MOT fail on wheelbearing

So you were lucky. I know of a garage that advertises £25 MOTs, but the norm is £40ish. The places that do cheap MOTs are usually those that make money out of the consequential repairs. The MOT-only station that I use hasn't failed any of my 5 running cars for about 3 years.

Nope, don't trust him, never had welding done to a car before so didn't know anybody who could do it, don't even know what I should be paying... it's a 50p sized hole at the back with clean metal round it (already prepped the area for him and the one at the front is a patch about 2" long by 1" wide.... he reckons £75

Sounds bloody expensive to me. I'd expect invisible butt welds for that! If it really is clean metal and accessible it's an hour's work, tops. In the case of my sister's Ka(k) I had to unhook the exhaust, clean off the underseal that the previous prat had put on without priming first, and grind out in a fairly tight spot, and it still only took me a morning.

Chris Bolus wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

£25 was the going rate around here until very recently, when they all switched to the new computerised system. It has now risen to £40 everywhere. 18 years ago, I would have expected the price to be half of that (half of £20, that is), but I suppose it depends where you live. Perhaps the prices in my area are driven by good old-fashioned Yorkshire tight-fistedness :-)

Regarding the price of honesty, I have 2 local test centres and have used both a few times, as have others who I know. The dearer (£25) one is by far the most inclined to fail a car and never issues advisories, whereas the one who (until very recently) charged £20 is far more lenient, preferring to pass a sound car with minor faults and issue an advisory note. I do agree that many other establishments are far less honest, though.

Struth. It'll take someone 10 or 15 minutes tops. £20 or £30 ought to be plenty. It's the prep work that takes the time, not the welding. Ideally you want to clean back to bright metal for 2" all round each hole because rust has a nasty habit of spreading a lot further than you first think. If there's any rust pits where the weld needs to go it'll blow right through the old metal and then you need to start again with a bigger patch.

My intro to MIG welding came a few years ago when the MOT guy found a hole in the inner wing of my vile, horrible but not particularly old Mk3 Fester. Unfortunately when I took the plastic wheelarch liner out to have a look at it the bloody rust spread for miles. I kept grinding back, finding another paper thin bit or hole, grinding back more etc etc. I chased the rust all the way down the inner wing and then it started to go up the passenger footwell. Nightmare.

I already had a gasless (i.e. crappy) MIG which I bought years ago on the basis it might come in handy one day and when I got a roundtuit I'd teach myself how to use it. Trying to learn on crappy rusty car panels is really getting thrown in at the deep end though but I got some offcuts of sheet metal from a mate's workshop and got stuck in one day. Bent double under the wheelarch, trying to hold the welder with one hand, the awful little plastic face shield that MIG sets come with with the other and jamming the bits of new plate into place with mole grips and bits of wood and screwdrivers wedged against the outer wing. Not fun especially when you really have no clue what you're doing.

I ended up plating about 18 inches along that bloody inner wing, constantly blowing holes right through the old metal, fiddling aimlessly with the current and feed rate on the welder and slapping more sheet over those. Aim for a sizzling bacon sound says the manual. Yeah right, under a wheelarch in the middle of winter freezing my nuts off any bloody sound that sticks two bits of thin rusty metal together without blowing them into molten scrap will do me under the circumstances.

Then I found a structural turret which the suspension bolts to was pretty bad as well which is not good news. No way of really repairing it properly so I disguised it and beefed it up as best I could with scraps of plate stuck round it and covered the lot with thick coats of hammerite. I also fixed a torn driveshaft gaitor which the guy had missed during the MOT and then went back there hoping to god he didn't look too closely at my godawful pigeon shit welds or the dodgy turret although the wheelarch liner hid a lot of it.

He already knew I was in the trade in some capacity or other although he wouldn't have realised I was an engine designer with close to zero skills in body repair. Anyway I fired straight off about how much work the bloody job had been and about the torn gaitor he'd missed so he'd realise I'd got stuck into it properly and he must have just assumed I knew what I was doing because he never even bothered to reinspect it. Just glanced at the car as he walked past and filled in the pass cert. I kept as straight a face as I could while he signed the cert and fecked off out of there as fast as possible. Got that one last year out of the car and then next time round it went off to the crusher.

At least on the bright side I was fairly beginning to get the hang of the welder by the end of it. Never used it again since though and absolutely no desire to ever have to. I just buy newer cars now.

-- Dave Baker

I learned to weld so that I could restore classic cars. I set myself high standards on my first resto and by the time I'd done I could weld in my sleep!

Now it's the first tool I think of when something needs repairing - filler is just not even contemplated!

Last week I had the tracking done on my Omega. Now anyone who has done the job will tell you they're bastards to do, so the tyre depot I use charges more for doing them. As it happened the lad doing the job was an ex-pupil of mine, and having checked them and ascertained they were too tight for him to do, he suggested I free them off and come back.

I looked at the (cheapo) design, split the ball joints, unscrewed the joints from the tube then got the welder out and welded ridges to the tubes so that the garage boys could get some purchase with the grips! Greased & reassembled, went back to get it adjusted. They were so pleased that I'd made it so easy for them they knocked a tenner off the price!

Chris Bolus ( snipped-for-privacy@RILEYELFb0lus.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

The small village garage that does my tickets does 'em all for the local BMW dealer, too - because they just won't even attempt 'em at that price. £40 for 3/4hr of ramp time? HA!

Proabably the same reason why the Merc dealer uses the same test station as me.

BMW dealers usually also farm out bodywork for the same reason - no insurance company will pay their hourly rate.

My BMW specialist does a discount rate MOT for BMWs. ;-)

I've just heard that my Focus has passed its MOT :) Well it certainly seemed to be driving fine while I was out to the shops today in it.

It's so much nicer getting MOT's when they're done by a mate in Aberdeen than a rip off merchant in the village. Ok so it's a bit inconvenient having your MOT tester 500 miles away but ummm certain factors make this less of an imposition than it might otherwise be :)

That's about all I'm going to say on a public forum.

-- Dave Baker

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Dave Baker (Dave snipped-for-privacy@nowhere.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Certain factors like not actually having to take the car to them?

Mmmm.

Heavens to betsy no. I umm just mean I can visit all my friends up there at the same time. Cough.

-- Dave Baker

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Dave Baker (Dave snipped-for-privacy@nowhere.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Mmmm.