MoT’s

[gabby82]

MoT became due and went to a Motorhome test centre on the eastern side of Lincoln last week for a pre MoT. Got a fail notice. Both lower front suspension arms bearings failed, he also said that I could not see the item after removal! Only 20k miles and 13 years old Autotrail. Did not seem right to me so had a retest at a more local tester who was given the failure info. After the retest and in-depth check I was advised nothing wrong with the components and given a pass certificate. I noticed while waiting for the first (fail) test an employee was binning a lower wishbone?!

 

[ProDave]

I have found once you find an MOT tester that is fair and reaonable, you keep on using the same one. Where I go he is happy for me to look underneath the vehicle when it is up on the hoist, and he will show me exactly what he has concerns about. I am not penned in to the "viewing area"

 

[chrishunter]

The mechanic i use, has just bought out the boss at his MOT centre over the years he`s done a few jobs on my MH and the corsa and has put me onto the ecosport .He`s very fair always phones me if anything wants doing ,tells me what i need for next time and picks up the vehicle on his way to work. Leaving his van at my house. Does the same with my sons cars. He`s a young man with a family and deserves to make a profit good luck to him he`s very genuine.

 

[wildebus]

MoT became due and went to a Motorhome test centre on the eastern side of Lincoln last week for a pre MoT. Got a fail notice. Both lower front suspension arms bearings failed, he also said that I could not see the item after removal! Only 20k miles and 13 years old Autotrail. Did not seem right to me so had a retest at a more local tester who was given the failure info. After the retest and in-depth check I was advised nothing wrong with the components and given a pass certificate. I noticed while waiting for the first (fail) test an employee was binning a lower wishbone?!

I would say being told you cannot see the item after removal is so out of order I would be inclined to report the garage to the MOT Inspectorate or whatever they are called. Who knows how many people they could have potentially convinced to have work done?

I have found once you find an MOT tester that is fair and reaonable, you keep on using the same one. Where I go he is happy for me to look underneath the vehicle when it is up on the hoist, and he will show me exactly what he has concerns about. I am not penned in to the "viewing area"

I certainly do not automatically respect a Garage or MOT tester/station. The most recent example was the local Council failing our Suzuki Swift incorrectly. Taking to another garage they passed it with zero work carried out.
Going back in time, the main Toyota Garage, a very respected one in the area who sold me a Toyota GT4 wanted to fail it on worn suspension bushes and quoted around £600 in parts (back in the early 1990s). Took it to a specialist Japanese Sportscar Garage who said the wear level was perfectly fine and needed nothing doing.

 

[chrishunter]

I would say being told you cannot see the item after removal is so out of order I would be inclined to report the garage to the MOT Inspectorate or whatever they are called. Who knows how many people they could have potentially convinced to have work done?


I certainly do not automatically respect a Garage or MOT tester/station. The most recent example was the local Council failing our Suzuki Swift incorrectly. Taking to another garage they passed it with zero work carried out.
Going back in time, the main Toyota Garage, a very respected one in the area who sold me a Toyota GT4 wanted to fail it on worn suspension bushes and quoted around £600 in parts (back in the early 1990s). Took it to a specialist Japanese Sportscar Garage who said the wear level was perfectly fine and needed nothing doing.

There`s a lot of cowboys out there.

 

[alwaysared]

There`s a lot of cowboys out there.

I couldn't agree more.......

Back in 2011 my son saw an Honda Civic Aerodeck 1.8Vtec for sale on a pub car park, asking price was £500.00 it had 59,000 miles on the clock so being a fan of these Civics he knew the engine was worth £500.00. The owner said it was his wife's car and had failed the MOT and the garage wanted £1100.00 for the repairs. My son offered him £450.00 which he accepted and so he bought it with the intention of fitting the 1.8Vtec engine into his Civic EG Hatchback. A mate of mine with a car trailer picked it up for £25.00. Next day my son looked at the fail list, driveshaft boots, steering rack boots, bottom ball joints, rear suspension arm bushes and O/S rear caliper siezed but on inspection the rear caliper was in fact the only thing on the list that was actually faulty
My son then went onto eBay and bought a pair of used rear calipers for £95.00, a tin of brake fluid for £6.00 and then replaced just the O/S one, took it for an MOT at a garage that only does MOT's (still using the same place now) and it passed with an advisory for the rear number plate starting to peel apart, he did that and then used the car until 2023 by which time it had 276,000 miles on it. He sold it on eBay for £1500.00 because that 1.8Vtec engine was now rarer than ever.
The garage that did the original MOT closed down a couple of years later with some really bad reviews on Google.

Regards,
Del

 

[Rosehip]

try being female and taking vehicles for an MOT the number of places that think they can add non existent issues goes up exponentially.
Now I've found a goodun for my car I was disappointed they couldn't MOT or service the van (not enough height clearance in their building - but trusted them enough to go with their recommendation for commercial vehicles and that has worked out fine so far

 

[ProDave]

It can work the other way, with a dodgy MOT issued.

My sailing partner, his son bought a car, a Mercedes, I forget which model, with a year mot for what he thought was a good price.

1 year later he took it for an MOT. It failed. He was told the subframe was rotten and it had previously been welded which was not allowed. and the cost of a new subframe exceeded the cars value. So the seller had obtained a dodgy MOT to sell it.

He tried contacting VOSA to report what he thought was a dodgy MOT hoping they would investigate the issuing test station but they were not the slightest interested in doing so.

 

[marchie]

Local garage does the servicing and repairs for both the M/Home and the car, plus the MOTs for both vehicles. The garage replaces anything that will cause an MOT failure at the service, and I get a 'it will sail through the MOT' verbal assurance when I pay, or (for the car), 'you'll get an advisory on the MOT, but your low mileage means you can leave it until next year to replace the item'. We have about 6 years of doing business and have built mutual trust, including the garage providing free storage for the car, rather than leaving it on the street whilst we are away during winter. Also allowed to collect the vehicle without paying, on the basis that the invoice will be prepared a day or so later, and I just phone and pay by card over the phone.

Steve

 

[pamjon]

I have been going to Crescent Motors in Burton on Trent for many years as they have always been very good. The man who has taken it over is also very good, straight and honest.
I have just had new discs and pads put on the front of my MH. Labour charge a fraction over £70 an hours labour.
PJ

 

[trevskoda]

All out test stations are gov run and dont do repairs, so apart from retest cost there is nout in it for them, best way i think.

 

[alwaysared]

All out test stations are gov run and dont do repairs, so apart from retest cost there is nout in it for them, best way i think.

The garage my son uses don't do repairs, they carry a few bulbs and will fit them for no charge because they don't want to fail vehicles for lights, they are courteous and friendly only problem is it takes three weeks to get an appointment!

Regards,
Del

 

[wildebus]

All out test stations are gov run and dont do repairs, so apart from retest cost there is nout in it for them, best way i think.

I used to have that thinking until the Council MOT Centre )who are not allowed to make repairs) did a rubbish MOT on my car.

How do I know it was rubbish? Well, one obvious one was failing the brake discs on insufficient thickness or something and I fitted them less than 1,000 miles before the MOT.

 

[trevskoda]

I used to have that thinking until the Council MOT Centre )who are not allowed to make repairs) did a rubbish MOT on my car.

How do I know it was rubbish? Well, one obvious one was failing the brake discs on insufficient thickness or something and I fitted them less than 1,000 miles before the MOT.

Got that here last year with leading link ball joints, told up and down play, after spending £180 on new ones iveco told and showed me they are sprung loaded, i confirmed this on one i removed and when resiting test i showed it to examinor and head man, just shruged there heads.
Failed on some step rust from old step which was half cut away to make way for coach built unit, they let me do a simple repair weld rivet and cover with grp, did not require the work but no 2 on fail list so had to sort it.

 

[Geek]

Same thing on sprinter/crafter front steering joints. They are spring loaded, so it is norma to have some "play", though the allowable amount varies between the sprinter and the crafter, despite the components being identical.

 

[wildebus]

Got that here last year with leading link ball joints, told up and down play, after spending £180 on new ones iveco told and showed me they are sprung loaded, i confirmed this on one i removed and when resiting test i showed it to examinor and head man, just shruged there heads.
Failed on some step rust from old step which was half cut away to make way for coach built unit, they let me do a simple repair weld rivet and cover with grp, did not require the work but no 2 on fail list so had to sort it.

Reminds me of something that Sprinter owners should be aware of ..
The amount of play on the front suspension of a Sprinter can be seen as excessive and many MOT Testers will fail it.
It is, however, normal for the Sprinter and within the design spec (assuming there is not an actual fault, of course!). The DVLA have a specific bulletin about this for MOT Testers but not all of them read the bulletins and incorrectly fail as they go only by 'the book' and not any addendums, which they should apply as appropriate.

 

[Tezza33]

Reminds me of something that Sprinter owners should be aware of ..
The amount of play on the front suspension of a Sprinter can be seen as excessive and many MOT Testers will fail it.
It is, however, normal for the Sprinter and within the design spec (assuming there is not an actual fault, of course!). The DVLA have a specific bulletin about this for MOT Testers but not all of them read the bulletins and incorrectly fail as they go only by 'the book' and not any addendums, which they should apply as appropriate.

Fiat Ducato front wheel bearings have a small amount of play, it is to allow for expansion, twice my van has failed it's MOT because of it, it always passed on the retest, it is a 2002 and I still haven't changed them because there is no point, new ones will have the same play

 

[trevskoda]

Fiat Ducato front wheel bearings have a small amount of play, it is to allow for expansion, twice my van has failed it's MOT because of it, it always passed on the retest, it is a 2002 and I still haven't changed them because there is no point, new ones will have the same play

Did you have to explain this to tester or show prof.

 

[Tezza33]

Did you have to explain this to tester or show prof.

No Trev, I tried telling them the first time but they wouldn't listen, so I just took it back after making it look as if I had changed them, then I dropped in to the garage after a long run and asked if they could fit me in, he put it straight on the ramps and five minutes later said it had passed, I had to bite my tongue to avoid telling him that I hadn't changed it.
Retests are free here if done within two weeks and this garage is excellent to deal with so I didn't want to rock the boat

 

[Phantom]

For a few years our Sprinter had a Mot advisory of slight play in both front ball joints, then it failed an Mot on excessive play in them, even though it had only done 48,000 miles. I showed them the bulletin about how not to test them, the manager and Mot tester discussed it for a fair while but concluded that the play was still excessive. Our MH had previously developed a slight weave above 60mph so I went ahead and let them replace both ball joints for a fixed price of about £280 using genuine MB parts which were actually cheaper than pattern. The job took them much longer than expected and our MH now drives steady as a rock at any speed, so it was well worth it.