Car shouldn't have passed MOT, advice on proceeding

-Mike-

-Mike-

-Mike-

Soldato
Joined
22 Dec 2002
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Location
Minehead
Hey all,

Purchased myself a new (old car) on Tuesday last week. The car had been MOT'd, serviced etc prior to my picking it up.

The brakes felt a little suspect (spongey and poor, however I had no need to jump on them) but I put this down to new rear discs and pads.

Fast forward to the day before yesterday and I actually needed the brakes only to find once you apply pressure they did absolutely nothing and the car felt like it was skidding on ice.

I fired up the trusty interweb encyclopedia, posted here and on uk-mkivs and found out that a vacuum pipe is a common failing on these engines. I checked mine at the end I could see and sure enough it had a massive split. This meant I took the car to the garage and today I had a replacement pipe fitted.

Now my problem is this, the garage I use, said that no way the car could have possibly passed its brake efficiency test with the complete lack of vacuum to the servo. This makes me wonder what else on the car may have been overlooked. It also suggests, a dodgy MOT centre, which I'd like to report.

Finally my full service on this vehicle appears to be them changing the oil and filter, no air or diesel filter change has been carried out :mad:

Any advice RE the mot certificate would be much appreciated.
 
Its says on the certificate where it was MOT'd.

my first thought would be contacting VOSA as they are the governing body for MOTs iirc. they should be able to advise and or take the correct measures ensuring the tester is investigated etc.
 
you wont get anywhere by trying to chase the testing place, if you are concerned about other items that may have been overlooked, take it to an MOT testing station, have it put through an MOT.

whatever it fails on go back to dealer you bought it off and give them the option to pay for the repairs or take the car back.
 
if you goto vosa, u have to pay the proper national mot charge (50 i think) for them to check and see if roadworthy. now you have had the issue fixed they wouldnt even complain to the place. it needs to be as it was from the station and within a few weeks (can be months but a lot can happen in months).
 
OK here's how to really do it. Go to the place it was tested, show them the split vacuum pipe and explain to them that the brakes were crap since the day it was tested. Tell them that you will give them the chance to pay for the repair and if they don't you will be contacting vosa to get the whole car checked.
If they have done a dodgy test then this will be enough of a threat to get what you want as having vosa involved is a threat worth considering.
If not then as long as it's been less than 30 days since the car was tested then by all means contact vosa and pay your £54.85 for a full mot test to be carried out by them, if the tester missed a few things it could end up with him (or her) getting suspended, hence why even just the threat of getting vosa involved is an effective one.
I've seen my boss buckle before under pressure from a customer who wanted to go to vosa because of an oil leak! And that's nothing to do with the MOT test! He fixed it for free because there's always a chance you miss something, and every item you miss is points on your license which is always a bad thing.
So my advice, give the testing station a chance to deal with things.
 
realscot said:
OK here's how to really do it. Go to the place it was tested, show them the split vacuum pipe and explain to them that the brakes were crap since the day it was tested. Tell them that you will give them the chance to pay for the repair and if they don't you will be contacting vosa to get the whole car checked.
If they have done a dodgy test then this will be enough of a threat to get what you want as having vosa involved is a threat worth considering.
If not then as long as it's been less than 30 days since the car was tested then by all means contact vosa and pay your £54.85 for a full mot test to be carried out by them, if the tester missed a few things it could end up with him (or her) getting suspended, hence why even just the threat of getting vosa involved is an effective one.
I've seen my boss buckle before under pressure from a customer who wanted to go to vosa because of an oil leak! And that's nothing to do with the MOT test! He fixed it for free because there's always a chance you miss something, and every item you miss is points on your license which is always a bad thing.
So my advice, give the testing station a chance to deal with things.
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I don't think trying to blackmail the MOT station is a good idea, the MOT station might have nothing to do with the place that sold the car except for the fact that they did this test.

A car can pass brake efficiency test with a lack of servo depending on how hard the MOT tester applies the brakes, even with the lack of servo it's still possible to achieve sufficient braking force.

Your boss sounds like a pussy, I'd tell the customer to FO.
 
Although the pipe has split, it could still pass the brake test.

take it for a £25 MOT at Kwik Fit and any benefit of the doubt other testers may give will be removed.

If it fails, contact the seller and just report the garage to VOSA.
 
ubersonic said:
There's nothing you can do, a car being broken this week is not proof that it was broken last week, MOT's are just snapshots in time.
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Exactly. The pipe could have split between it being tested and driven back for collection and even if that wasn't the case as has been said it could still pass.

I'd forget about it and enjoy the car.
 
I've had the same pipe split on me. The brakes worked absolutely fine but the garage was adamant it would require herculean strength to stop the car.

The pipe has simply degraded further after the MOT, it's that simple.
 
What to do if you think your car has passed incorrectly

These cases usually relate to recently bought vehicles and you should let VOSA know as soon as possible.

Subject to acceptance of the complaint, VOSA will offer an appointment within five working days to recheck your vehicle without charge, provided:
•no more than three months has passed since the MOT test for a corrosion related problem
•no more than 28 days has passed with other defects

The address of your local VOSA office is displayed in the MOT test station or can be obtained from VOSA on 0300 123 9000.
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The retest is free - you don't have to pay. Regardless, that split could not have happened in the last three days. I think I'm going to go to the garage I got the car from and ask to be paid for the replacement pipe and its 15 minute fitting. I presume that I'm being fair enough with that?
 
s0ck said:
I've had the same pipe split on me. The brakes worked absolutely fine but the garage was adamant it would require herculean strength to stop the car.

The pipe has simply degraded further after the MOT, it's that simple.
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Dude, the pipe has not degraded that much in a couple of days. That statement is utter bs, not simple! Your brakes worked fine.... well mine with a split both ends definately did not.
 
-Mike- said:
Dude, the pipe has not degraded that much in a couple of days. That statement is utter bs, not simple! Your brakes worked fine.... well mine with a split both ends definately did not.
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I'm no expert on bits of old plastic and rubber mixed with underbonnet temps and engine movement but does it not seem possible that it could have moved from 'not split bad enough to cause failure' to 'too much pressure loss, giving up now' over a few days? Especially since that pipe is more or less right above the turbo.

Best of luck pursuing it though :)
 
-Mike- said:
The retest is free - you don't have to pay. Regardless, that split could not have happened in the last three days. I think I'm going to go to the garage I got the car from and ask to be paid for the replacement pipe and its 15 minute fitting. I presume that I'm being fair enough with that?
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Thats what I would do, and then report them if they dont comply - even if it amounts to nothing it will make the garage think twice about what they are doing in future.
 
I'm a bit confused about you likening it to skidding on ice? With no brake assistance you'd have to push pretty hard to get effective braking, but the steering etc. should still be working?

How can you be sure it did not split after the MOT? Why couldn't it have been split after the MOT whilst being serviced for instance?
 
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Dogbreath said:
I'm a bit confused about you likening it to skidding on ice? With no brake assistance you'd have to push pretty hard to get effective braking, but the steering etc. should still be working?

How can you be sure it did not split after the MOT? Why couldn't it have been split after the MOT whilst being serviced for instance?
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Invoking ABS because he was standing on it, possibly?
 
s0ck said:
Invoking ABS because he was standing on it, possibly?
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Very unlikely, it's extremely difficult to apply enough pressure to lock the wheels on tarmac on a modern car with no brake assistance.#

Another thing is he described the brakes as "spongey", when lack of assistance normally gives an extremely hard pedal that hardly moves.

FWIW I agree the garage should pay for the part and fitting, but I think the OP is on dodgy ground claiming it must have been like this when MOT'd.
 
good luck trying to attach a precise timeline as to when this split actually occured :p

the pipe split, it needs replacing, replace it and move on
 
I have replaced it. The brakes weren't spongey and the ice feeling i describe i shall try to put in some sort of real terms....

Pressing the pedal resulted in the feeling that you were pushing blocks of wood onto a slippery surface. There was a lot of effort required, and the harder you pushed to a point the less they seemed to do.

The brakes were pap when I tested the car but the garage said they'd be sorted for the mot and the car required new discs and pads which was why they weren't the best (discs and pads on rear, not the front).

After having new discs and pads fitted I was always braking gently everywhere, until the point I needed them on a lane with my little people in the car. The feeling of little // no assistance made me almost have brown trousers!
 
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