When is an MOT failure not an MOT failure? (Groupon Alert!)

red_eye

Fortune82 wrote: »

Today I took my car to In 'n' out in Wednesbury for the £20 Groupon "Express MOT & Valet". After an hour and a half I was informed that my car had failed due to a brake defect that would cost me £115 for a new set of front discs and pads.

Hmm, I thought. Given that the MOT test doesn't involve removing the wheels I wonder how they'd come to that conclusion. So, being an inquisitive sort I dropped that car into my friendly local mechanic. I said that I wanted to sell the car and could he just tell me if there was anything up with the brakes.

He duly took the car onto the ramp and confirmed there was nothing that required attention, and that the car would comply with the requirements of the MOT test.

Another lesson learned. Anyone else had this experience?

the check the efficiency on the rollers in front of the ramp as mot regulation. and on some wheels you can see the disc and pads though the wheel and from the back.

red_eye

Joe_Horner wrote: »

If you trust your local mechanic then book an appeal test with VOSA. You have to pay for this but the fee is refunded if they pass the car. They also get very serious with the testing station involved if there's anything untoward going on.

Part of the problem with the MOT scheme's image is that people don't report dodgy testing stations and VOSA can't keep tabs on all of them all the time so they continue to get away with it. If every tester knew that any, shall we say, "inflated" problem they fail for is likely to have VOSA snigging round them then a lot less of them would chance it because it's their livelihood at stake.

cant get VOSA involved OP remove the vehicle from the testing station.

red_eye

Fortune82 wrote: »

Front brake imbalance 31%. My mechanic says there's nothing untoward.

not a good mechanic then if an mot tester says there is an imbalance then that means he put it on the rollers as part of the mot and the computer has calculated % of imbalance.
your mechanic has looked with his eyes and said there is no imbalance? vosa should buy his eyes and dissect them to investigate and then market these new eyes they would make a killing

shaun_from_Africa

red_eye wrote: »

cant get VOSA involved OP remove the vehicle from the testing station.

That doesn't matter as you are allowed up to 14 days to lodge an appeal for an MOT failure.
The only thing that will invalidate an appeal is if work has already been carried out to the car.

red_eye

Fortune82 wrote: »

OK, help me out here. If the solution according to 'in n out' is new discs and pads, then why should I be asking anyone to strip down the braking system?

I drive about 750 miles a week, wouldn't I have noticed something?

new discs and pads sometimes just the pads is the common cause followed by caliper faults

red_eye

pendulum wrote: »

I bet that conversation went something like:

"Yo geeze!"
--- "Alright tel. Need a MoT"
"MoTEE? No fuuukkkkin prob mate, giz a tenner"
--- "Alright mate. I'll be down the pub later mate... do you know if Pete's coming out tonight..."

No legit garage charges the public £10 without a catch.
Fact.
Obviously if he got it for £10 that is very good mates rates... or you made a mistake

yeah the catch is increased custom, more custom= more failures, more failures= more repair jobs for the garage side of the business.

the first garage I used to work for charged full price for first mot and then £20 if the customer came back for next mot this brought no end of cars into the garage

red_eye

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

That doesn't matter as you are allowed up to 14 days to lodge an appeal for an MOT failure.
The only thing that will invalidate an appeal is if work has already been carried out to the car.

im not up to date with vosa its been 14 years but in 14 days you could tamper with the car to the owners favor

shaun_from_Africa

but in 14 days you could tamper with the car to the owners favor

I agree, but I'm sure that the VOSA inspectors will be looking for any signs that work has been carried out to the car since the date of the original MOT.

If the owner did tamper/repair anything to bring the car up to a passable standard, they may well be prosecuted if it was discovered, and if not discovered, the only benefit that they will gain is getting the cost of the original MOT refunded.

Many people would think that the potential losses from being caught attempting fraud would outweigh the gain of getting your MOT refunded.

Lindopski

If you live near Wrexham then Queens cross garage is your man.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=LL11+5EA&hl=en&ll=53.07748,-3.050895&spn=0.00397,0.006899&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=15.926689,28.256836&hnear=Brymbo+LL11+5EA,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=53.07748,-3.050895&panoid=VXyikjWaXP-IWx3frLk6pA&cbp=12,70.01,,0,3.78

He is a good old fashioned honest tester there - I take all mine there.

Joe_Horner

red_eye wrote: »

im not up to date with vosa its been 14 years but in 14 days you could tamper with the car to the owners favor

But there'd be no benefit unless your sole reason was to cause problems for the test centre. For an appeal against failure you have to pay a full test fee to VOSA, which is refunded if they agree with you, or part refunded if they agree with you on some points. Note that VOSA will charge the FULL fee of around £54 to inspect it, and may find other faults as well.

So, if you're going to do the work just to "pass an appeal" you may as well take the free, or reduced price, retest that the original garage will give. It'll cost you less that way!

If, on the other hand, you're appealing against a PASS (ie: it passed and you don't think it should have) then VOSA will test it for free