Car passed MOT - no speedometer on drive home, very upset.

z1a

marliepanda wrote: »

Totally defunct was probably the wrong word. It was jacketed and would take 5/6 tries sometimes to start, but once going it was fine (unless I stalled...) so totally defunct wasn’t the correct term no doubt.

I would say "jacketed" is the wrong term as well. I would also think that it had nothing to do with timing belt/chain.

System

AdrianC wrote: »

Don't be ridiculous...

It's unheard of - unless they were shagged anyway. The braking is not THAT hard. It's a gradual increase of pressure, no more. It's nowhere near as harsh as the sudden application of full pressure that you'd give in an emergency stop situation - ABS doesn't trigger, because the wheels shouldn't lock on the roller.

The braking is done to a far harder level than would normally be done during daily driving. The tester presses the pedal down as hard as they can. This results in higher than normal use pressure in the brake system and also means the piston in the master cylinder moves further than normal. It isn't unknown for that seal on the piston going over the wear lip to and up causing the failure of the master cylinder. It isn't unknown for the higher pressure in the system to cause a leak - my wife's FTO passed a visual brake inspection and had a hose let go on the brake tester.

Hermione_Granger

Tarambor wrote: »

The braking is done to a far harder level than would normally be done during daily driving. The tester presses the pedal down as hard as they can.

No they don't.
They push down gradually on the brake pedal until such time as the brake being tested stops the wheel from rotating.
This is no different to how the brakes get operated in everyday normal driving.

http://www.ukmot.com/manual/3.7/Roller-Brake-Test#MOT

Testing the front wheels

1. With one set of rollers revolving at a time, see information column if ATL approved gradually depress the service brake until maximum effort is achieved, or until the wheel locks and slips on the rollers.

Record the reading at which the maximum braking effort is achieved and whether lock-up occurs. Release the service brake

Jono987

Sounds like they have damaged your car and cannot repair it, so are trying to fob you off and persuade you to scrap it to cover their own back.

I would put a terrible review all over social media, try and guilt them into sorting it for you.

marliepanda

z1a wrote: »

I would say "jacketed" is the wrong term as well. I would also think that it had nothing to do with timing belt/chain.

Jacketed is autocorrect for ‘nackered’ haha

peter12345678910

Maybe they thought if they told you about the timing belt that you would walk away to another garage or just scrap it, so they take you half way, than drop the timing belt bomb.

marliepanda

peter12345678910 wrote: »

Maybe they thought if they told you about the timing belt that you would walk away to another garage or just scrap it, so they take you half way, than drop the timing belt bomb.

I guess I really feel like this is what’s happened I said from the very start that I wanted them to let me know if it’s economical to repair it and they did all these daft airbag bits before apparently noticing the timing chain is about to snap.

System

Hermione_Granger wrote: »

No they don't.
They push down gradually on the brake pedal until such time as the brake being tested stops the wheel from rotating.
This is no different to how the brakes get operated in everyday normal driving.

http://www.ukmot.com/manual/3.7/Roller-Brake-Test#MOT

Are you a mechanic? No. Have you ever been a mechanic? No. Have you ever sat in on a MOT test? No because unlike me you're not an apprentice trained time served mechanic with main dealership experience.

And actually yes it is different to how they're operated in everyday normal driving unless you're in the habit of doing emergency stops like you do in the driving test. Had you actually sat in on a MOT test and carried out the brake test then you would know that you end up pressing the brake pedal down quite hard to get to the point described but unlike me you haven't so your completely false claim is based solely on what you found on Google and your completely incorrect interpretation of what you read on a website. "Push down gradually" increasing pressure on the brake pedal until they reach the point they lock up the wheels, rollers which unlike the road surface you drive on try to force the wheel to continue to rotate which is nothing at all like operating brakes in daily driving. .

pinkshoes

I took my car home after a service once and found my speedo not working. It was just a 5 minute fix as a fuse had blown.

I would be really annoyed if I had coughed up money to get a car through an mot only to have them tell me afterwards that something else would then need fixing. I would be wanting this work doing at cost price!

marliepanda

Thought I would update:

Took the car back and it was there for another week whilst they (I believe) replace the whole 'clock' in their words. I assume they did replace something as it came back with 40k less miles on the clock than when I took it in.

Stalling is worse than ever, can barely go round a roundabout or stop at a junction without it stalling and after 10 minutes of driving the immobiliser light comes on (though it does seem to keep going...) and she seems to be eating petrol at a rate of knots, couldnt afford to keep paying £10 a day to commute when I can normally get 2 weeks out of about £45

Suffice to say shes off to the scrapman. Bit gutted about my £200 to 'pass' her MOT but, oh well.