Bought car that nearly killed me

Horace

Birmingham trading standards are pretty hot on dodgy dealers of any kind.

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk

Also contact VOSA as someone mentioned before.

jonathon

"most recovery mechanics are as thick as dogmuck which is why they're doing 12 hour days out in all weathers for £400 a week instead of sitting in a nice cosy workshop earning £500+ for 8hr days."


Thats a bit harsh
he could have been referring to the split pin

dazron

actually Birmingham Trading standards didn't want to know as they said proving it wasn't a fault that developed in the 8 weeks i've had it was impossible.... ?

dazron

lauren_1

That will teach me to read the post properly, i read it as you got the car in 2004.......

tomstickland

From the photo: the ball joint has fallen out of the tapered hole it fits into.

Personally I'd just put it down to "bad luck". There are lots of things that can fail on a car, it's just probability that most of them don't. The ball joint is either held together with a normal nut and a retaining pin, but some aftermarket items use nylock nuts instead. Usually, even if the nut is lose, the tapered section won't come apart.

If you don't trust the car then put it in for an MOT at a garage of your choice.

There were a number of issues with the vehicle after purchase, namely tyres that were going flat, a core air temperature sensor that failed and two chips on the windscreen that I didn't notice on road testing the vehicle, that I believe may have been in an area of the windscreen that would have caused the car to fail it's MOT.

You'd be amazed - my windscreen has a number of chips on it and has passed several MOTs, all at a decent garage.

dazron

Surely a wheel can't just 'fall out' of it's joint and that's just bad luck? My wife will never get in this car again, or let me take my kids in it, nor do I want to get back in it! It's not just a case of bad luck!

Keith

The ball joint will be clamped usually by a bolt, if that bolt comes free or snaps for what ever reason, it will release the ball joint as your photo shows.

This in turn will push the hub away from the lower arm and pull the driveshaft out of the gear box, this will cause the gearbox to spill the gearbox oil, or the end of the shaft will stay in the gearbox and the CV boot will come off and pour grease all over what ever is beneath it.

At the end of the day, you didn't die, your kids weren't injured.

anewman

If the proper sized split pin is used they'll generally stay there and I tend to find them difficult to get out but I might be doing something wrong.

Keith

I've got a £4 forked tool from the motorfactors, you push it against the joint and then tap it in with the hammer and it forced the joint open and balljoint down.

I've only encountered 2 split pins and managed to easily free them.