Hi all.
Having repaired the steering rack and numerous other little jobs for the Mot it has now failed its retest on other items.
Most troublesome is corrosion to the nearside upper arm.
The first M.o.T. really should have picked these up, even if only as an advisory because this is a common failure on the Espace 1 and 2 and they really should be checking them.
I fitted a new driveshaft and balljoints ( not an MOT issue) and in the process cleaned up and rust treated the arm. this exposed the fact that it has quite a lot of corrosion and a small hole all the way through one side. Its particularly annoying as it didn't come up as a problem first time round but is probably a valid issue to fail a test.
It is a definite failure item and I have had this problem with two of my Espace. One I repaired with good arms off another vehicle that was being stripped to be scrapped, and on the other car (the one I have now) I bought two new arms from Renault - this was 5 years ago now and I considered it worth the extra cost to have new arms which I could protect from new as I knew I would be keeping the car a long time. As you say a weld repair to suspension parts is not generally acceptable but it does depend on how they are made in the first place. For instance the Murena trailing arms are made by welding four plates to form a box section for the main arm so welding a new side in place of the original would be little different to the original.
These arms were made with two pressings and the inner one spot welded to the outer, and that is what leads to the failure as they corrode through in holes where the large spot welds are positioned.
I wouldn't bother with second hand generally unless you can examine them beforehand and know they are good, because as a common failure point, most are going the same way. And buying for poor secondhand ones is a waste and makes it more sensible to pay the extra for new one in the first place, if you can get them.
Like all the parts for these Espace 1 and 2 however, parts are now getting more and more difficult. Some are after all over 25 years old and no manufacturer tends to support general cars that old. What I'm saying is that if you find new ones for sale you should consider buying them and 100 Euros for a pair or even each is a price I would pay.
Roy