[japatchett]

Hi there, new here, but various posts have been helping me get my i30 fixed up after MOT failure that I was quoted £1600 to get fixed. £180 in with new front brakes, rear brake hoses, that little grommit in the steering that wears out and a dodgy battery connection and I'm down to two jobs - adjust headlights which should be easy enough and this one I'm having trouble with.

"nearside front lower suspension arm ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt"

On the face of it this looks like an easy job, annoyingly had to remove the new brake disc I just put on to get to it, but now I'm there I've got the nut off from underneath that seems to hold it in place but I can't get much further.

There's also two bolts further back holding the lower arm in place, but I'm not sure I need to get those off.

Any advice on how to get the ball joint off so I can replace the dust cover?

Many Thanks.

[BrendanP]

I expect you've sorted this out by now, I would have replied earlier but haven't had any broadband for 3 weeks. I had an advisory on my old 2011 diesel about the lower ball joint boot starting to split. I managed to separate the ball joint but couldn't undo the joint from the steering knuckle. Took it to a friendly garage who managed to break it free with a heavy-duty impact wrench and 50mm socket. On the original part there doesn't seem to be any way to replace the boot only. I replaced it with a Starline part. A few months later, I noticed the boot was torn again. I bought another ball joint, took the boot off it and used it to replace the torn boot, so I didn't have to remove the recently fitted ball joint. I was able to separate the ball joint from the lower suspension arm to get to the boot.

Before jacking the car off the ground I reached up inside the wheel well and wrapped several turns of rope around the end coils of the spring to stop it extending as the car was jacked up. This holds the suspension in a more natural position so the ball joint isn't sitting at a weird angle. Don't forget to remove the rope after you've finished and the car is back on the floor!