Brand new ball joint failure caused damage

Sammy179

On friday I took my car to the garage for an mot. It failed on a front near side ball joint. The Garage replaced the ball joint and re did the mot. When the car was driven home ball joint failed causing the car to pull hard to the left. Luckily we were only going 15 miles an hour and I managed to avoid ploughing into the parked cars. Drove the car a few metres home and rang the Garage. They came straight out and said the new ball joint had failed. As it was good friday they couldnt get a tow truck so offered to fix it on the drive. They decided to put a new wishbone and ball joint on and send the old wishbone and failed ball joint back to the manufacturer. I have driven the car this weekend just around the area and the car feels wrong. The front nearside wheel has loads of play and the car is making clunking noises. The steering feels unstable and is pulling to the right. I'm going to ring the garage when they next open and ask them to look at the car again. I'm worried that they won't do anything and would like advice on how to approach this with them. I don't have any paper work from the repair on my drive and they took the faulty part away. I am supposed to be part exchanging the car for a new one on Tuesday but feel like there is no way we can do this now. I'm so worried I'm going to end up with no car!! Any advice would be great fully received. Many thanks, Sammy.

I_have_spoken

Is the garage the did the repair the same one as you're pxing with?

Sammy179

No. It's a different garage

System

I wonder if they didn't torque up the wheelnuts and they've come loose as that would give the symptoms you describe and the wheel would have to come off to change the part. Get your wheel brace out, the jack out, jack up the car just to take the weight off the wheel - you don't need to lift the wheel off the floor, and tighten up the wheelnuts hand tight, lower the vehicle fully down and tighten them up good and proper.

forgotmyname

wheelnuts or hub nut loose.

Pulling and feeling strange maybe because the alignment is now out. Needs a wheel alignment.

jobdone1

Sound like the perfect mechanic I'm glad I can carry out my own repairs to avoid these kind of sharks

AdrianC

If they changed the bottom arm on your drive, I doubt they set the tracking - that would account for the pull and "instability".

There may be damage to the driveshaft from the joint falling, which could cause the "clunk".