SWAPPING FRONT CONTROL ARMS
Using a 2010 Kia Sorento as an example, Peter Simpson shows you how to save £150 by spending a couple of hours with a few hand tools.
Ialmost always put a new MOT on a car that I’m selling. Quite apart from making the car more desirable – and possibly a bit more valuable – it provides a certain amount of protection. Yes, I know that in law the test pass relates only to meeting minimum standards at the time of test, but having an expert check the vehicle for specific safety-related defects before you sell it must, surely, be the right thing to do.
Additionally, given that ‘advisories’ are now recorded on the online test record (which, remember, is also now the official proof of test status rather than the printed certificate), you can’t really argue that you didn’t know about them! If, for example, the last test was six months and 10,000 miles ago, and something wearrelated was ‘advised’ then, you really do have a moral – and quite possibly a legal – responsibility to check how far the fault has developed in the meantime.
And often, the easiest and most costeffective way of doing this is to submit the car for another MOT. Do bear in mind though that if the car fails the second test, that failure cancels out the previous pass, and the car no longer has a valid MOT. This shouldn’t be a concern of itself as your objective is to ensure the car is safe and legal, but it does mean that until it’s passed again, your use of it will be limited to taking it for repair or retest.
Anyway, this was the position I was in when we went to sell our ‘old’ 2010 Kia Sorento. The previous MOT had included advisories on both bottom balljoints, so though it still had over six months to run, I popped it in for a fresh test. And as half-expected, the joints which were advised last time failed this time.
On the Sorento, the bottom balljoint is incorporated within the bottom wishbone, and the wishbone (control arm) has three attachment points; one at the bottom joint, the other two inboard, to the chassis leg. One of the inner mounts has a vertical bolt, the other is horizontal. All this is very conventional of course, and many cars of the era have broadly similar set-ups.
On the Sorento, you can buy the joint separately, but I went for a complete arm. In a commercial environment you would probably do this anyway, as the extra time would add more to the bill than you save. It’s also a bit unpredictable how long it will take, doesn’t always work, and requires use of a press, something few DIY enthusiasts have access to. Another consideration was that the replacement wishbone also includes the two inner rubber bushes, and while these hadn’t failed the test, those on the offside did look a bit iffy, so I figured it made sense to swap the whole thing over.
Cost-wise
Around here independen
