Dunno. People who do will probably come in with known weaknesses.

I'd perhaps get it MOT'd again early. Its not very long to go. Maybe tell them what happened (or have it done where its being repaired) to focus attention

You never have any absolute guarantee that a car isn't going to kill you, and 110,000 is non-trivial mileage.

Hi,

I picked up a 2007 Clio Dynamique 1.4 petrol a month ago - with 110,000 miles on the clock, seemingly in lovely condition. Both outside and inside it was extremely clean. It pulls like a train in all gears and runs so quietly and smoothly I sometimes can’t even tell the engine is on - a big improvement on my 02 Yaris! It had a single advisory at MOT 9 months previously '‘front play in steering rack inner joint(s) both ()'. Since that MOT it has done 1,500 miles, most of those miles by me in the last month since I bought it.

Two days ago, on the way home from work, the driver’s side ball joint failed, causing the car to belly flop onto the road and the right half axle to be snapped and ripped from the transmission. In retrospect, the only warning I had was a slight squeak from the right wheel after making a right turn the evening before, which soon disappeared. The car had to be towed and is now in for a £450 repair. I am still thanking my lucky stars I was going at low speed on a quiet road when it happened. I was just 60 seconds from joining the motorway sliproad.

I am now nervous and concerned that a car in such seemingly good nick with an innocuous looking MOT could harbour such a dangerous weakness. My question is: what should I be concerned about and what should I have inspected? Should I replace all ball joints? Other suspension / steering components?

Thank you for any advice!

Mike

Ball joints can seize and snap from the joint and not show on MOT, it wouldn`t be the first one to do that, but as its happened would be advisable to replace the other side in case its on its way out, they have a dust cover which the MOT tester is not allowed to lift, they can only look and on some occasions use a bar to test if there is any play in it, if so- depending how bad the play is -will get an advisory or IF really bad a fail.

but would recommend doing the other side as well....