MOT Tests, beware.

atpbx

atpbx

atpbx

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Joined
21 Oct 2002
Posts
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Just a reminder to keep your head screwed on when taking your car into a garage for repairs.

The ZX went into a "Citroen specialist" an independent garage in Grantham for its MOT, it needed the horn fixing and and a new wiper blade that i knew of.

IT comes back with a failure sheet full of X's-

New brake lines
New pistons in rear brakes required.
Handbrake cable.
Horn.
Wiper.
Bushes.

and an estimate of £350 to repair.

Hmmm.

Take it to garage two today for them to have a look at it.

Its still needs a Horn, wiper and brake lines, but other than that, its fine,
Total cost to put through MOT
£125.

If something does not sound right, it usually isnt with garages.
 
The less you pay for the MOT, the bigger the fail sheet.

You should have filled in a thingy before you got it done elsewhere, then a man from the minestry comes and tests you car, if the garage is failing good items they're in for it.
 
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or they tested it more thoroughly...

the rear callipers on the ZX/306/Xsara are an awful design and often the slider pins and pistons can seize up. im not surprised that was listed or the estimated price.

i found out the other day they use the same callipers on the front of 106s and saxos too. shocking.
 
fonzee said:
or they tested it more thoroughly...

the rear callipers on the ZX/306/Xsara are an awful design and often the slider pins and pistons can seize up. im not surprised that was listed or the estimated price.

i found out the other day they use the same callipers on the front of 106s and saxos too. shocking.
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They only test the brakes one way, they stick them on the rollers and press the brakes, it either meets the required standard or it doesn't, they dont do anything else.
 
Clarkey said:
only if you go to a dodgy untrustworthy backstreet garage.
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Oh no, both garages are decent places, i took the ZX to the first one with a fuel pump problem last year and he only charged me £80 to fix it including towing it across town from my house to his garage.
Thats whats annoyed me with it.
 
Hmmmm I'm not sure they are that dodgy. Much of this stuff is based on the opinion and descretion of the tester. It's not unusual for two testers to have a differing opinion and frankly I would expect worn suspensio bushings on a car the age of a ZX, and I'd expect a Citroen specialist who deals with them all the time to spot the failiure mechanism better than a regular garage...
 
I like my new MOT tester. He describes himself as "pretty bloody lenient" and knows he'll never make any money out of me in repairs because I do all my own work and source my own parts anyway.
 
[TW]Fox;11096511 said:
Hmmmm I'm not sure they are that dodgy. Much of this stuff is based on the opinion and descretion of the tester. It's not unusual for two testers to have a differing opinion and frankly I would expect worn suspensio bushings on a car the age of a ZX, and I'd expect a Citroen specialist who deals with them all the time to spot the failiure mechanism better than a regular garage...
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Could be, but i would think that one garage, given that I'm just a bloke that walked off the street to them would be pretty much of the same opinion surely?
 
We use two garages for MOTs at out work, one garage will pass cars more easily without hardly any advisory notices, another garage is a lot more thorough has they usually have advisory notices.
 
atpbx said:
Just a reminder to keep your head screwed on when taking your car into a garage for repairs.

The ZX went into a "Citroen specialist" an independent garage in Grantham for its MOT, it needed the horn fixing and and a new wiper blade that i knew of.

IT comes back with a failure sheet full of X's-

New brake lines
New pistons in rear brakes required.
Handbrake cable.
Horn.
Wiper.
Bushes.

and an estimate of £350 to repair.

Hmmm.

Take it to garage two today for them to have a look at it.

Its still needs a Horn, wiper and brake lines, but other than that, its fine,
Total cost to put through MOT
£125.

If something does not sound right, it usually isnt with garages.
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£350 to repair or £500 to buy another ZX hmm i know what i would get lol

them things are prob boarder line pass thou tbh they might fail next year
 
I had my MOT today cost me £50 and he even attached the handbrake cable "properly" for us as we'd developed a knocking on the car for free.

Job Done

Aero
 
coolpunkskater said:
£350 to repair or £500 to buy another ZX hmm i know what i would get lol

them things are prob boarder line pass thou tbh they might fail next year
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This one is solid all round though, engine is the 1.9d with only 80,000 miles on it, no rust, no smoke, interior is like new and everything works on it, its a decent getting to work car so i wanted to be sure before i scrapped it.
 
fonzee said:
or they tested it more thoroughly...

the rear callipers on the ZX/306/Xsara are an awful design and often the slider pins and pistons can seize up. im not surprised that was listed or the estimated price.
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Yep, same calipers on the rear of Renault clios, 19s, meganes, 5s as well as peugeot 205, 206, 309 etc. etc. Crap aluminium design, if they were made of cast iron they'd probably be ok.

fonzee said:
i found out the other day they use the same callipers on the front of 106s and saxos too. shocking.
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That's not true. Slightly similar in some ways yes, but they are one piece cast iron and dont have a handbrake mechanism, pretty different really.
 
205 1.6 front calipers are also a crap design. They weigh about half what a 1.9 caliper does, but that doesn't really make up for it!
 
coolpunkskater said:
£350 to repair or £500 to buy another ZX hmm i know what i would get lol

them things are prob boarder line pass thou tbh they might fail next year
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Spend another £150 to get a car that hasn't had the £350 spent on it - that you will probably spend £350 on at some point or other?

If the car and engine are solid selling just to avoid a big bill is a false economy - the next car you end up with could be far worse.
 
Telescopi said:
Spend another £150 to get a car that hasn't had the £350 spent on it - that you will probably spend £350 on at some point or other?

If the car and engine are solid selling just to avoid a big bill is a false economy - the next car you end up with could be far worse.
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That about sums it up lol its not worth getting shot of it and once these jobs are done (just say they we're right) then its still cheeper then another car and with 80k on clock it should be ok for a while longer
 
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