MOT fail - rear lower suspension arm ball joint dust cover

[Owain]

Hi all - just put my 987 Cayman through its MOT, and while I was partly expecting a fail I was expecting brake pads rather than suspension!

 

It failed on the following: 

 

Repair immediately (major defects):

Nearside Rear Lower Suspension arm ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (5.3.4 (b) (ii))

Offside Rear Lower Suspension arm ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (5.3.4 (b) (ii))

 

The brakes I was planning to do myself, but how much of a job is the above likely to be? Presumably I'll need to swap the whole arms, but have no idea how tricky or not that's likely to be on a Cayman, nor whether there is anything else I should be doing at the same time?

 

Any thoughts? 

 

Cheers

[Lennym1984]

It's not hard at all. You'll need a ball joint splitter and a few basic tools.

 

You will need an alignment afterwards but the job itself it probably 1-2 hours per side.

[Mavrik]

@Owain

I concur with @Lennym1984

Assuming you are referring to the arm I've highlighted in black pen in the attached pic? (No.9)

 

Not a difficult job but if your unlucky you can run into problems removing the eccentric fastener on the inboard joint of the lower control arm so I'd advise spraying all the fasteners with an appropriate penetrating/releasing agent such as PlusGas etc.

You'll need a few basic tools like a 1/2" socket/combi spanners set & either a fork type or claw type splitter (you can also cheat with a club hammer, Clarkson stylee but not advisable lol)

 

You'll need to also get a 4 wheel laser geo alignment done i.e Hunter but a few "decent" tyre shops have them (no need to go to a specialist inde/OPC)

 

This is a link to the arm from a reasonably priced supplier https://frazerpart.com/products/987-boxster-cayman-997-carrera-rear-control-arm

 

Edited January 11, 2021 by Mavrik

[andygo]

I damaged a rubber ball joint boot on an otherwise perfect ball joint. I purchased a new ball joint rubber seperately as they are available on ebay for a couple of quid. Split the balljoint, greased it and fitted the new rubber boot.  Saved loads of time, fitted in situ, didn't need re tracking etc.

 

Looked like new!

 

https://www.balljointboots.co.uk/

 

 

[Beanoir™]

Depending on the mileage and age of the car ( and whether you know if they’ve been changed before or not) I’d probably be replacing the whole arm personally.  These things tend to wear out after 40k miles, so save yourself the hassle of revisiting.  If they are worn then replacing them all can make a massive difference on how well the car drives.  
 

The Meyle parts are good quality items, and available at very good prices from CP4L (aka Euro Car Parts) depending which voucher works best at the time. 

[Owain]

Thanks all - some very useful advise. I'm not sure I fancy potentially battling with seized bolts or painful joints on the driveway, so may be one for my indy to sort.

 

The car is an 07 but only 75k ish miles, but would have to check back through the history to remind myself what's been changed in the past. 

[Windymiller]

A 2nd here for Meyle ‘coffin’ arms - I fitted them to mine (well the garage did 😉), bought from Frazerparts. They’re actually higher spec than the OE Porsche parts - the inner centre-bushing has a harder shore rating (measure of stiffness - ie resistance to flexibility).