Dangerous MOT Pass. Potentially Lethal
Discussion
I won't mention the name of the MOT and repair centre involved.
My step daughter who is a single parent with health problems, she lives on a very tight budget, the current hike in energy prices hasn't helped her.
She took her car for an MOT at a Mot and Test Centre, not expecting much trouble, she's done 3000 miles in the last year and the last MOT had no advisories. The garage came back with a list of three major defects and three advisories. The failures were top macpherson strut mounts (both sides) and a nearside suspension arm pin or bush excessively worn. Advisories for a minor oil leak, steering rack inner joint play and front brake pads. They presented her with an estimate for over £600 for the repairs (excluding the oil leak) which she just couldn't afford, so an all knowing friend offered to do the work for her, ordering the top mounts and a bush from ECP. He did the work (or so we thought, another long story) and it went back for a retest of the repairs carried out. It failed because whilst he'd done the top mounts he had not done the bush. The car went for a retest at the MOT station who are only obliged to check the repairs carried out, to do the top mounts the strut has to be removed which means the bottom arm must be disturbed, I would therefore have expected this to be checked
The car went back to the all knowing friend who replaced the N/S suspension arm complete with bushes and the car went back to the same garage for another MOT. As this was not another retest (you only get one free retest) she had to pay for another full MOT test at which the garage in Bracknell should have performed a full MOT, checking everything. Anyway it passed with just the three advisories mentioned at the first test.
As my stepdaughter has been ill she didn't drive the car that much but said the steering wheel wasn't straight, the car felt funny and and was making a noise from the front. Nobody else had looked at or worked on the car since the MOT pass, so I had a look at it for her.
Just looking at the car you could see the O/S front wheel wasn't sitting straight, the bottom of the wheel was pointing out and the tracking was visibly a long way out, in a straight line the steering wheel was at 45 degrees and the front tyres were shredded only 120 miles since the MOT (they weren't even an advisory at the MOT). The noise she heard was the tyres shredding because the suspension geometry was so far out. Jacking up the car the problem was immediately obvious. The bottom ball joint on the O/S should be held into the bottom suspension arm with three 13mm headed bolts, however only one of the bolts were actually going through the ball joint, the other 2 had been inserted but didn't pass through the joint so the joint was visibly displaced causing the front wheel to sit at an angle. As I say this was immediately apparent, not the sort of thing you'd expect an MOT tester to miss. 5 minutes of spannering saw the issue resolved and I checked everything else that could have been disturbed while I was there, I also took lots of photos. This was a very dangerous and potentially lethal issue that could have led to the O/S suspension breaking away from the car completely under heavy breaking or just hitting a pothole.
So there are two people at fault here:
1. The all knowing friend who did the work, he's no longer a friend having put lives at risk with his dangerous repair. He's also been asked to pay for the tyres his repair shredded.
2. The MOT tester who not once, but twice missed a dangerous defect on a vehicle he inspected, the second time as part of a full MOT test, putting lives at risk.
So what do you do after this? Well you have to be careful who you let work on your car and you have to take an MOT with a very large pinch of salt.
Is it worth going back to the MOT garage? They will just say that the MOT reflects the condition of the vehicle when presented for test and as a couple of weeks have elapsed it's nothing to do with them, they will argue that someone else did something after the MOT. I think I'll just send all the documents and photographs to the Ministry and suggest they keep an eye on the MOTs being performed at this garage.
My step daughter who is a single parent with health problems, she lives on a very tight budget, the current hike in energy prices hasn't helped her.
She took her car for an MOT at a Mot and Test Centre, not expecting much trouble, she's done 3000 miles in the last year and the last MOT had no advisories. The garage came back with a list of three major defects and three advisories. The failures were top macpherson strut mounts (both sides) and a nearside suspension arm pin or bush excessively worn. Advisories for a minor oil leak, steering rack inner joint play and front brake pads. They presented her with an estimate for over £600 for the repairs (excluding the oil leak) which she just couldn't afford, so an all knowing friend offered to do the work for her, ordering the top mounts and a bush from ECP. He did the work (or so we thought, another long story) and it went back for a retest of the repairs carried out. It failed because whilst he'd done the top mounts he had not done the bush. The car went for a retest at the MOT station who are only obliged to check the repairs carried out, to do the top mounts the strut has to be removed which means the bottom arm must be disturbed, I would therefore have expected this to be checked
The car went back to the all knowing friend who replaced the N/S suspension arm complete with bushes and the car went back to the same garage for another MOT. As this was not another retest (you only get one free retest) she had to pay for another full MOT test at which the garage in Bracknell should have performed a full MOT, checking everything. Anyway it passed with just the three advisories mentioned at the first test.
As my stepdaughter has been ill she didn't drive the car that much but said the steering wheel wasn't straight, the car felt funny and and was making a noise from the front. Nobody else had looked at or worked on the car since the MOT pass, so I had a look at it for her.
Just looking at the car you could see the O/S front wheel wasn't sitting straight, the bottom of the wheel was pointing out and the tracking was visibly a long way out, in a straight line the steering wheel was at 45 degrees and the front tyres were shredded only 120 miles since the MOT (they weren't even an advisory at the MOT). The noise she heard was the tyres shredding because the suspension geometry was so far out. Jacking up the car the problem was immediately obvious. The bottom ball joint on the O/S should be held into the bottom suspension arm with three 13mm headed bolts, however only one of the bolts were actually going through the ball joint, the other 2 had been inserted but didn't pass through the joint so the joint was visibly displaced causing the front wheel to sit at an angle. As I say this was immediately apparent, not the sort of thing you'd expect an MOT tester to miss. 5 minutes of spannering saw the issue resolved and I checked everything else that could have been disturbed while I was there, I also took lots of photos. This was a very dangerous and potentially lethal issue that could have led to the O/S suspension breaking away from the car completely under heavy breaking or just hitting a pothole.
So there are two people at fault here:
1. The all knowing friend who did the work, he's no longer a friend having put lives at risk with his dangerous repair. He's also been asked to pay for the tyres his repair shredded.
2. The MOT tester who not once, but twice missed a dangerous defect on a vehicle he inspected, the second time as part of a full MOT test, putting lives at risk.
So what do you do after this? Well you have to be careful who you let work on your car and you have to take an MOT with a very large pinch of salt.
Is it worth going back to the MOT garage? They will just say that the MOT reflects the condition of the vehicle when presented for test and as a couple of weeks have elapsed it's nothing to do with them, they will argue that someone else did something after the MOT. I think I'll just send all the documents and photographs to the Ministry and suggest they keep an eye on the MOTs being performed at this garage.
A couple of questions if I may -
Did the "all knowing friend" charge for his services or was he genuinely trying to help your stepdaughter?
Did you only hear about this after the fact and if not why didn't you help or at least offer to help?
If it really was a friend trying to help - who maybe was a bit out of his depth - maybe you could cut him some slack.
Did the "all knowing friend" charge for his services or was he genuinely trying to help your stepdaughter?
Did you only hear about this after the fact and if not why didn't you help or at least offer to help?
If it really was a friend trying to help - who maybe was a bit out of his depth - maybe you could cut him some slack.
I don't understand what you mean about it holding together long enough to get to the MOT station twice? The wheel didn't actually fall off, but car was clearly and very obviously in a very dangerous state at the time of MOT. The MOT tester should have picked this up on both his inspections.
The "friend" was obviously trying to help, but does that excuse leaving the car in a potentially lethal state? If you don't know what you're doing, don't put people's lives at risk!
The "friend" was obviously trying to help, but does that excuse leaving the car in a potentially lethal state? If you don't know what you're doing, don't put people's lives at risk!
That's a lot of aggro and stress... hindsight is a wonderful thing but paying the £600 may have been the better option as cheapest Euro parts, mates who have questionable talent plus subsequent repairs, ie tyres and remedial work is probably not far off that.
I'd move on, don't bother trying to smear the MOT station... you can't prove their negligence, if any and you've opted to get it fixed and returned a few times so maybe they were fed up or maybe it was a simple oversight or the issue wasn't obvious to a visual check.
Fair bit damage done be it losing a friend to knackered tyres... maybe best to learn from it and move on?
I'd move on, don't bother trying to smear the MOT station... you can't prove their negligence, if any and you've opted to get it fixed and returned a few times so maybe they were fed up or maybe it was a simple oversight or the issue wasn't obvious to a visual check.
Fair bit damage done be it losing a friend to knackered tyres... maybe best to learn from it and move on?
Davie said:
That's a lot of aggro and stress... hindsight is a wonderful thing but paying the £600 may have been the better option as cheapest Euro parts, mates who have questionable talent plus subsequent repairs, ie tyres and remedial work is probably not far off that.
I'd move on, don't bother trying to smear the MOT station... you can't prove their negligence, if any and you've opted to get it fixed and returned a few times so maybe they were fed up or maybe it was a simple oversight or the issue wasn't obvious to a visual check.
Fair bit damage done be it losing a friend to knackered tyres... maybe best to learn from it and move on?
Agree with all of thatI'd move on, don't bother trying to smear the MOT station... you can't prove their negligence, if any and you've opted to get it fixed and returned a few times so maybe they were fed up or maybe it was a simple oversight or the issue wasn't obvious to a visual check.
Fair bit damage done be it losing a friend to knackered tyres... maybe best to learn from it and move on?
e21Keith said:
The "friend" was obviously trying to help, but does that excuse leaving the car in a potentially lethal state? If you don't know what you're doing, don't put people's lives at risk!
Did he actively offer, or was your step daughter fishing for help and he didn't know how to tell her to eff off and deal with her own problems?It's a mistake, yes, and a big one, but spending his time trying to help, being asked to pay for tyres and being de-friended seems like he's going to learn a valuable lesson about whom he chooses to keep as friends.
Why didn't she come to you in the first place?
If the friend did it out of kindness then it seems very wrong to ask them to pay for the tyres even if it was their error…that’s the difference between free and a £600 garage job.
I do wonder how they managed to get 2 bolts in but not through the holes, I can’t see how you could get the 1 in on its own without the other 2 lining up. Are you sure they had not come loose. 120 miles after mot is quite a long way, I would have thought a single 13mm to have failed long before that so more likely the 2 came loose and therefore had not been missed by the mot man.
Any pics of the 2 loose bolts?
I do wonder how they managed to get 2 bolts in but not through the holes, I can’t see how you could get the 1 in on its own without the other 2 lining up. Are you sure they had not come loose. 120 miles after mot is quite a long way, I would have thought a single 13mm to have failed long before that so more likely the 2 came loose and therefore had not been missed by the mot man.
Any pics of the 2 loose bolts?
I think you're missing the point.
I'm not smearing the MOT place involved, I've been very careful not to identify them.
There was no money to pay the £600 estimate as my step daughter has no money, had she come to me earlier I would have got it sorted properly and safely for way less that £600. She didn't come to me earlier because we live some distance apart and she (mistakenly) trusted the MOT place.
As for the "friend" he's not my friend, never even met him, so I can't de-friend him, not my choice to make. As far as I know he offered to help, I haven't asked him to pay for the tyres he destroyed, as I say I don't know him.
Why do I need to defend myself when my step daughter has been let down by a "friend" and a supposedly professional garage? I resolved the issue and left her with a safe car. I've done nothing wrong.
I'm not smearing the MOT place involved, I've been very careful not to identify them.
There was no money to pay the £600 estimate as my step daughter has no money, had she come to me earlier I would have got it sorted properly and safely for way less that £600. She didn't come to me earlier because we live some distance apart and she (mistakenly) trusted the MOT place.
As for the "friend" he's not my friend, never even met him, so I can't de-friend him, not my choice to make. As far as I know he offered to help, I haven't asked him to pay for the tyres he destroyed, as I say I don't know him.
Why do I need to defend myself when my step daughter has been let down by a "friend" and a supposedly professional garage? I resolved the issue and left her with a safe car. I've done nothing wrong.
If the car was on a 4 post ramp with the wheels on and looking from the underside could you see the issue with the ball joint? Remember the tester cannot remove thongs to check so it may not be visible
You would also only check items that its failed on, so if it failed on a bush and the tester could just look under the car see the new bush and tick it off.
The problem with having friends carrying out repairs is some are not capable of repairs, in reality you should have paid a garage to do the repairs not relied on a friend who was not capable of carrying out the work, if you cannot afford it then don't have it/use it.
As for the retest, its down to the garage but we won't charge for a retest, if the car was returned we would check it, if the work wasn't done correctly we would just return the car and ask them to try again.Yes you only get one chance at a retest but you wouldn't log the results until after checking.
You would also only check items that its failed on, so if it failed on a bush and the tester could just look under the car see the new bush and tick it off.
The problem with having friends carrying out repairs is some are not capable of repairs, in reality you should have paid a garage to do the repairs not relied on a friend who was not capable of carrying out the work, if you cannot afford it then don't have it/use it.
As for the retest, its down to the garage but we won't charge for a retest, if the car was returned we would check it, if the work wasn't done correctly we would just return the car and ask them to try again.Yes you only get one chance at a retest but you wouldn't log the results until after checking.
e21Keith said:
I think you're missing the point.
I'm not smearing the MOT place involved, I've been very careful not to identify them.
There was no money to pay the £600 estimate as my step daughter has no money, had she come to me earlier I would have got it sorted properly and safely for way less that £600. She didn't come to me earlier because we live some distance apart and she (mistakenly) trusted the MOT place.
As for the "friend" he's not my friend, never even met him, so I can't de-friend him, not my choice to make. As far as I know he offered to help, I haven't asked him to pay for the tyres he destroyed, as I say I don't know him.
Why do I need to defend myself when my step daughter has been let down by a "friend" and a supposedly professional garage? I resolved the issue and left her with a safe car. I've done nothing wrong.
No points here are lost on me. Your step daughter being happy to use this guy for free, then asking him to pay for her tyres then ending the friendship over it has me thinking your stepdaughter is not a friend I'd lament losing. He should give her a full refund of exactly what she paid him for his time and she should consider herself satisfied.I'm not smearing the MOT place involved, I've been very careful not to identify them.
There was no money to pay the £600 estimate as my step daughter has no money, had she come to me earlier I would have got it sorted properly and safely for way less that £600. She didn't come to me earlier because we live some distance apart and she (mistakenly) trusted the MOT place.
As for the "friend" he's not my friend, never even met him, so I can't de-friend him, not my choice to make. As far as I know he offered to help, I haven't asked him to pay for the tyres he destroyed, as I say I don't know him.
Why do I need to defend myself when my step daughter has been let down by a "friend" and a supposedly professional garage? I resolved the issue and left her with a safe car. I've done nothing wrong.
e21Keith said:
I think you're missing the point.
I'm not smearing the MOT place involved, I've been very careful not to identify them.
There was no money to pay the £600 estimate as my step daughter has no money, had she come to me earlier I would have got it sorted properly and safely for way less that £600. She didn't come to me earlier because we live some distance apart and she (mistakenly) trusted the MOT place.
As for the "friend" he's not my friend, never even met him, so I can't de-friend him, not my choice to make. As far as I know he offered to help, I haven't asked him to pay for the tyres he destroyed, as I say I don't know him.
Why do I need to defend myself when my step daughter has been let down by a "friend" and a supposedly professional garage? I resolved the issue and left her with a safe car. I've done nothing wrong.
You wrote that the friend has been asked to pay for the tyres in your original post…it perhaps came across that you asked for the money.I'm not smearing the MOT place involved, I've been very careful not to identify them.
There was no money to pay the £600 estimate as my step daughter has no money, had she come to me earlier I would have got it sorted properly and safely for way less that £600. She didn't come to me earlier because we live some distance apart and she (mistakenly) trusted the MOT place.
As for the "friend" he's not my friend, never even met him, so I can't de-friend him, not my choice to make. As far as I know he offered to help, I haven't asked him to pay for the tyres he destroyed, as I say I don't know him.
Why do I need to defend myself when my step daughter has been let down by a "friend" and a supposedly professional garage? I resolved the issue and left her with a safe car. I've done nothing wrong.
You do not need to defend yourself. It is a shame when people cannot afford to fix the vehicle and it is great a friend was at least willing to try and help. It may or may not been beyond their ability but I expect they felt sorry for her.
I do quite a few favours for a local lady as I know she cannot afford to fix problems but I do have to switch off for some things as I am not there to run her life for her and could go on forever…it is often tricky not to help though.
e21Keith said:
I think you're missing the point.
I'm not smearing the MOT place involved, I've been very careful not to identify them.
There was no money to pay the £600 estimate as my step daughter has no money, had she come to me earlier I would have got it sorted properly and safely for way less that £600. She didn't come to me earlier because we live some distance apart and she (mistakenly) trusted the MOT place.
As for the "friend" he's not my friend, never even met him, so I can't de-friend him, not my choice to make. As far as I know he offered to help, I haven't asked him to pay for the tyres he destroyed, as I say I don't know him.
Why do I need to defend myself when my step daughter has been let down by a "friend" and a supposedly professional garage? I resolved the issue and left her with a safe car. I've done nothing wrong.
In your original post you say you are going to send photos to the ministry and ask then to keep a close eye on that MOT station. So you want to cause them grief. All I have seen on this thread, my post included is clarification of what actually happened. I'm not smearing the MOT place involved, I've been very careful not to identify them.
There was no money to pay the £600 estimate as my step daughter has no money, had she come to me earlier I would have got it sorted properly and safely for way less that £600. She didn't come to me earlier because we live some distance apart and she (mistakenly) trusted the MOT place.
As for the "friend" he's not my friend, never even met him, so I can't de-friend him, not my choice to make. As far as I know he offered to help, I haven't asked him to pay for the tyres he destroyed, as I say I don't know him.
Why do I need to defend myself when my step daughter has been let down by a "friend" and a supposedly professional garage? I resolved the issue and left her with a safe car. I've done nothing wrong.
You aren't being asked to defend yourself, you can do what you like.
I will repeat, steering geometry is not part of an MOT check. The garage is not at fault for that. Neither are the loose bolts. They only do a visual check. For instance, if the brake pads were badly worn, they don't check. As long as it passes the brake test, it passes. Her friend has done £600 of repairs for free, why are you giving them grief? There is a valid saying here "pay cheap, pay twice". And finally, if you are such a knowledgeable chap, why didn't you put the car right for her? She is family after all.
e21Keith said:
I won't mention the name of the MOT and repair centre involved.
My step daughter who is a single parent with health problems, she lives on a very tight budget, the current hike in energy prices hasn't helped her.
She took her car for an MOT at a Mot and Test Centre, not expecting much trouble, she's done 3000 miles in the last year and the last MOT had no advisories. The garage came back with a list of three major defects and three advisories. The failures were top macpherson strut mounts (both sides) and a nearside suspension arm pin or bush excessively worn. Advisories for a minor oil leak, steering rack inner joint play and front brake pads. They presented her with an estimate for over £600 for the repairs (excluding the oil leak) which she just couldn't afford, so an all knowing friend offered to do the work for her, ordering the top mounts and a bush from ECP. He did the work (or so we thought, another long story) and it went back for a retest of the repairs carried out. It failed because whilst he'd done the top mounts he had not done the bush. The car went for a retest at the MOT station who are only obliged to check the repairs carried out, to do the top mounts the strut has to be removed which means the bottom arm must be disturbed, I would therefore have expected this to be checked
The car went back to the all knowing friend who replaced the N/S suspension arm complete with bushes and the car went back to the same garage for another MOT. As this was not another retest (you only get one free retest) she had to pay for another full MOT test at which the garage in Bracknell should have performed a full MOT, checking everything. Anyway it passed with just the three advisories mentioned at the first test.
As my stepdaughter has been ill she didn't drive the car that much but said the steering wheel wasn't straight, the car felt funny and and was making a noise from the front. Nobody else had looked at or worked on the car since the MOT pass, so I had a look at it for her.
Just looking at the car you could see the O/S front wheel wasn't sitting straight, the bottom of the wheel was pointing out and the tracking was visibly a long way out, in a straight line the steering wheel was at 45 degrees and the front tyres were shredded only 120 miles since the MOT (they weren't even an advisory at the MOT). The noise she heard was the tyres shredding because the suspension geometry was so far out. Jacking up the car the problem was immediately obvious. The bottom ball joint on the O/S should be held into the bottom suspension arm with three 13mm headed bolts, however only one of the bolts were actually going through the ball joint, the other 2 had been inserted but didn't pass through the joint so the joint was visibly displaced causing the front wheel to sit at an angle. As I say this was immediately apparent, not the sort of thing you'd expect an MOT tester to miss. 5 minutes of spannering saw the issue resolved and I checked everything else that could have been disturbed while I was there, I also took lots of photos. This was a very dangerous and potentially lethal issue that could have led to the O/S suspension breaking away from the car completely under heavy breaking or just hitting a pothole.
So there are two people at fault here:
1. The all knowing friend who did the work, he's no longer a friend having put lives at risk with his dangerous repair. He's also been asked to pay for the tyres his repair shredded.
2. The MOT tester who not once, but twice missed a dangerous defect on a vehicle he inspected, the second time as part of a full MOT test, putting lives at risk.
So what do you do after this? Well you have to be careful who you let work on your car and you have to take an MOT with a very large pinch of salt.
Is it worth going back to the MOT garage? They will just say that the MOT reflects the condition of the vehicle when presented for test and as a couple of weeks have elapsed it's nothing to do with them, they will argue that someone else did something after the MOT. I think I'll just send all the documents and photographs to the Ministry and suggest they keep an eye on the MOTs being performed at this garage.
To summarise, MOT failed then a mate of your daughter fixed up the car for free. MOT passed but mates repair wasn't up to scratch and a couple of balljoint bolts weren't done up properly which then ruined the tyres.My step daughter who is a single parent with health problems, she lives on a very tight budget, the current hike in energy prices hasn't helped her.
She took her car for an MOT at a Mot and Test Centre, not expecting much trouble, she's done 3000 miles in the last year and the last MOT had no advisories. The garage came back with a list of three major defects and three advisories. The failures were top macpherson strut mounts (both sides) and a nearside suspension arm pin or bush excessively worn. Advisories for a minor oil leak, steering rack inner joint play and front brake pads. They presented her with an estimate for over £600 for the repairs (excluding the oil leak) which she just couldn't afford, so an all knowing friend offered to do the work for her, ordering the top mounts and a bush from ECP. He did the work (or so we thought, another long story) and it went back for a retest of the repairs carried out. It failed because whilst he'd done the top mounts he had not done the bush. The car went for a retest at the MOT station who are only obliged to check the repairs carried out, to do the top mounts the strut has to be removed which means the bottom arm must be disturbed, I would therefore have expected this to be checked
The car went back to the all knowing friend who replaced the N/S suspension arm complete with bushes and the car went back to the same garage for another MOT. As this was not another retest (you only get one free retest) she had to pay for another full MOT test at which the garage in Bracknell should have performed a full MOT, checking everything. Anyway it passed with just the three advisories mentioned at the first test.
As my stepdaughter has been ill she didn't drive the car that much but said the steering wheel wasn't straight, the car felt funny and and was making a noise from the front. Nobody else had looked at or worked on the car since the MOT pass, so I had a look at it for her.
Just looking at the car you could see the O/S front wheel wasn't sitting straight, the bottom of the wheel was pointing out and the tracking was visibly a long way out, in a straight line the steering wheel was at 45 degrees and the front tyres were shredded only 120 miles since the MOT (they weren't even an advisory at the MOT). The noise she heard was the tyres shredding because the suspension geometry was so far out. Jacking up the car the problem was immediately obvious. The bottom ball joint on the O/S should be held into the bottom suspension arm with three 13mm headed bolts, however only one of the bolts were actually going through the ball joint, the other 2 had been inserted but didn't pass through the joint so the joint was visibly displaced causing the front wheel to sit at an angle. As I say this was immediately apparent, not the sort of thing you'd expect an MOT tester to miss. 5 minutes of spannering saw the issue resolved and I checked everything else that could have been disturbed while I was there, I also took lots of photos. This was a very dangerous and potentially lethal issue that could have led to the O/S suspension breaking away from the car completely under heavy breaking or just hitting a pothole.
So there are two people at fault here:
1. The all knowing friend who did the work, he's no longer a friend having put lives at risk with his dangerous repair. He's also been asked to pay for the tyres his repair shredded.
2. The MOT tester who not once, but twice missed a dangerous defect on a vehicle he inspected, the second time as part of a full MOT test, putting lives at risk.
So what do you do after this? Well you have to be careful who you let work on your car and you have to take an MOT with a very large pinch of salt.
Is it worth going back to the MOT garage? They will just say that the MOT reflects the condition of the vehicle when presented for test and as a couple of weeks have elapsed it's nothing to do with them, they will argue that someone else did something after the MOT. I think I'll just send all the documents and photographs to the Ministry and suggest they keep an eye on the MOTs being performed at this garage.
I'd say you have no recourse to say anything to the MOT station, you have no evidence the fault was apparent when they tested the car. Secondly, people with good intentions who know a bit about cars often aren't best placed to carry out safety critical repairs to suspension components.
Lesson learnt, from your other posts you seem to be capable. Maybe she'll approach Dad next time even if you aren't living that close.
A good point to note is that two separate MOT stations have given the same three advisories. Might be worth talking to her about getting those attended to next time you're visiting, saves any trouble at next years MOT.
stevemcs said:
Remember the tester cannot remove thongs to check so it may not be visible
You would also only check items that its failed on, so if it failed on a bush and the tester could just look under the car see the new bush and tick it off.
I hate it when the tester looks at my (car's) underside, removes the thong to have a look and then and checks the bush.You would also only check items that its failed on, so if it failed on a bush and the tester could just look under the car see the new bush and tick it off.
Tyre Smoke said:
In your original post you say you are going to send photos to the ministry and ask then to keep a close eye on that MOT station. So you want to cause them grief. All I have seen on this thread, my post included is clarification of what actually happened.
You aren't being asked to defend yourself, you can do what you like.
I will repeat, steering geometry is not part of an MOT check. The garage is not at fault for that. Neither are the loose bolts. They only do a visual check. For instance, if the brake pads were badly worn, they don't check. As long as it passes the brake test, it passes. Her friend has done £600 of repairs for free, why are you giving them grief? There is a valid saying here "pay cheap, pay twice". And finally, if you are such a knowledgeable chap, why didn't you put the car right for her? She is family after all.
I don't think he's saying about the geometery, I think he's saying that the wheel was obviously mis aligned which any MOT tester would have checked for a potential cause, given that ball joints etc are checked on MOT if 2 bolts were missing this should be an obvious failYou aren't being asked to defend yourself, you can do what you like.
I will repeat, steering geometry is not part of an MOT check. The garage is not at fault for that. Neither are the loose bolts. They only do a visual check. For instance, if the brake pads were badly worn, they don't check. As long as it passes the brake test, it passes. Her friend has done £600 of repairs for free, why are you giving them grief? There is a valid saying here "pay cheap, pay twice". And finally, if you are such a knowledgeable chap, why didn't you put the car right for her? She is family after all.
All in all, a very messy situation - Best to use a trusted independent garage in the future
SidewaysSi said:
I hate it when the tester looks at my (car's) underside, removes the thong to have a look and then and checks the bush.
Sometimes i should really read what I have typed before hitting submit. To be fair we wouldn't be able to remove any thongs, we could only peak around to check the bush ... Welshbeef said:
How does anyone know the “friend” didn’t fit the parts properly? Did the car smash into a pothole 120miles+ ago this causing the tyre to wear out quickly.
Good point.Mot testers normally give the wheel a good wobble to check the wheel bearings…chances are it wasn’t loose. OR the MOT tester could have looked at the fail sheet and trusted it and only checked what they thought they needed to check and not the whole car (cutting corners)
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