Hello,

(I need your sympathy and patience here) I am going to start a thread which I'm hoping can be validated by a forum colleague who will hopefully post a picture for me following this initial post...
Despite coaching, I am still totally without the skills to attach a picture to a post! ANYWAY-

I am investigating a local car for sale- an S plate 20VT and have discovered this issue. The passenger side steering arm has perforated/eaten into the inside arch. How serious is this (I will undoubtedly have it repaired), what does it mean and how could it have happened? Is it common??

(cue forum colleague!!)

Thanks

JimP

Look in your pm.

Done Jim

Spookily though, you have to look in your PM's .....

Longstaff are you clairvoyant, only just seen your post....

Ok here you go

thankyou all for your help!

so, can anyone tell me what this means??

Is the car on lowered springs?

I don't think so- it appears totally standard...

although, that's a good point- would anyone be able to post a picture looking upwards from just behind their own passenger side front wheel for me, please...?

It might be worth trying to find a non rusty coupe for sale. Unless it is very cheap and you like welding.

Well no I don't like welding but it nearly has the right spec of what I'd be looking for.
Plus they're not exactly thick on the ground up here.

There's another for sale up here that actually has a bubbling front wing!! and that's the choice without making it a mission to source one...

And yes, it is going to be cheap...

Here's some similar rust:

that's very interesting AP1, thanks for that.

But is perhaps more indicative of general corrosion than in fact some kind of mechanical interference between parts which is my concern...

so really?

Nobody's seen this before??

I think we've all seen rust in that area... what we haven't seen is the positioning of the track rod. Which appears to have been contacting the metalwork - unless it's just a trick of the angle of the camera, I can't see how that suspension does anything without clouting the steering arm.

yes- I see what you mean...

that and the fact the guy is no longer longer responding to my e-mails (he's removed his phone number from the Gumtree advert?) makes me think it's not going to happen...

thanks for your help...

JimP