Hi,

First of all I am not very car savvy so appreciate any advice.  Put a deposit down for a 58 plate fiesta for a first car for my daughter, the dealer has put it through a fresh MOT today and its passed with 2 advisories.  Looking to pick up at the weekend.

Are the 2 advisories anything to worry about, will they be expensive to fix? Already negotiated a lower than advertised price before the MOT should I go back for more (although I've already paid a deposit)  Any advice is appreciated.

Monitor and repair if necessary (advisories):

• Nearside Front Outer Sub-frame ball joint has slight play (5.3.4 (a) (i))
• Offside Front Outer Track rod end ball joint has slight play (2.1.3 (b) (i))

Nothing to particularly worry about no, just normal wear and tear.

Average labour charges are about £75 per hour now.

Ideally a track rod end replacement should be a very easy task to accomplish. Whip the wheel off, undo a nut to detach it from the steering knuckle, unscrew it, do the reverse to fit the new one. Easily done within a hour. However, if it's seized onto the track rod, then could significantly increase the difficulty of removing the old one.

Prices for parts vary significantly depending on what brand you go for, especially if it's a genuine Ford part. It's a relatively small and commonly replaced part, so should not be particularly expensive.

As for the 'sub-frame ball joint' this description confuses me. Sub-frames don't have ball joints. They have bushings for where the control arm attaches, but I've never heard of these being refered to as ball joints. Presumably this is what they meant?? Again not particularly hard to remove a control arm to get at the bushings. They may well accomplish both tasks within a single hour. A single bushing should be cheap to replace. They may want to alternatively replace the whole control arm to reduce the amount of labour required.

Perhaps alternatively they meant the ball joint at the end of the control arm (attaching it to the knuckle)?

Thanks for the reply.  That's the only info I have at the moment before I go to collect it at the weekend (got the info form the MOT checker website last night).

As its a firs car for my 17 year old, just don't want it to be a bag of nails and cost a fortune, but from what your saying its not a biggie?

Having already agreed a price for the car, is it something I can justify getting fixed before handing over the rest of the cash/getting a bit more knocked off or could you argue "advisories" are just advice?

Appreciate any advice.

Cheers

It just needs two new lower arms and two new track rod ends.

I'd get it done ASAP

Hello Lee and welcome to the forum. 

As Dave has stated above. I'm assuming you know a good mechanic. Have a chat with him about the advisories and get him to quote for the work. Not expensive and none Ford parts are fine.

14 hours ago, rd457 said:

As for the 'sub-frame ball joint' this description confuses me. Sub-frames don't have ball joints.

Perhaps alternatively they meant the ball joint at the end of the control arm (attaching it to the knuckle)?

This is the problem with advisories allowing additional user inputs.  

When I first read it, I assumed wishbone ball joint.  But it could just as easily be a wishbone bush or even a subframe bush.  They would have to ask the guy that tested it to clarify or get another garage to check visually.