Hi, my suspension is making some weird noises and knocks, i'm sure that one of the front shock absorbers has gone but i'm not sure if anything else is wrong with it, a friend said at least one of the lower ball joints has probably gone too. Is it best to replace these things in pairs? and is there anyone in the Cambridge area (i'm in Ely) who wouldn't mind coming for a short drive and seeing if they know what's wrong with the suspension?

Could be your lower arm as well. I'm not good with these things but I know that was something mentioned when I bought a knocking Fiesta.
Also (I doubt it) but your spring may have snapped as thats what happened to mine!

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Yeah, I've heard the lower arms come with the ball joints, so I was going to do them both at the same time. The spring looks ok to me, but I haven't taken the struts out yet. Also could it be drop links? And am I right in thinking that drop links are the things which connect the ARB to the suspension strut?

Yes drop links are the things which are connected from arb to struts.

What I would do is...

Replace both wishbones, replace both drop links, and replace both track rod ends. Track it up.

Because I can garentee that if you only do the one thing, you'll only be going back to buy another thing later in the week. So just replace it all.

Also, check the shocks, and maybe remove them and check the rubber top mounts. And/or replace.

Always feels good to get everything new on the front end

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Daily isn't so Special. And it makes me sad.
Need space and time and I'll crack on with Jams si!

Catch me on Facebook as I'm rarely on here.

And don't forget to change the ARB bushes, if they're shot then it'll knock like a mo-fo!

paul

I can say from personal experience that not doing it all in one go wastes masses of time and effort.. its worth just doing it all in one go, I have done every bit one at a time and the noise still hasn't been fixed.. due to not replacing the arb I think, which I removed to do the wishbones anyway (and it wasn't easy)

Cool, thanks for the responses. So the idea is this, replace: lower arms, shocks (i'm sure one has gone), top shock mounts, track rod ends, drop links and ARB bushes....sounds expensive, any ideas where to get these parts for less than what Ford wants for them?

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Daily isn't so Special. And it makes me sad.
Need space and time and I'll crack on with Jams si!

Catch me on Facebook as I'm rarely on here.

One shock cost me like £53 or something.

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Ok, cool. Thanks a lot, ford wanted silly money, £37 each for front drop links and £50-something each for front shocks...

my brother lives in Ely, so you know, but he know nothing about cars unfortunely