MOT failure, worth a second opinion?

polomints

I first went to the garage that I go to now about 3 years ago after the garage I went to previously had quoted me 500 just for welding, before I did the other work to get my car through it's MOT, I went to them and they did it all for about £350 after I had changed the oil and filters ETC myself I had spend over £400 on it and later that year I got the cambelt done (way overdue) and the exhaust. But that seems to have paid off. The last two MOTs it's gone through with only about £150 of work needed doing to it each time.
This time it wasn't like that I got a phone call from the guy saying that my car was in a "bit of a sorry state". Now the guy who did the MOT was a different guy from the last two years and my mother said to me that "that guy seems to be more expensive than the other guy that works there". And it turns out this is their reviews.

Nearside outer (sill) Seat Belt anchorage prescribed area is excessively corroded

Offside outer (sill) Seat Belt anchorage prescribed area is excessively corroded

Offside (floor) Seat Belt anchorage prescribed area is excessively corroded

Nearside inner (sill) Seat Belt anchorage prescribed area is excessively corroded

Nearside rear subframe mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded

offside rear subframe mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded

There were also some other issues such as the master Cylinder needing replacement (it does) etc, but altogether I was quoted 550+ to fix it and that's before VAT.

I was wondering I could get the council place to do another MOT I think there probably is some welding I need doing as there are two small holes in the sill (but it doesn't look nearly as bad as it did 3 years ago).
Could someone advise me on where these points are so I can look myself, the I can't see anything wrong with the seat belt anchorage (I take it these refer to the front seats?) But I can't be sure where I'm looking at, Where are the sub-frame mounts?
I don't want to waste £48 on another MOT if I need to be saving for a car.

Edit, It's a P reg Fiesta.

spacey2012

Very rare for any garage that does repairs to pull welding, it is the worst job going and they can earn far more doing other things for a tenth of the work.

As you are talking major structural points here it might be time to take it round the back wish it goodbye and shoot it.

greyteam1959

Blimey....I would scap the car if it was mine.
You could buy a nice little motor for what its going to cost to sort that lot out !!

Joe_Horner

The seatbelt anchorages are, unsurprisingly, where the seatbelts bolt to the car. There are 3 for each (front) belt:

One near the top of the B pillar where the hangar attaches.
One near the bottom of the B pillar where the inertia reel attaches.
One near the middle of the floor where the stalk attaches.

If any part of the belt (usually the stalk) is attached to the seat frame the all of the mounting points for that seat (usually 4 of them) count as seatbelt anchorage points.

Each of those points has a "prescribed area" around it, which is basically any metal within 30cm (12 inches) of the bolt. Note that the 30cm is measured in a "straight line", not by following the shape of the metal. So, for example, a rust hole on the roof would be a fail if you could tie a 30cm piece of string to the top mount and touch the hole with it, even though the string is stretched out through "thin air" in between.

Any rust hole (even a really small one), or any metal that's so rusted that it's lost its strength, within that prescribed area is a fail. That's not down to tester's discretion, it's part of the MOT regs.

In your case, a single hole or badly weakened metal around the seam where the n/s inner and outer sills join together could easily account for two of the rust fails if the hole is in both panels. The same goes for the o/s outer sill and floor.

The rear subframe mounts are where the rear subframe is bolted to the floor of the car. It's likely to be very hard indeed for you to see rust around there without getting the car on a hoist - even with it up in the air it's often a difficult area to inspect, so if they've found corrosion there it's likely to be quite serious.

Especially with the subframe mounts, £550 (even plus VAT) is a low price for the work involved. You could probably get patched blobbed on cheaper, but to make a reasonable and strong repair is going to take a lot of time and, as Spacey says, isn't the sort of work most garages will go out of their way to take on!

Retrogamer

I would cut my losses with the car. It's likely that when any other MOT inspector who does their job correctly will fail it on the same items if they are as bad as the first inspector mentioned.
Excessive corrosion is where the corrosion is so bad it has weakened the metal.

If you did get all these areas welded up, it's only going to need more welding moving forward. It'll quickly become a money bucket.

scotsbob

polomints wrote: »

Could someone advise me on where these points are so I can look myself

Judging from what you have written the car is rusting badly. It shouldn't be too difficult to see the rust.

Lift up the carpet between the bottom of the seats and the doors and you should see the rust. Also you can get a mirror and hold it underneath the car and look at the sills.

You have an old car and it's rusting, now would be a good time to get rid of it.

fivetide

spacey2012 wrote: »

As you are talking major structural points here it might be time to take it round the back wish it goodbye and shoot it.

Yes I'd be looking to fix this with a match and a can of petrol.

Seriously. Budget for the fix so £750, plus what you could get as scrap (see cartakeback) and whatever tax is left on it and as said, you should be able to pick up a solid, safe runner for that with a full ticket.

If you ran another car for a year, you are still going to be 'up' overall (assuming you buy with your eyes open)

sinbad182

Echo what the others are saying - why on earth would you spend this amount of time and money trying to force a P Reg Fiesta through an MOT?

Get shot of it.

SilverSaloon

on a P reg fiesta, I'd scrap it, or break it for parts on ebay if you have the space/time and scrap the carcass.

then buy another sub £1000 rot-free car

colino

Well done in keeping such an old Fiesta on the road for so long! While it doesn't really have a rear subframe, the rust has got to the trailing arm locating points and both inner sills are rotten. Even your best friend will tell you the same, time to gumtree that old soldier to someone with enough plate and gas to waste on fixing it up (at their labour) and pick out another.

salubrious

It is standard P reg Fiesta corrosion - Maybe that original quote 3 years ago included sill replacement which if you where keeping the car would have been the way to go.

On top of that a lot of welders do not cut the rot out properly, preferring a get you through the test approach and bodging a patch on for the bare minimum requirement. It sounds like you have had that - You definitely get what you pay for when it comes to welding repairs, it is false economy in the long run.

Even so, if it is a reliable runner, then maybe it is worth throwing money at it for another year at it, but knowing those cars like I do. I would do as others have suggested and move it on.