new 2'nd hand car falsified mot car not road worthy!!??

chrisinsheff8

I have recently purchased a car from ebay on the basis of it just having a major service timing belt etc.. and a brand new mot. The car was for my other half so she went to fetch it with her mum and partner. On my partners return i took it out for a test drive realized a few things weren't quite right. After making a list a searching through the history that came with it, the faults are old and should not have passed the new mot and in my opinion make the car not road worthy. (i'm not a mechanic) was just after a bit of advise the log book came all intact with the car but with the traders part removed. and on advertised pictures his/some trade plates are visible in the rear window of the car. does this strengthen my case? + no history of last major service as advertised ie no receipt and no stamp in the book. The faults are as follows

broken power steering (angle sensor)
broken rear wiper
central locking doesn't work from the fob only key then the alarm goes off when the door is opened
esp doesn't work buttons just dead no light on dash
rev counter just goes mental spins and never reads accurate
abs light on constantly from start
engine feels like its running on three cylinders think maybe a coil pack?
matrix screen on cluster is dead shows no info at all at any point
exhaust is blowing in a few places
cruise control doesn't work

this is what i have seen up to now has this car even seen an mot center!? new test was from a week ago!? any advise or info much appreciated thanks in advance Chris.

salubrious

The majority of those faults have nothing to do with the mot, what car is it?

spacey2012

Another.. I bought an old banger without even looking at it and it is not as good as new car costing 20x as much thread.

This is the reason people scrap perfectly good old cars instead of selling them.

chrisinsheff8

there was not even an advisory on the mot and been a trade seller should any of the faults be mentioned when advertised? And quite sure abs light and blowing exhaust is a fail. And a few other faults would be advisory.

chrisinsheff8

spacey2012 wrote: »

Another.. I bought an old banger without even looking at it and it is not as good as new car costing 20x as much thread.

This is the reason people scrap perfectly good old cars instead of selling them.

great help :T I didn't mention cost, age, make of car i think this is quite a general question about mot's. They used to make me feel confident in buying a car or at least a bit more at ease.

facade

chrisinsheff8 wrote: »

esp doesn't work buttons just dead no light on dash
abs light on constantly from start

Both MOT fails

chrisinsheff8 wrote: »

engine feels like its running on three cylinders think maybe a coil pack?

Or it could be bent valves from when the cambelt broke, which is why it has a new one.

chrisinsheff8 wrote: »

matrix screen on cluster is dead shows no info at all at any point
exhaust is blowing in a few places

Could be bulbs if it is rear illuminated LCD

The warning lamps are a fail, esp & abs have to illuminate and not show a fault.

The rest is fine, if it gets through the emissions on 3 cylinders.

You can get it retested through VOSA, which will make a bit of trouble for the test station,if they find fails that should have been spotted. However, both the seller and test station will no doubt swear that the abs & esp lights worked correctly at the MOT.

Try taking it back. if you like, cars are not covered by any eBay protection above you don't have to buy if it is not as described.

WTFH

How do you know the MOT is false? Have you taken it to an MOT centre and asked them?

chrisinsheff8

the mot certificate is genuine checked it online but passing with zero faults? vosa are inspecting it in the next few days then a re-test after describing the faults they said there is no way it should have passed without fault but roll on the re-test.

Retrogamer

chrisinsheff8 wrote: »

broken power steering (angle sensor)

Does it cause problems with how the power steering operates?
If it does it would be a fail

chrisinsheff8 wrote: »

esp doesn't work buttons just dead no light on dash
abs light on constantly from start

As mentioned by another poster, these should be a straight away fail.

chrisinsheff8 wrote: »

exhaust is blowing in a few places

If it's only minor leaks, it would pass but if they're significant enough they should be a fail

In terms of the the seller being a trader or not and refunds of the case, i'd probably pursue i via the ebay methods

If you contact VOSA and inform them about the car passing an MOT with the faults i mentioned above, you can pay them another MOT fee and they will check your car on an MOT ramp at the garage where it passed it's MOT. If it's found it should have failed, the garage and MOT inspector will recieve points at the least for every item missed and potentially stopped from performing future MOTs. If it's found it should have failed (which seems likely) it won't void the current bodged MOT and you get your money back for the VOSA retest. You can only do this though if you haven't repaired any of the faults on it and it's within 30 days of the MOT

WTFH wrote: »

How do you know the MOT is false? Have you taken it to an MOT centre and asked them?

No need. A few of us on here have experience with the MOT tests and what should be a fail or not.

chrisinsheff8

vosa have said they will test it for free. I know i'm just dreaming but would be nice if the car was repaired to an mot standard by the offending garage. A refund would be nice but the seller is claiming he sold it private and is not a mechanic so nothing he can do.

colino

Depending on what mysterious car this is, 90% of the faults listed could be related to a dying battery/alternator.