MOT test when I bought the car at the beginning of October, it turns out at the retest that I now need to replace the offside front wishbone due to "excessive wear". What I'd like to know is why this didn't come up in the test earlier in the month?
The car has hardly been driven over the last couple weeks while I've attended to the repairs - which have included stripping and refreshing all four disc brakes. Because of the low mileage whilst in the care of the previous owner the brakes had become semi seized and that was effected the brake balance test. They're confirmed working perfectly as is the handbrake after a simple adjustment inside the left rear wheel.
But now I need a new front right wishbone as the ball joint is not replaceable by itself. This is the darkside of german engineering. Earlier 944 models featured a steel wishbone much like the Golf Mk1, but this 1986 model features the newer aluminium wishbones, but for some unknown reason Porsche decided that these ball joints would not be able to be replaced without exchanging the whole wishbone assembly. Erm... too much Hasseröder chaps?
Now there are some replacement ball joint kits available on eBay and from the USA for around £35, but they're not easy to fit apparently. The alternative to buying a new £400 wishbone from Porsche is to exchange the worn one with someone like Hartech who'll supply a refurbished one for £175+vat. Then there's trying to find a suitable one from a breaking 944 - I guess I was fortunate, because I found one earlier on the TIPEC forum for reasonable money - and the car it came off recently passed the MOT test. So now I'll wait for that to arrive before I yank the old one out. I've got 10 days to get it done for a free retest.
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