So after a hard day's slog, we finally finished with Ciara's Ford Fiesta. We replaced the wishbone, the steering strut and another part of the steering connected to the wheel. I'm not great with the names of the parts but it wasn't that hard a job.
Unfortunately, we had a problem with the passenger side door being jammed shut. When the car hit the kerb, the wing on the front left chassis must have been pushed back under the car door frame, which is jamming it from opening. My dad's brother in law recommended an interesting technique for fixing it. So here's what we did, we attached a heavy duty rope to the underside chassis of the car, on the front left, just behind the wheel and attached the other side of the rope to a JCB, then we simply pushed the car away from the JCB as hard as we could to pull the wheel back into place. This took about 4-5 pushes. Now the chassis still needed to be pulled back into place so we attached a piece of wood on either side of the underside of the chassis (where the mudflaps go) and we attached a vice grips and the rope again. We did the same push back technique as mentioned above and next thing you know, we can open the door again.
we brought the car for a quick spin before we realised I had forgotten to mention the ball bearings needed to be replaced. This is noticeable when you drive the car, it'll sound like a loud humming noise (like a jet engine) and when you get out of the car, if you feel the very centre of the wheel (with hub caps off), it'll feel very hot. The next check is to lift the car up with a jack and simply spin the wheel. You may need to take the hand brake off so be very careful with this. If the wheel makes any sort of grinding noise, then the ball bearings need to be replaced.
After a quick job on the bearings and replacing the whole suspension strut, we were ready to go and I drove the car home. What an incredible day, sun was shining and we were out getting filthy fixing this car. Loved every moment.
Now off to Drogheda for a 21st, an open bar and a few good mates.
