Unexpected MOT failure, my wallet hurts

Mike1983

Mike1983

Mike1983

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Just thought I'd vent off about a completely unexpected MOT failure I've had the joy of dealing with the past 2 days....

The car is a 2008 Mondeo used for general commuting only, very low mileage for it's year, only 26k. Never gets abused, it's a Mondeo for gods sake.

MOT failed on the following counts

1) Front nearside suspension arm ball joint rubber damaged. Ford only supply the whole bloody arm. I went to inspect this and it wasn't bodgable which resulted in a charge of £260 from the MOT garage.
2) 2x front tyres (that I only bought a year ago) plus one of the rears have multiple deep cracks in them. Tyres are Maxxis Victra MA-Z1s, 18 inch, £113 per tyre. Bought the 4th corner for completeness as it was another brand and a budget one at that. Total cost £452 from ATS
3) Both front wiper blades unable to clear windscreen sufficiently (I didn't agree with this). £35 from my local auto shop.

Add on the cost of the MOT (£28) and that comes to a bill of £775 swiftly subtracted from my new car fund in the blink of an eye....

Luckily, the Maxxis tyres have a lifetime guarantee so I'm hoping to get approx a £200 to £300 rebate as all 3 tyres had approx 6mm of tread left and were not abused. Will just have to wait and see if Maxxis honour their guarantee!

Anyway... no purpose to this post other than sharing my pain. Unless of course anyone has any similar experiences of tyre degradation and guarantee claims??
 
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Why buy budget tyres? They shouldn't crack after so few years.
I just swapped my rear tyres. They were Michelin PS2s from 2008. They're in perfect condition, if a bit low on tread :p

You could have saved yourself some money by buying the wiper blades and tyres online and fitted the blades yourself. Much cheaper.
 
mjt said:
Why buy budget tyres? They shouldn't crack after so few years.
I just swapped my rear tyres. They were Michelin PS2s from 2008. They're in perfect condition, if a bit low on tread :p

You could have saved yourself some money by buying the wiper blades and tyres online and fitted the blades yourself. Much cheaper.
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When looking for tyres last year these had a good write up for their price. I went with them again purely because I'm hoping of some kind of guarantee rebate otherwise I'd have gone with another brand. The budgetness / performance is just fine for the purpose of this car (low mileage / sensible driving), the longeivity is now known to be another matter but I'm hoping it was maybe just a bad batch.

WRT wiper blades, I needed them today so there was either Halfords (or similar) or my local auto shop. The latter was cheaper and I did fit myself, they are good quality Bosch ones and price didn't seem out of line with the internet.
 
[TW]Fox;23046342 said:
'sensible driving'?

Are you one of these who thinks half decent tyres are only for people who think they are a rally driver?
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Nope, hence I researched them prior to purchase last year. There were actually many other cheaper options with lesser reviews...
 
What do they mean by suspension arm ball joint? Which component exactly?
Very surprised any suspension components are worn at 26k. Having said that, I had a 21k mile old BMW anti roll bar drop link fail recently.
 
Prior to an MOT you really should check the basics!! £35 for wipers is a joke.you can get them online for £10!

I'm also confused about a lifetime guarante on tyres?! How does this work?
 
He said he needed them same day. I recall paying £30-£40 for a set of front wipers for my 2008 Mondeo too. Admittedly from Ford but I have always found the Ford OEM wipers last well.
 
JonnyGeee said:
Prior to an MOT you really should check the basics!! £35 for wipers is a joke.you can get them online for £10!

I'm also confused about a lifetime guarante on tyres?! How does this work?
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Here's the link, how it works in practice is unknown at the moment. I've forked out for new tyres, the garage apparantly sends the old ones to their HQ, they assess and write back to me or some kind of subtle variation on that process.

http://www.maxxis.co.uk/lifetime-guarantee

I'm struggling to find a set of good quality blades for £10 btw but as mentioned, I needed a pass cert today.

With respect to the suspension arm ball joint, don't know how to describe it, the rubber part that stops dirt getting in and the lubricant getting out.
 
The only suspicious cost in there really is the ball joint / wishbone - As far as i'm aware you can buy ball joints for a mondeo, the guy probably just didn't want to transfer it over and wanted the full wishbone - regardless they're about £130 for the part so where's the other £130 coming from there? It's an hours job. You should have known better than to pay what you did for the wipers, given the cost of everything else though it pretty much pales into insignificance

Tyres, well you've decided to buy what you have, I wouldn't touch a brand like that but as you say they at least get a reasonable reputation. Will be interesting to see if you get anything back for the old ones
 
I think £30-£35 is about going rate for decent wipers for the Mk4 Mondeo.
 
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A heads up for those saying he should have booked the mot before the last one ran out. If your car fails an mot but still has a month left on the old one, the new one becomes valid and the old one is now defunct. So if it fails, your car is no longer allowed on the road unless it's to drive it to a garage for repairs. therefore it doesn't matter when you book your mot. what you should be doing is getting your car checked by a mechanic (or do it yourself if you're savvy)
 
Mike1983 said:
Luckily, the Maxxis tyres have a lifetime guarantee so I'm hoping to get approx a £200 to £300 rebate as all 3 tyres had approx 6mm of tread left and were not abused. Will just have to wait and see if Maxxis honour their guarantee!
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Had the exact same thing on the Pirelli's on my mothers Skoda a couple of years back, they replaced the tyres free of charge (we had noticed the issue as opposed to it coming up at MOT time).


justalex81 said:
A heads up for those saying he should have booked the mot before the last one ran out. If your car fails an mot but still has a month left on the old one, the new one becomes valid and the old one is now defunct.
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A failed MOT cannot invalidate a previous MOT. This has been addressed many times on here.
 
Tesla said:
What do they mean by suspension arm ball joint? Which component exactly?
Very surprised any suspension components are worn at 26k. Having said that, I had a 21k mile old BMW anti roll bar drop link fail recently.
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Its the rubber dust cover...
 
I presume you mean the one on the ball joint?

Ball joint for a Mondeo I did last year cost about £25, complete swing arm was around £70 I think I was quoted by parts supplier.
 
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