MoT due soon. What's it most likely to fail on.

My son got a job 200 miles away from home and soon after bought his first car, a 2002 1.0L K11. Sadly, as I live so far away from him now I wasn't there at the time of purchase. I suspect he was ripped off by some scumbag that knew the car was unlikely to pass it's next MoT. He now knows it has a few problems and I would like to fix it for him if he leaves it with me. He spent £700 on the car and another £120 on two tyres so far. I am hoping that he's not looking at scrapping it already, but that could be a possibility depending on how much it needs in parts.

I have never worked on a Micra before, so far I have found out that the front cross member and sills are likely welding jobs but I haven't found much else. My local MoT tester doesn't see many Micras so can't provide much advice. My son reckons one of the rear coil spring upper seat/mount is corroded and he thinks this might be a bolt on part to replace. He also says that he has knocking noises from the front. I suspect this could be the crossmember or driveshafts/cv joints. From what he describes regarding a taped up brake hose on one strut it sounds like it has two LH struts or two RH struts.

If you were buying a 2002 Micra completely blind, what faults would you expect if the seller could take advantage of you?
 
My son has decided to put the car through an MoT first before spending any more money on it. The MoT Refusal notice will help him decide if it's worth fixing or scrapping.
 
The knocking at the front could well be a Track Control Rod ball joint, which is an easy fix if you're handy with spanners and a hammer. Other than that it's the usual places: Sills, crossmember, etc. I'm not too knowledgeable about them yet, but I'l learning.
 
I have just seen a photo of a large hole he has in the side of the rear coil spring tower (upper spring seat). It looks like this body part is bolt on. It would be a lot simpler to replace it than weld it. Has anyone had a similar problem?
 
I have just seen a photo of a large hole he has in the side of the rear coil spring tower (upper spring seat). It looks like this body part is bolt on. It would be a lot simpler to replace it than weld it. Has anyone had a similar problem?
there are 2 x bolts on the side bracket vvv, but there are about 20 spotwelds too tho

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Thanks Frank.
Is this a known problem on the K11 that usually sends them to the scrapyard or is there a repair part available? My son has been contacting breakers to see if any have them.
I'm thinking that it's probably worth fabricating replacement towers if a replacement part is not available.
 
Thanks Frank.
Is this a known problem on the K11 that usually sends them to the scrapyard or is there a repair part available? My son has been contacting breakers to see if any have them.
I'm thinking that it's probably worth fabricating replacement towers if a replacement part is not available.
just weld a patch on i guess mate, its usually the rear inner sills or rotted axle that scraps the car :)
 
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