MOT Failure - Recommended Cost

Cooper87

Hi all. I have just taken my car to MOT and it has failed on 3 parts. It's a 2003 Ford Focus 1.8. It has failed on the following:

1 Offside front coil spring broken.
2 Nearside front lower ball joint has excessive play.
3 Nearside front (drum stick) steering component deformed and unserviceable.

How much should I be looking at paying out to have all 3 of these repaired?

I am based in Sittingbourne, Kent.

Thanks.

skivenov

Going on instinct and experience (I'm not a professional mechanic).

1 hours labour for point 1.
No more than 1 hours labour for points 2+3 together.
Cost of checking and adjusting tracking.
Cost of parts.

Go on somewhere like eurocarparts.co.uk, whack your reg number in and price up the parts for a guide.

motorguy

skivenov wrote: »

Going on instinct and experience (I'm not a professional mechanic).

1 hours labour for point 1.
No more than 1 hours labour for points 2+3 together.
Cost of checking and adjusting tracking.
Cost of parts.

Go on somewhere like eurocarparts.co.uk, whack your reg number in and price up the parts for a guide.

+1

Similar to your thinking

colino

What is a Focus drum stick?

skivenov

Something that contains as much chicken as a Bernard Matthews one :-)

I prefer "steering arm" or "track rod". It's the rod that screws in the end of the steering rack and goes to the track rod end on the suspension strut.

On most cars there's a ball and socket joint at the steering rack end that gets play in.

Generally needs a crowsfoot socket to remove from the rack.

forgotmyname

Drop link i presume they meant.

A pair of front spring about £120 - £150 fitted.

The drop links and ball joint will be undone to fit the spring so just add the parts on for those + an extra 15 minutes or so to swap those.

£30 for the 2 maybe?

colino

So a NT has put on a fail sheet (which he can't) a colloquial term for a bent or damaged track rod?

Cooper87

Ok, so looking on eurocarparts.co.uk I can get all 3 parts for a mere £71! That means Mr Clutch wanted in excess of £200 for labour (or charging well above retail for parts). The only thing I'm confused on before ordering is that for the track rod (or drum stick as they called it) I need to know if I need left or right. It's the nearside, but how do they judge for parts? Surely it depends on where you're looking at the car from.

adouglasmhor

Cooper87 wrote: »

Ok, so looking on eurocarparts.co.uk I can get all 3 parts for a mere £71! That means Mr Clutch wanted in excess of £200 for labour (or charging well above retail for parts). The only thing I'm confused on before ordering is that for the track rod (or drum stick as they called it) I need to know if I need left or right. It's the nearside, but how do they judge for parts? Surely it depends on where you're looking at the car from.

Nearside is always the side nearest the kerb (on the same side of the road as you)as you sit in the drivers seat facing forward, the other side is offside.

Cooper87

Thanks, but is that left or right. The parts are only labelled as this, not as nearside or offside.

adouglasmhor

Nearside is Left on my car.