MOT "fail"

What about the fact that I merely removed and replaced the drums, without even blowing out the tiny amount of dust present, told the tester that I'd freed off a "seized adjuster", and then it was passed?

Or is that irrelevent (sic) also?

Chris

[...]

Yebbut the point is mine were not faulty! Or if they were, they were passed incorrectly on the retest.

Chris

South East? Use the bloke I do for all my MoTs, it is close to Lakeside, is that near enough?

I was just mentioning it in passing :)

[...]

Yep, care to give me a name?

Chris

I've never had a print-out on a car test [1] but whenever I've seen a fail on brake balance it has had the figures written on the fail cert, complete with grubby fingerprints.

[1] As opposed to a truck test, where you get a print-out whether it passes or fails.

Steve

Aveley Garage 01708 865454 mot by appt. only 8.30 onward every 45 minutes. They also test on Saturdays. They could also do your cambelt and know much about Fords since they are ex. ford development people. Tell them Noel sent you.

Many thanks Mr C.

Chris

In message , Mrcheerful writes

Much common sense written by Mr Cheerful in that post, be wary of any station that discounts to the general public.

Given the running costs of a testing station, it doesn't make sense to discount to the public if you are doing the test properly unless you happen to be running a *very* tight ship.

Chris Whelan gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

There's strict criteria for what qualifies for a _mandatory_ free retest. Any test centre is able to offer free retests above and beyond that as a marketing incentive, if they wish.

Yes, indeed. However, around these parts I've not seen any garages advertising free re-tests or even discounts on tests for the last couple of years, unless you count the offers of a combined MOT and service.

Chris

But unless you observed the test, how do you know?

The act of removing the drums requires disturbing the shoes and adjuster so it could be that they had got stuck and removing of the drum freed them.

If you'd have told me you'd both observed the test and not touched it at all before the retest, I'd say you had a point.

If the adjuster was only stuck the the degree that slipping the drum off and on freed it, the act of stamping on the brakes before the car was submitted to the test would have done the same.

I'd say I had a point anyway. I've been talking to a neighbour this afternoon whose daughter had the same experience at the same testing station. She initially left her car there to be "fixed" after failing on rear brake balance, but was advised by the mobile mechanic that looks after the car for her to get it back before they did any work. He took it to another MOT station, and it passed...

Chris

Chris Whelan gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Nor many round here - and those that do tend to be the suspect ones. The maximum cost of an MOT is less than that space would earn doing normal servicing, and that doesn't require the _very_ expensive test equipment.

It's simple. Take it to another garage for the repair. Just get it back to the MOT garage within 14 days and they retest it again without paying anymore. I've done this many times at garages all over the place and no one has any problem with it. You don't have to get the MOT station to do the repairs. In fact I try to use MOT testers who don't do repairs.

Mark

Rubbish. I had one of my rear drums that needed freeing off and a couple of other things. Took it to my local (walking distance garage) to get the work done and booked it back for a free retest within the 14 days.

Mark

Exactly the same for me. In all my driving since 1976 I've never had to pay for a retest.

Mark

How do you know that. You cannot tell just by the road test you gave it. Next time watch it go through the mot and watch the dials when he tests the brakes. I alway do this and have always been given the chance when I ask to have a quick look at the condition under my car or van when it's up on the ramp.

Mark