M.O.T Defects

[sonic113]

Ok fella's Had the MOT tonight and failed on the following:

 

Defects:

Ma 804 : Suspension Ball Joint - Worn Excessively – Offside Front

Ma 815 : Wishbone -  Mounting/Bushe/s Defective – Nearside front,Offside font, Rearmost

 

 

a little bit gutted she failed on those but on the up side its nothing major. Just didn't have time to give car a full look over this year   Plus its my first M.O.T fail in 5 years of owner ship so not bad 

So I have decided just to stick two new suspension arms in and that should do the job and also last a good while (although the roads out our way aren't good to any car). The reason for this is I think they come with all the front and rear bushes as well as the balljoints so makes the job a lot handier,

 

So as I need them pretty quickly I will have to check what my local Motor factors has in the morning. I have been reading up that there are 2 sizes for the focus in terms of the ball joint collar width an 18mm and a 21mm is this true and is there any quick and easy way to find out which mine is or is it a matter of taking the ball joint out of one side and measuring it?

 

Thanks

 

 

 

--------------EDIT--------------

just an edit here, upon looking on europarts it seems that the 18mm is the focus without the xeons headlamps and the 21mm type is the focus with xeon headlamps. Now can anyone confirm this? also I think mine just has the normal standard halogen lamps but any information how how to tell ect is welcomed.

 

[sonic113]

ok fellas just a little update that might help others out, I rang ford this morning and checked with two local motor factors, it seems that of the focus is <2007 its the 18mm version and if its 2007> its the 21mm version so if your focus is 2007 its best to maybe take out the old one and measure it just to be sure, Mine is 2009 so I have ordered the 21mm version so hopefully this information may be of some use to others if needing ball joints or suspension arms. 

 

Now the problem is getting a break in the weather to fit them lol! 

[sonic113]

Update

 

Got the new arms put in. Pretty straight forward job to be honest so now off tomorrow to get realignment done and the back for the MOT on Tuesday. Fingers crossed. 

[sonic113]

MOT Passed..........

Very pleased thats another years ticket on the focus,

[Micro]

On 23/02/2017 at 1:24 PM, sonic113 said:

ok fellas just a little update that might help others out, I rang ford this morning and checked with two local motor factors, it seems that of the focus is <2007 its the 18mm version and if its 2007> its the 21mm version so if your focus is 2007 its best to maybe take out the old one and measure it just to be sure, Mine is 2009 so I have ordered the 21mm version so hopefully this information may be of some use to others if needing ball joints or suspension arms. 

 

Now the problem is getting a break in the weather to fit them lol! 

Depends what you read - an aftermarket arm manufacturer (I cannot recall the name), stated something like 07/2006 as the cut off.

It's quite easy once i'd read Unipart's method - there are ring clips on the balljoint - yellow = 18mm, blue = 21mm. At least for the OEM ones. You can see these easily once the wheel is off and the steering turned full lock.