The folly of the MOT.

Tony, I wouldn’t have thought of you as a boy racer, with a drunken slapper, on twisty bends, but it takes all sorts,spose.:D
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Just had my TT serviced by Audi, picked up a drive shaft boot deteriorated (mentioned in Jan on the MOT but not leaking) and the front anti roll bar collars and bushes. service which included a brake fluid change (and a full internal external valet and clean for free) came to £210, they have fixed price services.
They wanted £550 to do the antiroll bar and £70 odd for the boot, but ordered a genuine OEP VW one off the web that is a better item and with the bushes comes to £153… plus my local garage will fit it for £92 and do the boot for £45 all in. So as per normal they are getting the job 🙂

Thought it was wallowing a bit like a drunken slapper on some of the twisty bits.

🙂

Believe it or not, just had my car fail MOT due to faulty alternator. :confused:

Apparently it was only charging intermittently, therefore when the emission equipment was attached it would not run the computer which checked the emissions, and could possible give false reading.

New alternator and every thing was in the green. 😎

Glad the fault was picked up, if the alternator had failed completely, on a cold winters night I would not be happy.

Neither would I Alan

At a local garage who are not rip off merchants £200 the lot to repair(minus painting a rattle can or 2 from Halfrauds should do it)

Although I live very close to one of their branches, I’d never take a vehicle there for a service.
Or any place where the fitters are on bonuses to find as much wrong with your vehicle as they can.

I had the sill welded to get it through the MOT. I’ll get the brakes done next MOT or if I notice a leak.
I’m not likely to loose all braking if it fails as each front / rear brake is a separate system on the Mondy.
I have owned my Mondeo 2.0 98 reg for 14 of it’s 15 years. In that time it has had 2 rear brake cylinders, 2 front brake discs, 3 cambelts, front rubber bushes,
new water pump, new front arm and spring. So it’s done pretty well for 150’000 miles.
Wonder how long I’ve got left on the clutch?
Anyway the old girl is being retired next year.

I was actually advised to do this (emery-cloth the rust away) by an MOT inspector when my Golf failed the MOT for rusty brake-pipes but it was a very awkward spot to reach and I could not be sure of the condition of the pipe inside the pipe-unions so I just replaced the pipes.

On that Golf I eventually replaced all four brake-hoses, the pipes on the trailing-arms, the pipes under the boot, the pipes under the bonnet to the front brake-hoses…..in fact every pipe and hose except the two long front-to-rear pipes.

On my previous Golf I replaced every pipe and hose…..period. I remember spending my birthday (in January) lying under it outside on my drive with brake-fluid dripping onto my face.

Hence my questioning of the wisdom of brake-pipes being made of anything that rusts at all!

the best way to escape this is get some emery tape .wrap it around the corroded pipe and sand away til all rust and pitting has gone, then smear liberally with thick grease, theyll never know!

The metal pipes should not move, that is why they are connected to “flexi” flexible pipes to the suspension and steering.

Stainless if constantly flexing will crack…

Significantly more-so than the steel brake-pipe used currently?

Brakes and steering are most definately, I.M.H.O. top of any motorists “Get it done NOW” list, when spotted.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

I won’t argue with that, but any failure item which is safety related should be/ must be rectified, then of course comes the next list, advisories, these simply say that an item is considered safe at the moment, but early attention is advised as deterioration has been spotted.

I would find it difficult to select which has a higher priority when it comes to advisories having come across cars, (particularly in days gone when a car either passed or failed the MOT and many motorists didn’t look again at their car until the next MOT was due,) with current MOTs but not safe enough to be driven across the yard never mind the road and the reasons where many and varied not neccessarily restricted to brakes or steering.

The safe way is obviously to get any advisories dealt with at the earliest whatever they are.

I could never understand why car manufacturers didn’t use stainless-steel pipe anyway…

…well, cost I know, but minor cost for potentially life-saving safety.

And, when I bought some replacement brake-pipe from a VW dealership….it was copper?

Stainless if constantly flexing will crack, copper on the other hand will tend to flex, a lot of light aircraft use copper pipe, the disadvantage is being soft it can be prone to damage.

Brakes and steering are most definately, I.M.H.O. top of any motorists “Get it done NOW” list, when spotted.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Put the old Mondy in the garage and it failed it’s MOT for some rust on one of the sills.
However on the advisory it states “rusty front brake pipe”.
I would have thought the brake pipe to be more serious than the sills?

Simple enough, the rust on the sills is severe enough to compromise the structure of the car, the advisory on the brake pipes is just to let you know that the dreaded tin worm has taken up residence and while not a problem yet, will soon become one if not evicted.

At a local garage who are not rip off merchants £200 the lot to repair(minus painting a rattle can or 2 from Halfrauds should do it)

Replacing brake-pipe is the best…..and the worst…..job on a vehicle!

While a rusty brake-pipe is never a good sign on a vehicle I think the chances of a brake-pipe ever actually ‘bursting’ is remote in the extreme (unless you just ignore it for years). However if the MOT didn’t pick-up a rusty brake-pipe there are plenty of people (myself included) who would probably ignore it for years.

I could never understand why car manufacturers didn’t use stainless-steel pipe anyway…

…well, cost I know, but minor cost for potentially life-saving safety.

And, when I bought some replacement brake-pipe from a VW dealership….it was copper?

I think H98 stated elswhere, his car had clocked up 155.000, so, assuming he has put all those miles on himself, he seems to have got off lightly. Both jobs are not Bank breaking to put right. I think he has had good value so far, even more so if he is able to renew and bleed his own Brake pipes.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

And you crash because the brakes don’t work.

Rust on the sills compromises the structural integrity of the car in a crash and often is close to the seatbelt attachment which is significantly weakened because of it.