ik been een gearhead, but not so much, nowadays. getting injured at work put paid to that, but the old ways are still called upon, now and then, and probably more to come as my car ages.
my car failed it's annual, official inspection (MOT) undertaken by the same dweeb who'd failed it a few years back; yep, the usual bloke doesn't fail it and i don't mean that the usual bloke is dodgy, more like it's other one who is [thinking that he'll get some work out of it].
aside from failing the emmissions (standard failing fayre by the dodgy, since who can verify it?), he failed it on one bush on the back axle:
it's the one on the right of the pic; totally goosed, ain't it?
anyway, i replaced all of them, along with making up some new brake lines (no fail on the corrosion, there), freeing up the brake regulator (no fail, again) and a fraying handbrake cable (okay, i'll let him off with that one as it couldn't be seen until off the caliper). oh, and i tended to the rust as best i could, given the time restraint for a free re-test. normally, it would've been a day and half's work, but it took me nine days.
and it did set my mind to replacing the rear axle bearings and seals, as the seals are aged (anyone with tips on easily removing torsion bars on french cars? i've watched the vids on youtube, but they all seem to be edited and give the impression of an easy job, which is contrary to what everybody says and my own previous experience with an AX).