MOT Brakes

it is quite possible for something to be in a dangerous or untestable condition and it may still seem to work OK. examples of dangerous brakes that still work acceptably could be where there is a brake fluid leak, or a frayed handbrake cable or damaged brake hose.

What exactly was the failure in words from the failure sheet?

If you think it was an incorrect failure then get a VT17 form and complete it and send it in.

You could get the local garage to take it back for a re-test. If your garage has rollers then presumably they too are an MoT station? if so get them to test it.

Cheers for the reply.

What happened was that my usual garage was fully booked for MOTs, so I went else where. I was in a hurry (an ironic "ha, ha"). I went back to my normal garage to check out the brakes and fix what ever needed fixing, then one done back off to the other one for a retest. A bit convoluted, but you know... So, when I got the car to my normal garage they put it on their rollers to check, and had a quick look underneath for signs of leaking fluid, and where ever else they could quickly look for. Any way, up shot of the roller test and quick check, was that he reckoned he would have passed the brakes. He even took me out for a quick spin, and they were fine.

I haven't got the sheet in front of me but the fault was essentially saying that not enough, I think the word was "effort".

Anyway, my lot are gonna have the brakes apart next week, sort what ever they find, and I'll get my free retest.

What bugs me is the difference. Makes a "hobby" mechanic like me think Im some how being messed about. How can such a difference be reasonably explained?

Unfortunately, even things like brake effort have a certain amount of 'subjective' in them, the figures are easily massaged to produce a fail if you want to. If you know the details it is easy to challenge incorrect fails, but the average motorist has not got a clue (quite understandably)

I have seen many failures from many garages that quite simply do not stand up to rational examination.

I discovered by pure accident a garage not too far from me that do fair MoTs and have used them ever since, despite them charging me more and being further away than a dozen other places. They do not miss anything important and apply sensible testing standards, the owners have always been the same two guys, which is a good sign over twenty years. Hard to find, but worth looking for.

Which bit of the MOT did they fail?

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Greed.

A couple of years ago, my local MOT testing station failed my Focus on rear brakes. As I had completely overhauled them 3 months earlier, I knew nothing was wrong. They offered to have a look for me, quoting an hours labour plus whatever might need doing.

I politely declined, telling them I did all my own work.I returned for a re-test the next day, having done nothing. I told them I'd stripped and cleaned them. It passed without comment.

Needless to say, they don't get my work or my recommendation any more! I've found a place a bit further away that only does MOT's, and I give them a plug whenever I can.

Can

I had a similar issue with my motorcycle , swing arm bearings definatly nackered mate sorry got to fail it . Followed by we can sought it but it wont be cheap £500 should sought it , we got to drop the cowels , disconect the can , shocks need droppin to blah blah .

Took it to sherwoods spoke to charlie shop manager , had his mechanics look at it f*ck all wrong with it steve , the 'movement' in it was normal

My old SD1 failed on a few things recently - one being excessive travel on the handbrake. It's difficult to adjust as you need to get to the underside of the lever for the main adjustment which means lifting the whole car - running either end up onto ramps doesn't give enough room to get at it. So after attending to the other points I re-submitted it with the agreement they'd adjust it - much easier on a lift. They passed it as was. (It held the car on any hill I'd tried anyway - just the travel was the fail)

...for those that live in Brighton/Hove I'd recommend PR Engineering, Brunswick Street West - just off Western Rd.

Exactly as you describe - long term, independent MOT testing station with a fair and very helpful approach.

For those who like to see how things turned out:

Took the car to my local garage and they cleaned and adjusted the rear brakes. Popped the car on the rollers and all seemed good. Not brilliant, but well good enough. And not much different to before the clean and adjust.

The the car back for its re-test, and they passed it, but still kept the dire warnings of doom and gloom as advisories.

Still, lesson learned. Be less impatient and wait for the garage I know!!

Spoke to a friend over in Bulgaria today. Interesting fees structure for their MOT.

MOT with the car present, 25 lev. MOT _without_ the car present, 50 lev.

*boggle*

Much the same as the UK, then, if you know the right people...

Just ahead of time; the trend is to do everything remotely these days. Future cars will have everything sealed up with only authorised access to components. Cars will transmit service state and x,y,z location to a central national computer and cars will automatically decommission after a fixed age or mileage. (There are already talk about scrapping London taxis after 10 years).

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Where did you get that information from?

There is a suggestion that from next year, cabs over 15 years old would not be issued with licences; this is a pollution reduction measure:

Chris

There is a garage in Blackpool that does very fair MOT's. I used him for well over 20 years and was always pleased. Clover Leaf, Squires Gate Lane.

Plan "A" was a ten year limit, according to Unite:-

Changed to fifteen on account of "the economic climate", which, from what I saw of ages of cabs last time I was in London, makes it largely academic anyway. The oldest I remember noticing was a V plate,and I'm not sure *that* was licenced.

I'm sure they'll keep getting passed on to the provinces as before, just a bit sooner.

Very strange decision. My 18 year old L plate Saab 9000 turbo has engine management computer and catalyst, it does 42 mpg on motorways and 35 mpg in town. Not much different from modern cars of similar size. It would be a waste of resources to scrap the car.

Given the cost of a black cab and the basic design, it might make sense to just fit a later engine with proper emission controls. I'm amazed they haven't tightened up on those already.

I'll bet it wouldn't do 35mpg over my journeys in London. ;-)

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Firstly, the cabs are *not* necessarily scrapped! They don't get a London Taxi licence, but are still perfectly OK to use as taxis in other parts of the country, or as quirky private vehicles. In fact, if you took one into private ownership, you could continue to drive it in London. Many are also shipped abroad.

Secondly, many of the current London cabs use old technology diesel; it's estimated that they produce 20% of all central London diesel contamination. Newer ones are *much* cleaner.

Chris