[Williamb90]

Hi,

New to the forum and the world of car breakdowns. I bought a new car around 2 weeks ago (Renault Twingo 16 plate), and it was MOT’d the day before I bought it with no advisories and a seemingly clean bill of health.

After driving less than 400 miles since buying it, there was a loud banging from the rear of the car when I put it in reverse. After this, it would go into gear but would not move forwards or backwards.

Thankfully I had breakdown cover and was able to get it towed back to the garage it was originally purchased from. The RAC patrol who came out found that the OSR outer CV joint had completely collapsed, and as a result the driveshaft was just spinning freely.

My question really is - should a joint which was this close to collapsing have been picked up when it was MOT’d two weeks prior? Or is it just bad luck?

[Rolebama]

I would certainly expect that a CV joint that close to failure would have blindingly obvious to a competent MOT Tester.

[NMNeil]

A common misconception is that if the boot of a CV joint splits, all you have to do is put a new one on and it's as good as new.
This is far from true as the moment it splits dust, water and dirt gets in, this then mixes with the grease inside the CV and turns into an abrasive paste which quickly destroys the CV.
I've replace countless CV's over the years because the customer thought a new boot would fix the problem.