1. Home
  2. Car Maintenance
  3. MOT Issue

MOT Issue

This is quite a long story but here goes;

I took my 12 year old car to a Garage A to get it MOT'd and it failed on around 7 things, I fixed them all except for 1 brake pipe and some welding which needed doing behind both sill's due to rust. Garage A quoted me £120 for the welding alone as I originally inteneded to do the brake pipe myself.

I decided to get a second quote for the welding and as I decided not to tackle to the brake pipe a price for that also. Garage B which also do MOT's said they would beat the quote including doing the brake pipe, I left the car with them yesterday morning and picked it up 3 hours later with a new brake pipe fitted and the sills "welded", well thats what the receipt stated.

I took the car straight round to the Garage A where it failed and he proceded to re-test all the areas whichpreviously failed. Everything was going well until the last bit, the sill's, he said "do you mind if I wipe away some of this underseal to check the welding" to which I replied "go ahead". He then told me that the repair had been done with filler, I watched as he scraped it with a screwdriver which revealed white filler and he the slowly rotated the screwdriver through about 5mm of filler. I saw no evedence of welding and he said if any had been done the would be some heat damage to the 1" rubber bungs which were fitted on both sills, very close to what needed welding.

I went straight back to Garage B to express my feelings and told them to get it sorted. They called Garage A and had a bit of an argument about the work. After this I left the car with them for them to sort and called the Garage A to ask for their advice. They suggested I ring Garage B, tell them to re-do all the work and leave it with no underseal on the work so it could be instepected and that if it wasn't satisfactory Garage A was going to report them to VOSA. I rang them and said exaclty that.

An hour later they called and said they'd re-done the welding and also MOT'd it for me FOC.

When I got the car back I noticed they'd put an advisory on the sheet to say the underneath was covered in underseal. I had a look under and for some reason they've not only covered the work they did, they've sprayed right down both sill's and a few other areas to. And right upto my door on one side!

When I went to wash the car this morning it felt like a was washing a block of sandpaper. It turned out the whole car had overspray from the underseal and took me an hour to get it all off with tar-remover - the cloth was black when I'd finished. Prior to that the bodywork was exceptionally smooth as I polish it regular.

On top of that they had covered the dashboard(and possibly more but on the seats etc its hard to see) with filler dust, i'm guessing they sanded down the filler with the window down.

I cant decide whether to take this issue further or not. I dont have any spare time to be taking it places for inspection etc, I already lost most of yesterday getting it all sorted. I'm not sure what the process would involve if I complained to VOSA and I'm guessing there's a chance my MOT may be invalid if they still havent repaired the sill's propely as I instructed them to.

Does anyone have any advice?

And correct me if i'm wrong but if your welding the back of a sill where its never going to be seen is there any reason for filler? I would have thought it just wanted plate's welding on and sealing over with underseal, surely there's no need for it to look nice n smooth?

Thanks

Reply to
Brian Stann
Loading thread data ...

Properly made welded repairs are not cheap or quick to do (as you have found out)

it would not be usual to use any hard setting 'body filler' on repairs that will not usually be seen. repairs such as you describe I would usually clean, weld, clean the welds and cover them with seam sealer, then paint and cover with hard setting underseal. If body filler was used over such a repair there would be no need to rub it down.

My usual minimum for a small single welded repair is 60 quid.

I would be rather suspicious in your case of whether the repair has been properly made.

Whether you have the time and energy to complain is up to you. If you do then the first step is to fill in a form VT17 .

Reply to
Mrcheerful

It would normally be left 'as is' after welding so the MOT place can inspect the quality of the weld. Just painted over with underseal.

There is no point in making a nice job of plating over rust in this way as it has a short life.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Do you want to be driving around in a dangerous car i personally would inform vosa the next bodge could kill

Reply to
steve robinson

Over plating is a bodge anyway as it is always going to leave exposed metal somwhere which will eventually rust back pt the welded seam

When i had the need for such a repair the garage cut out the rotten ection completly sized a suitable section of steel to infill the hole then tacked it in place then fully welded it , either side of the plate a small hole was drilled and galvanising spray then primmer was liberally sprayed over the metal plate internally and externally followed by waxoil the holes then treated and small bolts inserted and sealed.

you pays your money and takes your choice

Reply to
steve robinson

Snag is when a panel is holed such that it needs plating, it will likely do it again close by. So it really needs to be cut back well clear of any rust and replaced. Which may well involve buying a new panel - unless repair sections are available. All of which may cost more than the car is worth - or will be worth when a patch repair fails again in a couple of years.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I have to say that is my expirence too... The first time i had a weld repair i took the car to a mate who is a welder by trade, he cut it back welded in some plate and sent me on my way with the instruction to get it MOTd then apply the can of gloop he provided. ( part of the bulkhead)

On other occasions (under back seat and more bulkhead repairs) a garage has welded it up sent me off for my MOT then told me to pop back when i can and they blasted over it with some gloop.

:-)

I have to say I have always replaced where possible/sensible its often not much more expensive and is a better repair. But then i would not be to bothered if my white/red/blue car has a couple of black sills. Especially if it is at the age where they are likely to be rotting.

What is the panels thoughts on mudflaps? I always fit them to my cars, and I've never has a rotten sill?

Reply to
Tom Burton

can help I suppose but most rust from the inside out due to condensation or blocked drains. modern cars shouldn't be a problem unless it's a Ka or something...

Reply to
chris

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.