I’ve been a bit slack of late with the Fleet of Broken Dreams updates. It’s almost like nothing has gone wrong which is a total lie. It has.
I’ll come to the Beetle issues and the X1/9’s faults in another post. In the meantime, the Berlingo, the best vehicle and only vehicle you will ever need if you had to have just one, has spent some time off the road.
It all started with the drive to work. There was an annoying knock coming from the front. Speak to anyone and they will tell you the Berlingo suffers from front anti-roll bar failure quite often. My example has had both replaced in the 4 years of ownership or 20,000 miles.
Now 20,000 miles might sound quite a distance but when you think the globe is 24,901 miles in circumference, I’ve not been able to drive that without several suspension faults. This Berlingo was bought with a broken nearside front spring. It has in my time also received an off-side front spring. And both link arms have been replaced at various intervals. And to think the UK driver thought Citroën’s hydropneumatic set-up was unreliable and complicated!
Faffing Fault Finding
Over the later parts of winter 2022, the knock continued to be forever present. And I won’t lie, working on the drive in the cold isn’t my idea of fun. The garage was occupied by the Bus and the X1/9 was stuck on my ramp. So there I was under the car, N/S wheel off, wobbling things around in the hope that something would give.
I’d done this for 3 weeks on the trot. I knew there was a fault. It sounded like it had got worse and worse but alas, no ball joint wanted to budge in a way they shouldn’t denote wear. So it was by chance that the near side lower wishbone ball joint on one cold Sunday FINALLY gave in. A tiny amount of play, and I mean a tiny amount, was detected.
Thankfully on these, the lower ball joints are mounted separately to the wishbone. It seems quite a French thing to do because Renault also does this. VW don’t. And thankfully because of this forward-thinking, the parts are relatively cheap. About £12.90 + VAT from Jayar Car parts.
Refitting Is Easier Than Removal
Fitting a separate ball joint is easy. I’ve been thwarted with the front suspension on the Berlingo before. Strut removal has flummoxed me but thanks to that picture in the Haynes manual, it doesn’t need to be so difficult.
The art of removing anything that involves a driveshaft is not to disturb it. I’ve had to replace the driveshaft seal last year and despite it not being difficult, it is a pain to have to do it again, so apply some caution and take your time. One thing I was told by my head mechanic at the garage was to enjoy the job. Get into that mindset and it does help. If it gets annoying or stressful, walk away. Grab a coffee, have a smoke, attend to a part of the garden and then go back to it.
The driveshaft was safely held in place by the strut being strapped up, the bottom ball joint was free. And here comes the best part. 3 nuts later and it was off, new one on, tightened up, strut back onto the bottom ball joint and wheel on. And not a drop of gearbox oil spilt from that driveshaft coming out.
Test Drive
Thankfully it worked. The knock was gone. The ride in the Berlingo was silky smooth again. The only real major cost was having to have the tracking checked and reset again.
I’m sure my local garage thinks I’m OBSESSED with tracking having had the X1/9 and Berlingo in last year and then the Berlingo in again at the start of the year. And guess what, the Beetle will need its tracking reset too.