MOT Complaint

Moody_Mare

Strider590 wrote: »

The place you took it to, did he have lots of cars/jobs parked up and waiting to be looked at??

Yes Strider it did, it only does MOT's. We were the last car of the day before closure for the weekend. He spent 20 minutes tapping aaway under the car going back to the same spots time after time as if he was totaly unsure?

Moody_Mare

neilmcl wrote: »

If you are thinking of taking it for a second MOT then you should try your local council MOT station.

Thanks but our local council does not have one for public usage.

neilmcl

Moody_Mare wrote: »

Thanks but our local council does not have one for public usage.

Who is your council? By law council MOT stations must be open to the general public.

Moody_Mare

skiddlydiddly wrote: »

You seem to be taking it personally.The stuff they are pointing out isn't the usual stuff you'd expect if they were trying to make a fast buck.All those things will make your car a safer one, so has to be a good thing.The emissions wouldn't drop if there was a hole in the exhaust as its measuring a %.
You can always go somewhere else but I can't see how you could complain about them being more thorough than your last few tests.

This garage does not do repairs just MOT's tyres ect

Moody_Mare

neilmcl wrote: »

Who is your council?

Fife, I have asked them before but they stated not for the general public?? but knowing that council they may have got that wrong?

neilmcl

Moody_Mare wrote: »

Fife, I have asked them before but they stated not for the general public?? but knowing that council they may have got that wrong?

Is this the one:

Fleet Services, Denburn Yrd, KY1 2HD
Fife

Tel: 01592 551199

I would contact them again or better still pay a visit.

VincentVega

Moody_Mare wrote: »

Hi guys wondering if anyone can help with advice please? My husbands car has just failed it's MOT at the age of the car we never expect it to pass but this fail is rather large and suspiscious. It is a 91 H Reg Toyota Celica (Not import) who has been well maintained over the years, owned from nearly new and only does a few hundred miles per year.

A 19 year old car fails its MOT and you sound surprised.

Failure report states excessive corrosion on 2 year old sills and suspension and seatbelt mounting points. (seat belt mounting points not visable as under carpets and not lifted by tester?)

Corrosion on two year old sills sounds a bit weird. Are the suspension and seatbelt mounts also two years old? Unless your husband was watching the tester with an eagle eye, how does he know that the carpets weren't lifted?

Also the tester has put break valve (rear load adjusting) corroded and excessivly weakend. It has been in this state for 8 years yet no other tester has remarked on it. (OK it looks rusty but appears to work fine)

Just because something was fine for the last eight years doesn't mean it'll be fine on the ninth occasion as well. Corrosion happens progressively - one moment there won't be any, the next there will. Unless you're a car expert, how do you know that the break [sic] valve works fine? You don't. Things break over time. If it's only doing a few hundred miles a year, it's hardly surprising that some things give up the ghost.

The thing with this test was the way it was carried out, there was excessive banging with his toffee hammer? even though the metal had a good solid sound not echoey or that hidden filler sound. Also he has wrecked the underseal by picking it off by the sharp end of the toffee hammer and made comments on parts of the vehichle like the seatbelt mountings that he could not see unless he lifted the carpets which he did not as my husband was watching the whole test.

What do you expect? He's hardly going to use a foam hammer and massage the car with his hands whilst muttering sweet nothings to it. He's looking for corrosion in the metal. He would have to bang it with a hammer to see how structurally sound it is. Metal is fairly solid stuff, after all. As for the sound, how does your husband know what a "good solid sound" is? Stop trying to play the expert. As for the underseal, it could be hiding all sorts of gremlins. How does he know that there isn't a major structural issue hiding under there?

Lastly and this confuses me, he states the exhaust has major leak of gas yet he tested the cars immissions which it passed excellently.

Emissions (or, as you spell it, immissions) come out of the back of the engine. This is the point where the levels of pollutants matter (do 19 year old cars have catalytic converters?). Whether they finally exit half way down the back of the car or out of the back of the exhaust doesn't matter, it's what they consist of that's important.

Say you have a bottle of water. Hold it upside down. Make a hole in the side and water will leak out. Now take the top out. Most of the water comes out of the back, but some comes out of the hole in the side. The water that comes out the side isn't less drinkable because it exits in the wrong place, does it?

Can anyone offer advice to this situation? can we take it for another MOT elsewhere to see if the same faults are found before phoning VOSA to make a compalint. All help greatly appreciated.

Your nineteen year old car failed. Hardly surprising. Perhaps if you took better care of the car it wouldn't have failed in the first place. it's covered in rust and has a hole in the exhaust.

You seem to be making a mountain out of a molehill. The MOT tester doesn't have a vendetta against your car, your husband or you. It doesn't matter to the tester if the thing fails or passes. You seem to be making an awful lot of assumptions about the tester's level of competency (or lack of), and implying you (and your husband) know better. Which I doubt. And you can hardly complain if the result you wanted is wrong. If he passed your car and it's later found to be unroadworthy due to this, then he could get into a bit of bother

Sure, take it to another tester. But don't be surprised if they find exactly the same faults. Or more. How much is it worth anyway? £50? Hardly worth the bother.

skiddlydiddly

Vince I agree with what your saying but thats a bit harsh .Are you in the trade and sick of hearing this kind of stuff from customers?

Sometimes a car is worth more to the owner than the money.You don't see many 19 year old celicas about and its worth keeping alive I reckon.I have a 19 year old jap import and it failed the last MOT on a trackrod end and 2 rear brake pipes.All of those worked before being stood garaged for 5 years but I understand sometimes things do just pack in.Plus I trust the garage and have been going there for years.

masterlumps

neilmcl wrote: »

Who is your council? By law council MOT stations must be open to the general public.

can you provide a source for this as i would very much like to take it in black and white and shove it somewhere unpleasant in our local coucil office

neilmcl

masterlumps wrote: »

can you provide a source for this as i would very much like to take it in black and white and shove it somewhere unpleasant in our local coucil office

It's on this very site - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-mot#find