I'm after some advice. Whilst greasing the front beam at the weekend, I had a look at the track rod ends & ball joints. Our van is an early late and has grease nipples on the ball joints & one of the two track rods (the other was replaced last year). The problem is all four of the balljoints are leaking grease (the rubber has basically had it), and the older trackrod is also leaking at one end. To add to that, one of the grease nipples on the balljoint popped out (the thread on the balljoint cap has gone). I've temporarily stuffed a rubber grommet in the hole. So, what to do? Are the balljoints rubbers an MoT failure? I'm fairly sure the track rod ones are. The rubbers on the new track rod which a garage fitted November last year are already perishing, so are new ball joint rubbers going to be any good? Should I just leave it and see what the MoT man says next year? Here's a picture: Old track rod, rubber has come out from under the clip (is this repairable?) You can also just about see grease leaking from the balljoints.
MOT man 'should' give advisory of "ball joint gaitor split but no ingress of dirt" or summat similar, depends on how bad they are, same for TREs as long as there's no play. Personally I'd change them but only when doing something else, you can buy just the boots but quality is iffy to say the least. New MOT type blokes aren't used to our old suspension set up though and will pass bloody near lethal ball joints as long as the gaiters are ok! Pump em full of grease before you go for MOT, old boys love to see a grease nipple being used.
If theres excessive play in the ball joint or the rubber dust cover is split or perished it should be a fail
I'm a tester and just had my refresher course. U can fail gaiters if they are split and allow the ingress of dirt, also you can't fail a ball joint unless it is deamed to have excessive play and is not likely to fall apart. This all comes down to tester discretion though
Thanks chaps! I think I'll leave it until the next MoT and see what happens. Might be looking to do a front beam rebuild at that point.
