focus MOT failure

No. The MOT regs allow them to charge...it's all there in the pamphlets=20 at the testing station.

--=20 Conor

"No trilogy should have more than four books" - Arthur C. Clarke

I bet my last dollar you'd have sued them if you drove down the road and one they'd not replaced blew.

You don't have a micrometer do you?

Nah, it's been quite a nice one actually. It's the thought of what awaits me tomorrow. Got to try and get to Kiveton by 11am (otherwise I'm stuck there until 2pm for nothing) doing deliveries to South Wigston (7am delivery) , Corby and Worksop first. At Corby and Worksop, even though it's only a pallet to each, I'll either be straight in and out or 1 1/2hrs at each spot.

That is the rule ( Which is changing) as set by VOSA , the tester has to do a full MOT again and could be earning £44 from a new test.

The other pipe(s) were probably only noticed whilst doing the job, the garage could not then leave the other pipes as to do so would have been dangerous. A garage has few options when this happens. (1) only replace the 1 pipe and make you sign a disclaimer that you are knowingly driving away in an unsafe car, this will invalidate your insurance. (2) Do the job correctly and replace all the parts so that the vehicle is safe, then explain to the customer why.

Common sense say's the latter is the best option,

The ones on my Escort are being replaced with braided hose next month.

"Fred"

I would definitely replace tyres with only 2mm of tread on them. The MOT is a bare minimum standard that your car should reach, not an aiming point!

We would normally contact the customer but I would not bother in this case, the garage had no real option but to change the other pipes. Say the customer say's no I don't want the other pipes changed ( This is going to be a long call), you then have to fail his car and mark the MOT as unsafe to drive, then when the customer comes and collects his car you have to charge him X £s for doing half a job and invalidating his insurance. Yes you could phone him and spend 10mins + explaing this option and then add that to the labour charge, he then has to get the pipes fixed which means paying for some of the work he has already paid for to be done again and paying for a retest. It's a no brainer, the customer is not going scrap a Focus for a less than £200 repair. As you said the bill was not that bad anyway.

Staffbull ( snipped-for-privacy@staffbull.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

It's very unlikely they were OK. Unless those other pipes had already been changed by some half-arsed skinflint only doing half a job in the past.

why in the haell did they not fail them then????

Because you can only fail what you can see, if the pipes were hidden by the fuel tank you cannot fail them as you can't see them without removing the fuel tank. I guess that the tank had to be partly removed to replace the one the tester did see, it was then that the other was spotted.

Staffbull ( snipped-for-privacy@staffbull.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

It's not as black and white as you seem to think it is.

It may well be that the only one that was actually bad enough to fail immediately was the one that they failed, but the rest were only very marginally better.

It may well be that the others didn't look bad enough to warrant a fail until dismantling was started (the MOT explicitly doesn't include any dismantling), at which point it became clear they also needed replacing.

While the nice man with a spanner was in there replacing that one, it would only be a small amount of extra work to replace the others - which _would_ need doing in the very near future - as well.

GO AND ASK THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW - THE GARAGE. They're the only ones who can tell you for sure.

We've given umpteen reasons why it's probably not a ripoff, but you - it seems - always think you know better - then you just repeat the same questions. This just shows that you have the comprehension skills of a chair leg.

possibly they couldn't see them fully until they stripped the others out, its happened to me in the past. you have to bear in mind not everything on an mot test is visible, it might take a repair to highlight another possible failure, which either gets done or the vehicle gets failed again on the retest, quite simple really.

reg.

You're replacing the solid pipes with braided hose??? Why?

PMSL - not heard that turn of phrase before, I might have to borrow it :-)

Actually it doesn't. I'm sure many people who work in garages will tell you how many times they've advised a cambelt change only to be told not to bother when the punter finds out the price.

That's what happens. Take a look at any Rover 600 series and you'll see corrosion on the little U shaped bit just before it goes into the flexi hose whilst the rest of the pipe is perfectly OK.

In article , says... vosa don't limit the

An MOT test is supposed to take a fixed time.