MOT time

[tenpole]

The 206 passed its Mot last week. It had a few advisories:
Shock absorber has a slight misting of oil nearside front.
Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged, but preventing the ingress of dirt offside front
Echaust has a minir leak of exhaust gases
Oil leak.
Front inner ( both tyres are wearing out from the inside).

As the car passed I thought I would treat it to an oil change. At the counter I was asked which filter I required as there were two types. One normal cylindrical and another with a pipe protrusion from the centre. Noy knowing which one I had to take both. Looks like I wont be doing oil change this weekend but maybe during the week.

[Slo]

Time to get some new wishbones, absolute b****** to do until you get the hang of it.

[tenpole]

Is that causing the wear on tyres

[Slo]

Yes, they are the worst suspension design ever thought up, the ford escort from mark 5 onwards had the exact same design whereas they use pressed steel the 206 uses cast iron but the rubber mounts are identical, good idea to change both track rod ends at the same time too as they are quite cheap and easy to replace.

[GrandadMonkey]

We have "traffic calming" pads all over Leics which "chamfer" the inside of our tyres every time you drive over them.Happened on my Mercedes, Corsa, 206cc and Golf. Nothing to do with poor suspension design. Do you have such traffic calming measures where you live?

[tenpole]

Yes there are the traffic mounds in the road. No way to avoid them. I would not undertake changing the wishbone as it looks like a nightmare job with special tools.l

[gazza82]

The CC needs the GTI version of the lower arms .. the big mountings are a lot stiffer and stronger. Fit the "cheaper" version and you'll probably be doing them again in 12 months (or less!)

There is a knack to doing these .. and yes, they are a PITA and the one job I hate! (Well ONE of the jobs I hate!). You probably need a set of TORX sockets but the only other "special" tool I use is a length of 4x2!

[Slo]

The easiest way ive found is a pair of spring compressors on the struts. Then the bones are easy to change with virtually no forcing to do except splitting the balljoint which is a lot more simple to do when you dont have the strut forcing the hub carrier down onto it.

[GrandadMonkey]

If it passed the MOT I'd leave it. I swap the wheels around to even out wear. When on the rears they seem to wear more evenly. Our car is still on the original tyres after 32,000 miles (except for one replaced after a puncture). We had an advisory like yours in 2009 at 17,870 miles and I swapped the wheels front to back. Only this year in February did we get another advisory on tyres when the tester said that the N/S rear tyre was approaching the tread wear indicators. I still haven't changed it as the tread depth is now down to 3.0mm which is still well in excess of the legal limit of 1.6mm.

[tenpole]

If it passed the MOT I'd leave it.

Sound advice.
I will wait till it falls off.

[Capncol]

............or loosen the bolt