MoT advisory

[HDi fun]

I've had my car back from MoT. Pass but couple of advisories. Does anyone know what these are:

1. Suspension arm has slight play in pin/bush offside front (front bush) [2.4.G.2]
2. (slight play in steering rack inner joints).

No 2 worries me. Does this me a whole new steering rack is required?

 

[Yugguy]

Bushes are usually an easy fix. I've had to do the front suspension arm bushes on the Focus, didnt cost that much. Not sure about no 2 sorry.

 

[HDi fun]

Thanks! Bushes are fairly common advisories on heavy cars. I am just frightened by the cost of a VW dual pinion electro-mechanical PAS rack. I have a fear that I will be spending over a £1k to sort out this issue.

I don't know what rack joints are. Whether they are internal to the rack itself?

 

[Yugguy]

TBH if it feels ok I wouldn't worry. Time to worry is when you can feel the looseness in the steering wheel - i.e. you can turn the steeering wheel a bit before the road wheels move.

 

[herb]

Steering rack inner joints I presume that this is another name for track rods? If so the ones I have come across are only bolted in to the steering rack and can sometimes come slightly undone when the track rod ends are adjusted during tracking. These can be tightened up quite easily! Iirc the only time to worry about a big bill is if the rack itself is leaking

 

[gladrags]

The play is in your inner tie rod ends and you should replace them if you’re having any trouble with uneven tracking, tyre wear etc. They’re like track rod ends but inside the steering rack and they articulate to allow necessary suspension movement during steering. If you google Inner tie rod repair kit you’ll find plenty available and there’s videos available showing how to change the tie rod ends eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MJOtr-vj6M

Depending on mileage, you might be better to consider a replacement steering rack. I’ve known inner tie rods to be replaced then the owner complains there’s a floaty feel to the steering and it’s wear in the rack teeth where they engage in the pinion, worst part being in the centre.

 

[HDi fun]

The play is in your inner tie rod ends and you should replace them if you’re having any trouble with uneven tracking, tyre wear etc. They’re like track rod ends but inside the steering rack and they articulate to allow necessary suspension movement during steering. If you google Inner tie rod repair kit you’ll find plenty available and there’s videos available showing how to change the tie rod ends eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MJOtr-vj6M

Depending on mileage, you might be better to consider a replacement steering rack. I’ve known inner tie rods to be replaced then the owner complains there’s a floaty feel to the steering and it’s wear in the rack teeth where they engage in the pinion, worst part being in the centre.

Thankyou!

I won't be doing this myself, I will entrust it to a garage. it's only an advisory and the steering doesn't feel remotely sloppy at all. Tyre wear is also even and the car tracks arrow straight - I had a full 4 wheel alignment done a few months ago.

The problem is that a PAS rack for my car is over £1200

 

[gladrags]

£1,200 for a steering rack? Presumably that includes fitting and VAT but it’s still a bit eye watering. I wouldn’t worry too much about it right now if you don’t have any tyre wear problems etc, it’s only an advisory and you should be OK for a couple of MOT’s yet unless you do very high mileage.
They didn’t mention anything about worn front upper suspension ball joints did they? They’re held in by the infamous pinch bolt (circled in yellow in the attachment). Fellow I know had an old B5 Passat that broke a front spring so he decided to change it himself and set about dismantling the front suspension. He came to the pinch bolt and sheared it trying to slacken it then he set about trying to drill it out and broke the drill bit in it. Long story short, the scrap man came and took the whole car away, gave him £80 for it.

 

[Yugguy]

Nice!

HDI have you looked on buypartsby.co.uk They do good oem quality parts at decent prices, I've used them in the past to source the more unusual parts - even ones not listed on their site.