Velocity Joint Gaiter Split!

[renaultlove]

Hello Clementine - yes its that time again - dreaded MOT. It failed on 6 points - 4 'fairly minor' but 2 items sound rather serious.... nearside and offside constant velocity joint gaiter split. Can you tell me how easy/hard this is to repair cos i've got 10 working days to sort it out before I pay the MOT fee a second time..... I have not approached a garage yet as I wanted to see if its necessary to order parts through renault etc. Can you advise. Urgent!!!!

 

[malcolm]

Not so bad. You can get CV joint gaiters for less than £10 each from a motor factors. Changing them is a bit time consuming. You need to disconnect a couple of the suspension joints and remove the driveshafts. Then unclip the CV joints to replace the boots. Your average garage should be quite good at doing this, but I'd guess at least an hour a side.

 

[renaultlove]

Gaiter Advice

Hi Clementine, thank you for reply. I will contact the garage on Monday and see what they can do. The other minor 4 failure points are: horn not working, left indicator not working, insufficient water spurting from the screen wash..... and right hand headlight not in good working order 'adversely affecting beam image'..... Actually ever since the garage fit the new horn and fog light button the electrics have not been quite right. The left indicator has not been working for some time and after cleaning 'AG' this morning and pressing all switches to check working ok - the indicator sprung into life and the horn stopped working.... so an electrical fault I think! But thanks anyway and I'll let u know how it works out........

 

[malcolm]

That left indicator will be the earth wire where it connects to the indicator unit. Ought to have sorted it properly for you when you last visited. Probably wants someone to undo the connection, clean it up, then smear with petrolium jelly to protect it. Same goes for the horn which is in an even worse location for dirt and corrosion.

The right hand headlamp is a worry - was that the one with water inside?

 

[renaultlove]

headlight

it is the offside headlamp - i think that is the left hand side and yes the one with the split and the impromptu swimming pool.... Should I replace it......?

 

[malcolm]

Offside should be the RHS even on a left hand drive car. Refers to the position relative to the kerb. If the headlamp looks OK then maybe the bulb isn't quite in correctly.

Maybe also the tester has confused himself and means the one with the puddle. Drying it out would be OK for the MOT, but a new light would be a better long term fix.