Wandering

Hi team,

Here is a random issue! I was driving down the motorway a few days ago and noticed at 70mph the car was "wandering", not a great deal but just not holding its position.

I got home and thought that's a wheel bearing! On investigation. I then decided to remove the wheel to check (there was a little rim rock on the NSF wheel). On removal of the wheel the upper LHF Arm assy seemed to have some play and I noticed the grease nipple! (Note: must buy a grease gun!). Decided the upper arm assy was goosed and needed to replace it! New items are £170 odd of the kings pounds (not said that before!). The repair kit for the Arm Assy was only twenty quid so I bought one!

I decided ton look at YouTube to see if there were previous repairs and they are limited!

It seems to remove the Upper Arm Assy, you can remove the subframe! or the front bumper and Nearside Chassis Extension piece, allowing access to the mounting bolt and consequently the removal of the upper pivot pin (for lack of a better discription)

Has anybody done this and any advise?

PS the MOT is due Monday!

Cheers

Dave

Ive just changed an upper swivel joint on one side and a lower wishbone & swivel the other. I didnt register there being a grease nipple on either part though.

Once the top nut is off so the top arm can be lifted off the upper swivel then the body of the swivel joint itself needs to be unscrewed from the hub with a 46mm socket. Not sure where you live but you can borrow mine if needs be

Its where the top arm mounts to the subframe, that's the issue, there was quite a bit of play there. I have greased it (bought a grease gun) and there seems to be a lot less play! I'll try it through the MOT and see if it gets picked up. Thanks for the offer of the socket, but I think I have one that fits the upper screw in ball joint..

Good advice to check the grease nipples. Apparently its a service item that gets missed and in my case it had been missed because i hadnt spotted them and hadnt read about them.

Mine needed some muck cleaning off the top arms but were then easy to see and to get to with the wheels off. The first wield of the grease gun drew a blank as none would go in at first so I unscrewed the grease nipple (use a 7mm 1/4inch socket) , freed up the ball valve and then it worked a treat.

Rather than having problems in the future Ive ordered replacements, they are standard M6 nipples that are cheap and readily available plus dust caps to keep the dirt out of them.

Adding grease has stopped the occasional clunking noise i'd been getting so I will be sure to top them up regularly from now.

Had to take the car in for its MOT and failed on a few issues like wheel bearings! and a track rod end! Everything replaced with some new discs and pads. I got a repair kit for the front suspension upper arm. That was a right pain to fix, had to remove the bumper and headlight to access the crash can mounting bolts, to move it to access the top arm nut that is inside it!! At least everything had a clean!!

Just to wrap this up the wandering was a combination of wheel bearings (both rear and front left) and worn front left suspension components. All now replaced and hopefully will pass the MOT retest on Thursday (next space).

Thanks for reporting back & let us know long you spent running about waving your passed certificate about.