Colossal MOT failure -advice?

EvilDreams

EvilDreams

EvilDreams

Associate
Joined
6 Jul 2008
Posts
1,841
I just took my MX5 1996 1.8i in for its MOT, I am currently driving a 1984 Camaro Z28 that I got a couple of weeks ago and I was going to get the MOT done and sell the MX5, however it failed on a rather large amount of stuff:

- Nearside windscreen wiper does not clear the windscreen effectively
- Offside windscreen wiper does not clear the windscreen effectively
- Offside front coil spring fractured
- Offside front Track Rod end ball joint has excessive play
- Offside rear Suspension arm corroded and seriously weakened
- Nearside front (CHASSIS LEG) Body or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings
- Offside front (CHASSIS LEG) Body or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings
- Nearside front (CALIPER) Braking system leaking (DANGEROUS)
- Brake pedal creeps down while the pedal is held under pressure
- Nearside Rear parking brake recording little or no effort
- Parking brake efficiency below requirements

They actually flagged the car as dangerous to drive on the fail sheet. On top of that I have the following advisories:

RHR tyre near legal limit
Slight wear at LH side of steering rack
RHF inner wheel rim damaged
Radiator leaking
All suspension bushes perished
General underbody corrosion
Oil leaks
Small holes (!) at LHR and RHR of floor
Some corrosion at metal fuel and brake pipes

So basically the suspension is completely shot, it's rusty, and it's leaking oil and coolant.

I had budgeted for about £500 worth of MOT failure (I knew about it using water and brake fluid but I had no idea it was that knackered) and then I was going to tax and sell it, hoping to get around £1900 (it's got a nice leather interior etc), but what do you wise people reckon? Would I lose more or less by just selling it in its current state? The garage is telling me I am looking at *at least* £700 to fix it up and that's before the advisories.

Should I just sell it in its knackered form for someone to do as a project or would a fixed one of these be able to get enough cash back because its summer etc? Which will lose me the least cash? Obviously the next step is off to ebay to look at how much similar failures fetch, but some real world advice would be very helpful.

TIA for the valuable advice
 
Last edited:
New suspension, rear control arm, a track rod end, brakes need bleeding, new rear shoes and cable, and new wiper blades.

Doesn't seem horrendous to me, get the suspension and control arm from the breakers and its unlikely to cost much at all.
 
^ What Virdi said.

Failing that sell it for spares.

Failing that we buy any car, we buy any car, any, any, any, any, any, we buy any car...
 
MikeHiow said:
New suspension, rear control arm, a track rod end, brakes need bleeding, new rear shoes and cable, and new wiper blades.

Doesn't seem horrendous to me, get the suspension and control arm from the breakers and its unlikely to cost much at all.
Click to expand...

Sure if you ignore half the other faults. Mainly the fact that the chassis sounds like it resembles a swiss cheese?
- Nearside front (CHASSIS LEG) Body or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings
- Offside front (CHASSIS LEG) Body or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings
Click to expand...

Sounds totally buggered to me, if your not fussed and were going to sell it anyway, punt it onto someone who thinks they can repair it.
 
Yep the key is in the wording (chassi leg), never a good thing, some major welding needed to make those upto spec again, if those have started to go the rest can't be too far behind.
 
I'm looking at about £500 for a no MOT, no tax work needing done one of these on ebay.

Webuyanycar says £535 but that's before I mentioned the huge list of MOT failures.
 
Blimey :eek:

I can hear mine practically cowering into the corner of the driveway at the thought of all that going wrong! :D


It's worth nowhere NEAR £1400 let alone £1900 in that state. :( The chassis welding required is rather extensive for a start.

I'm surprised it's got into such a state. How many miles has it done?
 
Howard said:
Blimey :eek:

I can hear mine practically cowering into the corner of the driveway at the thought of all that going wrong! :D


It's worth nowhere NEAR £1400 let alone £1900 in that state. :( The chassis welding required is rather extensive for a start.

I'm surprised it's got into such a state. How many miles has it done?
Click to expand...

91000

Funny thing is, one of the reasons I went for it last year is because it had a full MOT, and I even checked it online to see if it had had any welding, it only failed on the handbrake last time round. I did use it a lot in the winter but I didn't think the whole thing was just going to rust to absolute buggery.

When I mentioned £1900 that was as a figure for a non-knackered one i.e if I was selling it in repaired/good condition.

Right now it looks more like just putting it up with no reserve and seeing what I can get for it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom