Service failed to detect several MOT fails

DaveTheMus

£300 seems like a good deal for the amount of work needed......new brake pipes alone are about 250

colino

£250 for brake pipes you say and this is a moneysaving website?
Is that coming from a grateful, unknowledgeable consumers perspective or from someone who really knows the huge markup to be made from having invested in a good flaring tool and buying in cheap pipe and connectors?

Foxy-Stoat_3

OP, would you of scrapped the car if they told you before they carried out the service that it will need another £300 to get it through the MOT?

What car is it, mileage, value, and how much have you spent on it in the last 12 and 24 months?

neilmcl

OP, did you expect them to do a pre-MOT diagnosis for free then, because it isn't part of the normal servicing costs. What's the £300 bill for? Have they actually done the work or is it simply an estimate for the work to be done to get the car to pass the MOT?

Bantex_2

colino wrote: »

£250 for brake pipes you say and this is a moneysaving website?
Is that coming from a grateful, unknowledgeable consumers perspective or from someone who really knows the huge markup to be made from having invested in a good flaring tool and buying in cheap pipe and connectors?

It would take 2 or 3 hours , so £250 not that bad.

colino

Tell you what, find a tech who, for example takes more than an hour to strip out, make up new front to back main brake pipes, install and bleed and pressure test and I'll sack him for you.

Stoke

alanrowell wrote: »

I put my car in for a service 5 weeks ago and at the same time asked for them to check the car as the MOT was due and I wanted to know if I should get a new car or soldier on for another year. During this they replaced brake pads, tyres, universal joint & seals. They didn't replace a bearing that was noisy but had no free play. £250 bill

Had the MOT done at the same place and it failed - excessively corroded brake pipes, broken coil on suspension, leak on braking system, part of the brake system hanging loose and the noisy bearing. Bill for at least £300 but they can't say precisely

Now apart from never darkening the doors of that particular main dealer ever again do I any other comeback for them not finding the problems pre-MOT

excessively corroded brake pipes - It's possible they were just an advisory a few weeks ago. The brake pipes rust and rust if you don't treat them properly or replace them.

broken coil on suspension - Could have happened 2 days ago and it's a very difficult thing to spot if it hasn't broken yet. A slight fracture in a coil spring can take months, even years to split. I would say near impossible to tell without actually having the spring break on you.

leak on braking system - Again, the leak could have come 2 days ago. I would ask them to replace any necessary parts plus, if you're going to do the full brake system you may as well get fresh parts.

brake system hanging loose - Why? Has a hanger failed or are you saying they disconnected something and didn't reconnect it properly?

noisy bearing - What bearing? A wheel bearing? That isn't technically an MOT fail until it becomes serious. You can drive on a knackered wheel bearing for a very long time before it becomes an MOT fail, although they should have told you if it was whining.

droopsnoot

DaveTheMus wrote: »

£300 seems like a good deal for the amount of work needed......new brake pipes alone are about 250

All else aside, it seems a bit of a sweeping statement given that the OP hasn't said what kind of car it is.

I agree though - a main dealer will probably order a new set of pre-made brake lines from their supplier, rather than get a 25' roll of suitable pipe (£8 last time I looked) and cut and flare to suit.

Joe_Horner

Stoke wrote: »

[...]

noisy bearing - What bearing? A wheel bearing? That isn't technically an MOT fail until it becomes serious. You can drive on a knackered wheel bearing for a very long time before it becomes an MOT fail, although they should have told you if it was whining.

Agree with everything (in fact, posted similar) except for this.

The MOT criteria for front wheel bearings is "roughness". That means any roughness. A noisy bearing by definition has roughness - in fact, the inspection method specifically includes to "listen" for signs of roughness because you'll usually hear it before you feel it.

Compare the criteria for rear bearings, which is "excessive roughness" - on those a bit of noise is ok. The reason for the difference is that fronts are involved in steering.

salubrious

Joe, dvsa definitions are skewed at the best of times. For example their idea of rotate involves not removing your hands off the wheel.

Consequently a bearing has to be in a very bad state to then fail.