Hi all,

After years of clean MOTs, failed just now over this:

• Nearside Rear Macpherson strut ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (5.3.4 (b) (ii))
• Offside Rear Macpherson strut ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (5.3.4 (b) (ii))

Car will be on the lift on Monday, if I'm going down that road, what should I pay attention to, and what should be repalced while there?
1999 XKR.

Thanks!

 

Umm, whoever did your MOT is an idiot. These cars don’t have McPherson struts at all. The front is a double wishbone design, and the rear as well but in the rear, the half shafts do the function of the top wishbone.

Pedantry out of the way, you need ball joints at the very least. Has anything else in there suspension ever been serviced before? Is the front end sitting lower than the rear? Any clunks?

 

The MoT failure wording is standardised rather than being accurate to the exact car. But it points adequately to the problem.

(The whole MoT manual is free online if you care to see all the things tested etc.)