MOT Fail on too much welding.

My 2a passed this time but have been told I will need a new chassis for next year as the percentage of welded areas are now on maximum. Not come across this before has anyone else ? had twice as many patches on my Range Rover and it had been passing at the same place but they said things have tightend up.
2 sell or not 2 sell ? that is the question or can I be arsed to swap the chassis ? what a bugger I gave it a chassis up rebuild 3 years ago If I had know I could have swapped it then but there were only about 9 patches on the whole chassis!!

That's crap. Provided the chassis is repaired properly and solidly each time I don't see how they can fail it as long as it maintains it's structural integrity

Job of a chassis is provide integral structure for the vehicle - so long as this role is acheived, the tester should be happy. Doesn't matter how many patches there are on a chassis, so long as they have been fitted correctly and safely - allowing the original strength of the chassis to be maintained, there should be no problem.

On a side note - I sympathise with you massively - but a word of warning to anyone out there doing a ground up rebuild - replace the chassis when you have the chance!

Matt

Try somewhere els,all MOT people are not the same,some are more sympathetic to older vehicles.

My 2a's chassis is like a patchwork quilt but went straight through the test, seems to me like he was after some work

V8jon said:

My 2a's chassis is like a patchwork quilt but went straight through the test, seems to me like he was after some work

Click to expand...

or after his landy for a mate the coonts

On the plus side, if you have done a lot of work previously, it should come apart easier if you decide on new chassis..
Those rusted bolts are always a bastard..

Just my opinion...

If a chassis has 9 repairs or whatever, that is not a reason alone to scrap the chassis. However...it may well be that what the guy is trying to say is that the whole chassis is very thin, and the whole thing is borderline to weather it will rot through or not. Do you get me? He may have just been "dumbing down" his reasonings. And if it is very thin in lots of areas, you start to ask, just how far can I go before it is quicker/easier to replace the chassis.

Hoooowever....bear in mind that, if its something like the rear crossmember, outriggers, dumb irons, all of these can be replaced if needed (more parts are available as well) so just depends on what he means by what he has said. If you are not confident with your own poking and prodding diagnosis, I would suggest go back and ask him to clarify exactly what he meant.

I Totally agree with Rusty.
And it's worth investing in a Glav Chassis and Bulkhead. I'll be doing this next year - totally worthwhile.

this just doesn't make sense....after all if you weld, grind and paint its possible to make the repair invisible. I cleaned and scraped down a section on a mates chassis ready to do a repair and it was only when I started cutting I found I was just overlapping a previous patch.....how can a tester work out 'percentages'

mine was mot'd with at least a hundred patches welded on, probably more.

Thanks all, the chassis is going quite thin in places. The rear cross member and front dumb irons had been changed before I bought it and rear chassis is where most of the patches are. Have been using him for 10 years for MOTs so I do trust him but maybe he is mis-interpreting some info about changes. My range rover was totally patches from the back to the centre of the chassis and he always passed that, well until I started putting patches on patches !

The key thing is he passed it this year so have 12 months to suss it. As mentioned at least every nut n bolt should easily spin off !

He can fail it on to many patches if he feels the the structural integrity has been compromised
You can always appeal but If has a lot then then ministry would probably fail it to
These sorts of things are down to testers discretion some guys will let it go some won't
I have known some get funny about to much underseal over a fresh patch saying they can't see the quality of the weld

The above has happened to me.
A friendly mot guy told me not to cake underseal cack all over a patch just before the test, as the examiner will think its a disguise, either a knacked chassis or a crap weld.