Back in January, at 77000 miles, I had an MoT test done which noted play in the offside front lower arm ball joint. I did have a slight knocking noise over rough ground which I attributed to this and planned to replace both arms and bushes once the weather improved.
Anyway, the car is now on 79000 miles and in the last 50 miles or so the knocking noise has developed quite rapidly into a severe knock and rattle, so bad that I haven't used the car in about a week. I assumed this was the ball joint finally giving up although was confused at it sounded like it was on the nearside...
I ordered a pair of arms and bushes and today set about replacing them. Upon removal I found that one of bolts holding the nearside bush was finger tight and the other was half way out!
Has anyone ever heard of these working themselves loose?
The lower arm itself looks to be original (it has a Rover part number and 2001 manufacturing date) but the bush looks to have been replaced in the not too distant past. Unfortunately my car came with only part service history and I have no record of this work being done but it definitely doesn't look 23 years old.
My guess is that the mechanic only nipped the bolts up and intended to fully tighten them later, but forgot.
The job is on hold however as I forgot to order new bolts and being single use and finding them loose, I wasn't prepared to risk using them again!