Zafira! The ongoing saga...

car-man

In theory, yes, any play in steering joints or anti roll bar (drop) links or bushes should have been noticed, but sometimes these things aren't all that obvious. I had this issue with a Peugeot 407 I owned...I had a rattle on the right hand side front which I couldn't find, I checked everything but only found it by accident one day whilst on the ramp at my mates garage looking for the fault, it only showed up as I was jacking up the front axle...it suddenly made a cracking noise from the anti roll bar link rod...when I removed it there was quite a bit of play in it!

Naaktgeboren

Didn't you learn your lesson from your last sh*t heap of a Zafira??     Get rid of the fudgeing thing and never ever consider getting another!

GalacticaActual

LOL

Found out today its the shock absorber thats gone, about 150 fitted but if the top mounts gone as well it's over 200. Trouble is I can't sell it with it making this noise so I have got to get it repaired.....

car-man

Is the extra £50  if the top mount needs replacing just for the top mount or for extra labour?
The top mount must be removed to replace the shock absorber so there should not be any extra labour charge!
BTW, check the shock absorber by pushing down on the corner where the noise is coming from and match it with the other side, if the original has less resistance when pushed down then it could be the shock absorber.
It's possible the noise is only the top mount causing the noise.

GalacticaActual

It was both, the top mount and the lower part.

He showed me the parts, they looked absolutely knackered. The top part was more expensive than usual as the supplier of the parts only had the more expensive one in. He was honest about that and said he would be happy to come back another day with the cheaper alternative (would have saved about £20) I said just do as you are already here.

No reason not to trust him as he has done a couple of jobs for us before without any issues. I haven't even paid him yet as I had to go to a meeting while he was still doing the job and when I came back he was gone. He gonna take card payment over the phone, which is fine by me.

Still, money I didn't really want to spend though !!

GalacticaActual

£214 including parts and labour & VAT

Didn't think that was too bad to be honest.