bolt arm joints

[Aelf]

Hi guys,

Just had my first service done on my Surf and I'm not a happy bunny.
I have a leak in my injectors which has to be taken to a *specialist* in Basildon and also my bolt drop arm ball joints need replacing.

First question - Is the Surf safe to drive with the above faults
Second question - How much should the new joints be? I'm being quoted over a ton each plus £200 labour.

*sad face*

[Guest]

Hi guys,

Just had my first service done on my Surf and I'm not a happy bunny.
I have a leak in my injectors which has to be taken to a *specialist* in Basildon and also my bolt drop arm ball joints need replacing.

First question - Is the Surf safe to drive with the above faults
Second question - How much should the new joints be? I'm being quoted over a ton each plus £200 labour.

*sad face*

Without wanting to sit on the fence too much - it depends how bad they are. Most likely the leak on the injectors is a loose pipe that some numbnuts wants to charge a fortune to fix - unlikely to be anything mor than that as there is little to go wrong on an injector apart from blocking up, wear on the needle point or weak springs.

With regard to the ball joints - i would be interested to know what they mean by a Bolt drop arm ball joint. Are they talking about the idler arm ball joint, the pitman arm, the bottom suspension ball joints or the top ball joints. Any of these are unlikely to be bad enough to stop you driving on - certainly if you hadn't noticed abnormal tyre wear or the car wandering around the road like a drunk nomad.

Not sure on the price of the units but you could probably get them a lot cheaper from roughtrax or Milners and get someone friendly to fit them. They are generally a bit of a pig to fit but £200 labour sounds a lot and equates to around 4 hours for a job that shouldn't take more than 2 hours.

Thats just my opinion though and I would be interested in other peoples thoughts.

Cheers

[Aelf]

pitman and idler

Thanks for the reply Lucky, I've just rang the garage and apparently it's the Idler and the pitman. Supplied and fitted cost quoted £275.00 (my gf was winding me up methinks)

This sounds a lot better... does it sound about right?

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply Lucky, I've just rang the garage and apparently it's the Idler and the pitman. Supplied and fitted cost quoted £275.00 (my gf was winding me up methinks)

This sounds a lot better... does it sound about right?

Yep sounds pretty good to me. The Idler arm is £90 from Milners I think and the Pitman arm not much less so you are talking over £150 for the parts then labour on top.

You can rebush the Idler Arm if the shaft os not corroded or otherwise damaged and the new bushes willo cost you a tenner - not sure if you can do the same with the Pitman arm or whether it is a sealed unit. Again you could drive with them like they are if the car doesn't feel too bad, however it could fail the next MOT because of excess play (mine will so I have to get round to doing it) and more importantly it will wear out your tyres unevenly and prematurely. I've got to change mine before I put on Mud Terrains as the existing tyres have just that problem and are wearing on the outside edge. I have about 1 1/2 inches of play in the steering so the truck is now a bit of a pig to drive and pulls on the brakes and wanders about a bit.

Cheers