hello, i need some advice

[arthursmith]

firstly, hello to all, i'm arthur, i live in rural france, and have just discovered this forum.

i am having a problem with my 1998 2.7 maverick, and think i may be being taken for a ride. could anyone offer some help ?

in feb of this year my maverick started making a screeching/rubbing noise from the front offside wheel, followed by a very noticable clunk when it came to a stop.

the local ford garage diagnosed a faulty hub, replaced it, and charged me €640 for the privilege. okay, it's 10 year old so maybe it did need replacing.

however, in the last couple of days the noise has returned, exactly the same noise, from the same offside wheel, together with the clunk when the car comes to a stop.

so off i go to the ford garage, receipt ( for warranty ) in hand. i take the technician out, and he agrees there is a noise coming from the front offside and they'll inspect further.

about an hour later i get a phone call to go back.

the workshop foreman now tries to tell me it's the nearside that's the problem now !

my questions are;

in 2h, when you turn the shaft, should the wheel rotate ? at the moment, when you turn the offside shaft, the wheel does not rotate, and the nearside is the opposite, the wheel rotates as the shaft is turned.

on the previous visit to the ford dealer, another workshop foreman told me that the hub needed replacing because the wheel did not rotate when the shaft was turned, now this guy tells me the opposite.

i don't mind fair wear and tear, and having searched the net, this doesn't seem to be a major problem with the maverick ( or am i wrong ? ).

but at €640 a pop, i'm not that convinced that both should fail.

i'm going back to the garage tomorrow for part 2, so any advice / comments gratefully received.

arthur

sorry it's a bit long winded, but i wanted to get all the details in, and apart from this problem, i love this car.