Post #1210850

2026-04-03 19:00 UTC

So the good news is ... I got the ball joints out, always an arse of a job, thankfully I already have special tools from that (edit: I forgot to type the good news lol, I got distracted by the bad news.) The bad news is I just noticed one of the boots on a track rod end has split, probably due to me moving things about so much. What is really really annoying is I had one in my Autodoc basket... they had a whole track rod assembly for 50 quid and I figured whilst I am in this deep I may as well get that done too. But I decided that was too much mission creep and backed out of it. I did have a vague hope I could get this job done this weekend and book an MOT next Wednesday... EuroCarParts has what it claims are compatible Starline track rod ends in stock locally which I could pick up tomorrow. Slightly irritating as it'll then cost £46.78 for the parts, versus getting and entire track rod assembly from Autodoc for £57.46

Replies (3)

@yvan@toot.ale.gd 2026-04-03 19:11

So, now an "on the plus side" - before posting the above I went and took another look. Yeah, they're fucked... IDK how I even thought I was going to get away with not replacing these. One is oozing, the other is not far off oozing. Lesson: optimism is futile... put such childish things behind you. The plus side is both track rod ends came out easily. In one case a little worryingly so. I am planning to drive into down to visit Wilco next door to EuroCarParts tomorrow anyway so I think I'll just order those ends and try and "be done with it" per se. Also worth bearing in mind is if I get this car back on the road I'll probably be saving £40 per week in petrol costs off the bat. I have no idea how this car made it through an MOT with a clean slate a year ago, must have been Dodgy Bros Automotive... £100 cash for a guaranteed MOT pass. (And I kid you not, I have even had such a service offered to me... "friend of a friend" situation, but I did not enquire further.)

Open ##1210851
@book@beige.party 2026-04-03 19:07

@yvan You poor bugger. I was always taught to over-buy suspension parts in case of mission creep. They can be returned later. Bawls.

Open ##1210861
@geoffl@mastodon.me.uk 2026-04-03 19:14

@yvan I'd clean any grease off the boot and superglue it. Then replace it after the MOT.

Open ##1210872