Corsia 1.0 Dodgy MOT?

Neil79 · 31 May 2011 at 12:40

As some people know my mum has a heart condition, so a lot of stress is harmful to her. With the luck of cars she had lately she decided to buy one that was cheap to run both in petrol,parts and on insurance. However things haven't been too good!. She went with her boyfriend who has worked on cars most of his life, even has a pit to work on them!. To see a £2600+ Corsa 1.0ltr 12V 3dr petrol with 59k on the clock including a full tax/mot, 3pot engine. This was purchased from a Classic Sports Car Garage, ie not some bloke on the street!

Apart from the engine bay being a bit dirty it had oil sludge in the oil cap however according to both the seller and her boyfriend it was condensation as it had been sat for a while. Mum drove the car and said she liked it and it felt good. But pretty much soon after the purchase it began clonking from the front right over bumps,hard roads, the engine sounded tappy on start up and in low rev acceleration it sounded abit scoobyish.

Took it down to the boyfriends garage and this was the list(I saw the work being done)

Engine manky as hell, needed a steam clean
The oil sludge was in most of the breather pipes
Inner rear tyres completely bald
Wishbone arm(?) and Droplinks both sides are bad ( hence the clonking? )
Inner Passenger driveshaft gaitor was split (noticable straight away)
Oil filter and Fuel Filter Never changed, oil was black
Spark Plugs not changed, huge gap in the plug!

:mad:

I cannot see how this passed the MOT!

Dogbreath · 31 May 2011 at 12:52

It sounds like you mums boyfriend isn't overly clued up if he missed that lot.

Did it have 12 months MOT when your mum bought it? Did the dealers that sold it provide the MOT?

mattyprice4004 · 31 May 2011 at 12:53

If it's less than 6 months ago, back to the seller you go. Insist they repair the faults under the Sale of Goods Act, which within the first 6 months assumes all faults were there at the time of purchase.

Nomisf · 31 May 2011 at 12:58

mattyprice4004 said:
If it's less than 6 months ago, back to the seller you go. Insist they repair the faults under the Sale of Goods Act, which within the first 6 months assumes all faults were there at the time of purchase.

This.

Also, I dont mean to bash - but what you have listed is basically "Car Buying 101 Checklist" material - this gent should have easily spotted said issues.

Neil79 · 31 May 2011 at 13:04

She was given a receipt that says that the car was as private sale and not under warrenty

What leg does she stand on now?

p.s I'm not happy with her boyfriend at all !, if the mot is dodgy they should sort it or if not then the boyfriend should pay for the repairs and parts!

mattyprice4004 · 31 May 2011 at 13:09

Doesn't matter, if he's a trader he can't waiver your statutory rights. A piece of paper with that written on means nothing, the fact he sold it does.

Locky · 31 May 2011 at 13:09

Neil79 said:
She was given a receipt that says that the car was as private sale and not under warrenty

No such thing from a motor trader or garage.

Neil79 · 31 May 2011 at 13:12

It's got a 11month MOT left on it, she and her boyfriend need to sort this out.. This screams dodgy MOT!

Thanks for the replies all, it's been passed on

EDIT : The car was purchased i believe on a friday and the car was looked at after on the monday!

Neil79 · 31 May 2011 at 13:21

Poor mum

" I knew he'd have a go at me "
- Boyfriend " I SUPPOSE YOU DON'T WANT IT NOW, YOU JUST DON'T LIKE THE CAR " " WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO ABOUT IT ", " ALL THEY'D SAY IS THAT THOSE PARTS HAVE GONE IN THE MONTH ".

So the upset and hurt in her voice

, she even told me that her boyfriend said " DON'T BUY THE CAR UNLESS I'M THERE "

tigerstyle · 31 May 2011 at 13:26

To be frank B/F sounds like tool.

Didn't spot these during the test drive?
Didn't just take the car straight back to the garage?

Good thing is the law is on your side, who is responsible for checking MOT worthiness of garages, see if they have have a way to report dodgy garages through their website.

Neil79 · 31 May 2011 at 13:38

Whatever happens I'LL sort it out for her, personally she needs to take her boyfriend in for an MOT as he's failed himself

found out what the tapping is, Timing Belt Tensioner !

tigerstyle · 31 May 2011 at 13:51

Neil79 said:
found out what the tapping is, Timing Belt Tensioner !

That doesn't sound good either!
I'd be thinking of a full refund on this car tbh, its blatantly never been serviced, ever.

phi1 · 31 May 2011 at 13:52

They are common problems on those corsas, it sounds like the garage did a dodgy mot on it but I am not sure how easy you will be able to get your money back!

Neil79 · 31 May 2011 at 14:07

They said that the timing belt and tensioner was done, spent about £400 getting it done even said they'd give me the details of the garage that did the mot.

Had a good 20min word with the garage, unlike her boyfriend!. Will see how this one plays out

TheDean · 31 May 2011 at 14:14

Neil79 said:
They said that the timing belt and tensioner was done, spent about £400 getting it done even said they'd give me the details of the garage that did the mot.

Had a good 20min word with the garage, unlike her boyfriend!. Will see how this one plays out

Sorry for your troubles. Hope you sort it all out, and she doesn't suffer any ill effects over it all.

Lopéz · 31 May 2011 at 17:54

Neil79 said:
But pretty much soon after the purchase it began clonking from the front right over bumps,hard roads, the engine sounded tappy on start up and in low rev acceleration it sounded abit scoobyish.

Engine manky as hell, needed a steam clean
The oil sludge was in most of the breather pipes
Inner rear tyres completely bald
Wishbone arm(?) and Droplinks both sides are bad ( hence the clonking? )
Inner Passenger driveshaft gaitor was split (noticable straight away)
Oil filter and Fuel Filter Never changed, oil was black
Spark Plugs not changed, huge gap in the plug!

I cannot see how this passed the MOT!

They often sound lumpy because they are only 3 cylinder engines.

From your list above, only the below could be MOT failures:
Inner rear tyres completely bald
Wishbone arm(?) and Droplinks both sides are bad ( hence the clonking? )

Even then, wishbone and drop link wear is largely down to the tester's opinion, and the wording for tyres is very specific, infact the manual goes so far as to say:
"Note: Each side of the central band of the tyre can be devoid of tread (ie. ‘bald’) and still meet the pass. See diagram below"

Manky looking engines, clogged breathers, oil, fuel, plugs etc are nothing to do with the MOT test.

DRZ · 31 May 2011 at 17:58

Tyres are an MOT fail if they were as bad as implied, as would any knackered bushes/droplinks/gaiters (prove they were split/knocking/whatever at MOT time?), but having a dirty engine isn't, nor is having "sludge" in your breather pipes, oil and filter again not covered by an MOT and nor are the spark plugs (unless they are so far gone that it is failing the emissions test).

Bad yes, but half of your list simply doesn't apply and has been put in there for dramatic effect reasons only.

Get the selling garage to sort it out wont be easy, but best of luck with it.

andy_mk3 · 31 May 2011 at 18:04

I'd like to know how they changed the timing belt on something that has a timing chain! The chain tensioner going is a good sign of lack of servicing, especially at that mileage.

Berger · 31 May 2011 at 18:06

andy_mk3 said:
I'd like to know how they changed the timing belt on something that has a timing chain! The chain tensioner going is a good sign of lack of servicing, especially at that mileage.

So then how do you service a timing chain tensioner exactly?

andy_mk3 · 31 May 2011 at 18:07

Berger said:
So then how do you service a timing chain tensioner exactly?

You don't. Oil changes help it a lot though. The tensioners are common, but they are much more likely to go without regular servicing.