MOT weirdness

afaik every track rod end on every car has a cover, a little round rubber thing that the ball pin sticks through. they used to be available as spares, but probably not easy nowadays, but here is a site with every one you could think of and their pictures.:

?Yes, he is referring to the rubber boot as fitted on most/all track rod ends to keep dust/dirt out of the moving bits.

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He might be thought an idiot if he had failed it for something trivial; as it was, it seems like he used good judgement.

AFAIK, people skills are not a requirement for a tester's licence.

Most testers will list a few advisories during each day. VOSA use "trap" cars, and sometimes re-examine punters vehicles. If the tester has missed something significant, the paperwork for all recent tests will be checked. If there were no advisories, it would ring alarm bells.

It's entirely possible that next year the same tester will not put that same advisory on your certificate, even if you've done nothing about it.

Chris

I've had the same advisories on my E39 BMW from its first MOT some 10 years ago. Slight play on a rear sway bar link. Slight play track rod inner ball joint. Not every MOT, but most. Probably built like that.

It already is.

:-)

Chris

In message , The Revd writes

Only if it's doe rhythmically, surely?

Buck rhythmically, Shirley?

In message , Ian Dalziel writes

Doh!

Last time they failed my car as I had overlooked one side indicator bulb, so why didn't they just replace it there and then and put it on the bill? It took me just two minutes to replace! Doh!

many places have a policy of free minor adjustments and bulb replacement. the letter of mot testing though is that it fails, whether they then fix it and it passes or not is completely different and down to the garage policies and what you ask them to do. Vosa cannot know what the most common failures/models/ages of vehicle problems unless a failure is put into the system.

they could have done a PRS (pass & rectify at station) which would mean they would fail the vehilce on the bulb, replace the bulb & then pass it, all within the same timescale, but what ever they do it must be acknowledged as a fail, otherwise it dosnt give a true meaning of fail/pass rates.

Because legally you could have refused to pay for the replacement lamp as you had not instructed them to carry out minor works if required .

Not all vehicle lamps take a few minutes to replace some take over an hour to access

Not to mention from the garage's point of view, what happens if, when they do a minor repair just out of goodwill without consulting the owner, that triggers another fault? I suspect they could be held liable for that, too.

Luckily, the manual car shows how to change the side indicator bulb; just push the plastic cover forward...

1993: Car manuals usually had chapters on how to do simple service tasks. 2011: Car manuals tells you about MP3 and nothing else.

That would have been a sensible simple solution for a few pennies!

DId you have to pay a re-test or that the stupidly make you pay the full amount. I know some places operate like that, but most have a 10 day free re test I think.