Biennial MOT tests

JonRGV250 said:
Not the sort of condition one wants their front subframe to be in, considering what's bolted on to it..

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The car was owned by a young girl who came in with her grandparents and had just recently passed her test.
I stopped the MOT at this point (no point in charging the MOT fee and continuing) due to how serious it was and the costs involved and explained the problem to them, only to be met with floods (and I mean a tsunami) of tears from the owner :(
We priced it up with parts from our suppliers, and it's unsurprisingly an uneconomical repair.
I can't comment on the owners private life, but after speaking to the grandparents. that car is her life and she'd found her independence owning it.
I've had a nose around and found the subframe a lot cheaper, and will speak to my boss (long time friend) and see if there's anything we can do to get it through the MOT a lot lot cheaper for her.
I usually couldn't give a rats ass about failing a car, but that one hurt a bit as she was so upset.
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That looks like it's had a hole in it for more than a year:eek:.
 
JonRGV250 said:
Not the sort of condition one wants their front subframe to be in, considering what's bolted on to it..

L1YzE2M.jpg

1oRIIJw.jpg


The car was owned by a young girl who came in with her grandparents and had just recently passed her test.
I stopped the MOT at this point (no point in charging the MOT fee and continuing) due to how serious it was and the costs involved and explained the problem to them, only to be met with floods (and I mean a tsunami) of tears from the owner :(
We priced it up with parts from our suppliers, and it's unsurprisingly an uneconomical repair.
I can't comment on the owners private life, but after speaking to the grandparents. that car is her life and she'd found her independence owning it.
I've had a nose around and found the subframe a lot cheaper, and will speak to my boss (long time friend) and see if there's anything we can do to get it through the MOT a lot lot cheaper for her.
I usually couldn't give a rats ass about failing a car, but that one hurt a bit as she was so upset.
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whilst that is very kind of you , and not knocking you for it at all....... some women do pull that stunt all the time (I am friends with a few). they do it at work as well and it works almost every time. kind of sucks for young lads who won't burst into tears but at the same time will be just as gutted to have their car written off.
 
I don't understand how people can let their tyres get that bad without replacing them. It must have been "interesting" in the wet.

I bought a 2021 Nissan Leaf from a main dealer a couple of months back and when I did the test drive it had Goodyear Efficient Grip Performance on all four corners. I picked the car up a week later and didn't check the tyres (silly me). The first time I drove it in the rain the tyres were aquaplaning like crazy and it scared the life out of me. The tramlining was bad enough but this was on another level. When I got home I checked the tyres and they had changed three of them for brand new ditch finders, a pair of Sunny tyres on different axles and a brand I had never heard of before. I looked them up and they could be had for £55 each!! Last week I changed all four tyres for Dunlop Allseasons 2 and it has transformed the car completely and I have the confidence that I am going to come out the other side of a corner now. After my experience I can't believe that these people who drive around with bald tyres don't realise that something is wrong!!
 
pastymuncher said:
I don't understand how people can let their tyres get that bad without replacing them. It must have been "interesting" in the wet.

I bought a 2021 Nissan Leaf from a main dealer a couple of months back and when I did the test drive it had Goodyear Efficient Grip Performance on all four corners. I picked the car up a week later and didn't check the tyres (silly me). The first time I drove it in the rain the tyres were aquaplaning like crazy and it scared the life out of me. The tramlining was bad enough but this was on another level. When I got home I checked the tyres and they had changed three of them for brand new ditch finders, a pair of Sunny tyres on different axles and a brand I had never heard of before. I looked them up and they could be had for £55 each!! Last week I changed all four tyres for Dunlop Allseasons 2 and it has transformed the car completely and I have the confidence that I am going to come out the other side of a corner now. After my experience I can't believe that these people who drive around with bald tyres don't realise that something is wrong!!
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So they changed all 4 tyres just to save a few quid. That seems a bit dishonest, even for a dealer.
 
theone8181 said:
So they changed all 4 tyres just to save a few quid. That seems a bit dishonest, even for a dealer.
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Fairly well known authorised VW commercial dealer near where I work does that all the time... surprised they've not got into trouble for it as it is fully dishonest IMO. Seems a lot of effort as well changing 4 tyres regularly just to save a few quid.

EDIT: Just Googling seems VW terminated their connection with them a few months ago, long overdue.

pastymuncher said:
After my experience I can't believe that these people who drive around with bald tyres don't realise that something is wrong!!
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Several times at work mentioned to people their tyre(s) look low and they claim to have not noticed when driving around with one or more tyres at like 18 PSI instead of the 30+ they are supposed to be... my battery inflator has had more use pumping up colleague's tyres than my own :s
 
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pastymuncher said:
I bought a 2021 Nissan Leaf from a main dealer a couple of months back and when I did the test drive it had Goodyear Efficient Grip Performance on all four corners. I picked the car up a week later and didn't check the tyres (silly me). The first time I drove it in the rain the tyres were aquaplaning like crazy and it scared the life out of me. The tramlining was bad enough but this was on another level. When I got home I checked the tyres and they had changed three of them for brand new ditch finders, a pair of Sunny tyres on different axles and a brand I had never heard of before. I looked them up and they could be had for £55 each!! Last week I changed all four tyres for Dunlop Allseasons 2 and it has transformed the car completely and I have the confidence that I am going to come out the other side of a corner now.
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Sounds like the car hadn’t been through the workshop for its used car check before you looked at it.
All dealers have manufacturers standards they have to adhere to ie, if the tyres have less than 3-4mm or are cracked etc, then they have to replace them.
The more prestige dealers have to fit OE or similar quality tyres, but the rest will fit what they can get the cheapest.
 
theone8181 said:
So they changed all 4 tyres just to save a few quid. That seems a bit dishonest, even for a dealer.
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They changed three of the four tyres, both fronts and rear passenger side. They left a single Goodyear efficient grip performance and the drivers side rear. As JonRGV250 states the tyres were probably below whatever their approved used minimum wear level was. The thing that get's me was that they fitted the cheapest nastiest crap they could find. What they fitted were dangerous and should not be fitted to a car that has a decent amount of performance such as a EV. Even driving normally as soon as there was the slightest bit of moisture on the road they would loose their grip and once it was raining properly it was like driving on ice. It was quite terrifying as you never knew what the car was going to do. Even in the dry they tramlined like crazy. The first time that happened I was overtaking a tractor and the tyre tramlined the center lines in the road. It was exactly like riding a bicycle and getting stuck in a tram track, scared the **** out of me. Tyres like that should be banned and are a accident waiting to happen.


JonRGV250 said:
Sounds like the car hadn’t been through the workshop for its used car check before you looked at it.
All dealers have manufacturers standards they have to adhere to ie, if the tyres have less than 3-4mm or are cracked etc, then they have to replace them.
The more prestige dealers have to fit OE or similar quality tyres, but the rest will fit what they can get the cheapest.
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That was my thinking too but they could have fitted something half decent instead of finding the cheapest crap they could find. You aren't going to get anything half decent in 215/50 R17 for £55. I spent almost £500 on four replacement tyres and they aren't even high end. The fitter that swapped the new tyres over asked me what I wanted done with the old ones and I said bin them, burn them I don't care as long as they are nowhere near my car anymore. Laughing he said you didn't enjoy the "budget experience" then? I told him what happened and he couldn't belive they were fitted to a used approved car and went on to explain that they always try to steer people towards a decent tyre as often there isn't that much difference between the cost of a budget and half decent tyre although there are those that insist that they fit the cheapest tyre possible. Those people can't value their lives very much after the experience I had!!
 
In my opinion this is the bit where legislation and proper rating and standards on tyres needs to change, given that they're a critical safety piece of equipment.
Sometimes people are ignorant, sometimes they think they only drive slowly locally and sometimes they simply don't care as long as the car keeps moving and it's 'legal'.

But the way in which the only thing keeping you on the road is being treated is simply not right.
 
Albeit it doesn't often happen and even more rarely causes incidents but I wonder if the MOT should be tougher on fan/alternator (and similar) serpentine belts - I keep an eye on mine and replace them at 100K max.

My brother had his snap (albeit tensioner seized) yesterday on the way to work, just over 10 years old and over 100K miles, and for some reason the car had almost complete electrical failure without any warnings - still driving but with almost all electricals out, managed to restart and limp, with lots of warnings, to a garage which was luckily nearby.

One night recently got a phone call from one of our staff on the road due to the work van throwing up random battery warnings, weird braking and strange noises - advised them to wait on recovery but they didn't want to be sitting around for potentially hours in the middle of nowhere and insisted on driving back, got about 2/3rds of the way into the van parking space when the van totally died. Opened the bonnet and the belt was shredded like cheese strings with only a tiny sliver still connected. Less than 3 years old but on 180K miles.
 
Good point but extremely unlikely it’ll ever come into an MOT inspection.
Currently the DVSA are scratching their heads at how to check that ADAS is functioning correctly and how to incorporate it into the test.
 
That oil filter is disgusting. Inside the engine must be in a bit of a state as well. Sadly many people just don't realise how important regular servicing is, not only for keeping the car in good shape but also by preventative maintenance. You see it mainly in people who have older cars and they are in the opinion that if the car is running fine then it doesn't need anything. If the oil filter on that car was that bad I bet their brake fluid had a high moisture content. With brake fluid being hygroscopic it requires changing every couple of years and this is something that many people don't realise or bother with.
 
It took it sat on the ramp for 2 hours (sump plug out) then 2 engine flush to get the crap out of the engine, and it didn’t even come in for that problem.
It came in because the clutch was so worn it’d barely go into gear.
 
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