Car damaged during MOT

Car_54

It seems the brake pipe was dangerously corroded, so if it had not broken it should have been recorded as a dangerous fault.

The result for the OP would be the same in either scenario, i.e. an undriveable car and a repair needed, so he is no worse off.

alan_d

How the hell has this got to 5 pages with the OP still arguing,
You should be THANKING the examiner for saving you from crashing when you actually needed to emergency stop.
A friend had this exact situation, when a brake hose failed during an MOT, and he was very happy that it had failed there, and not while driving!
Either pay them to repair it, or pay for it to be transported elsewhere and for them to both diagnose the failure and fix it.
Either way, you're paying, not the garage. The first option is cheaper.

Nobbie1967

To be fair to the OP, there are two likely scenarios here, either

a) The brake pipe was corroded and failed during the test due to this corrosion. OP’s responsibility to pay for repair.

b) The testers have been negligent and accidentally broken a brake pipe (e.g. pry bar slipped and punctured pipe). Garages’s responsibility to repair.

a) seems the most likely, especially with brake pipes being hidden behind covers to rust in peace without ever being seen by the MOT tester nowadays. Mine literally fell into two pieces as I removed it despite never being mentioned on the MOT. If the OP is convinced it’s b) they need to get it removed to another garage rather than argue on here.

Mildly_Miffed

Reading between the lines of what the OP's understood from the garage's comments...

I suspect the brake pipe was corroded in a hidden place (behind the fuel tank, perhaps?) where it was not visible before the pipe failed under full braking pressure.

If it had been visible, perhaps it would have failed the MOT on visual inspection in a previous year. The tester is not allowed to dismantle the car to get visual access to normally-inaccessible parts.

Peak pressure in the brake pipework is not going to be higher from leaping on the pedal, compared to gradually pressing the pedal to full pressure. The rate of rise in the pressure will be slower on the test than leaping on the pedal, but not the actual peak pressure.

The full pressure generated on the test is far higher than in normal driving, but no higher than in a genuine emergency - and the test, of course, is trying to prove that the brakes would be safe in emergency braking. Clearly, in this case, they weren't. (Does the car have Emergency Brake Assist?)

The garage are clearly not liable. The procedure they follow on the MOT is clearly laid down by DVSA, and involves maximum braking effort. If the car cannot meet that test, it is not fit to be on the road.

If the car had passed the test, then a week later the pipe had burst in a genuine emergency situation, the OP would be shouting that the garage had not done the test properly...