MOT fail today! :(

We'll took the old girl for another MOT today having finally completed jobs from the fail! An hour or so later and I get a call saying its.....Failed again!! Very vague reason why on the phone other than to say rear brake pipe leaking, and couldn't confirm reason until been up on the ramp? I thought they put it on ramp to do the test itself? Anyway I have checked online as left car there, for reasons of fail, on original fail and advisory was given for front to rear n/s brake pipe slightly corroded, this is now excessively corroded and a fail, yet car has been in garage since then?? Other fails were both rear brake pipes leaking, I spotted none when replacing them, surely just a tighten?? They are calling me Monday to give full details and a costing, needless to say very unhappy as I thought I had done a good job with the brakes and as I said I spotted no leaks when testing and bleeding the brakes :crazy:

Could be they saw the moisture from bleeding if and figured it was leaking. Second opinion needed maybe

Thor1950 said:

Could be they saw the moisture from bleeding if and figured it was leaking. Second opinion needed maybe

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I was tempted to do that, I will wait and see what they say Monday, and will post on here, if still unhappy I may contact VOSA?

rickster30 said:

I was tempted to do that, I will wait and see what they say Monday, and will post on here, if still unhappy I may contact VOSA?

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The problem with disputing this second fail, is you took the vehicle away from the garage for a couple of months. The garage are well within there rights to check the whole car out again.
Obviously if you think they are being unfair then you can get a second opinion

Nodge68 said:

The problem with disputing this second fail, is you took the vehicle away from the garage for a couple of months. The garage are well within there rights to check the whole car out again.
Obviously if you think they are being unfair then you can get a second opinion

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Agree with checking whole car as I took it away, but a brake pipe going from slightly corroded to excessively when not being used and in the garage? Plus the poor service on the phone couldn't even tell me the issues!!

rickster30 said:

Agree with checking whole car as I took it away, but a brake pipe going from slightly corroded to excessively when not being used and in the garage? Plus the poor service on the phone couldn't even tell me the issues!!

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It does seem strange as you say the go from slightly to severely corroded in a few months whilst being stored in a garage. Did the same guy do both the Mot 's ? if so show them the original fail and imply you may take it further. As for them leaking but will have to put it on the ramp to inform you where from! it has to be on a lift to be tested and if leaking the tester should at the time note where it's leaking from. It does sound as though you are being ripped off big style. There used to be a local garage to me that did MOT's and MOT repairs and were found out when cars that had failed on severely corroded brake pipes the previous year and had had them replaced by the same garage as did the MOT failed again on severely corroded brake pipes the year after. It was an easy fix for them to do brake pipes and most owners know as much about car maintenance as brain surgery.

I'm lucky that near me is a MOT station that is purely that an MOT station, they don't do repairs or any thing else. They are by the book , in the past if a car I took failed on something it's always needed replacing/fixing etc. It's best if possible to find a place like this and avoid the £30 MOT boys they can afford to loose £25 per MOT as they can make it up with horrendous charges for remedial work

Take the thing to another MOT station.

rickster30 said:

Agree with checking whole car as I took it away, but a brake pipe going from slightly corroded to excessively when not being used and in the garage? Plus the poor service on the phone couldn't even tell me the issues!!

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If a different tester looked at it the second time then it could be a fail. The rules state "in the opinion of the examiner" or did when I was testing a few years ago. Opinions very from tester to tester.
The garage should have been able to give you an exact reason for the fail over the phone though. I can't see why they would need to get it up again to check what's leaking, the tester would know exactly why he failed it!!

Nodge68 said:

If a different tester looked at it the second time then it could be a fail. The rules state "in the opinion of the examiner" or did when I was testing a few years ago. Opinions very from tester to tester.

The garage should have been able to give you an exact reason for the fail over the phone though. I can't see why they would need to get it up again to check what's leaking, the tester would know exactly why he failed it!!

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More or less said what I was going to say. It's each individual testers interpretation of the rules. If it was me, depending of the severity of the rust I would be inclined to wire brush them and smear them in grease. Obviously if it's time to get a new pipe there is no getting away from it

Thanks for replies everyone, given me plenty to take on board, I do feel that because I took the car away originally and basically took away the potential work for them, that maybe they are trying to claw some back? after all the MOT was half price! Will let you know how this pans out.

I do not like these half price mot station you just know they are going to get you!
also how can they say that the under and over engine protectors are wrong when they were fitted originally, I just don't get it, also bleeding a brake system I try to have some one pressing the peddle and as they start to press down open the valve ,tell them to hold the peddle down and shut the valve and keep doing that until it is bled ,do not for get to catch the old fluid in a jar or tin and this has always worked for me .

teddywood1 said:

I do not like these half price mot station you just know they are going to get you!
also how can they say that the under and over engine protectors are wrong when they were fitted originally, I just don't get it, also bleeding a brake system I try to have some one pressing the peddle and as they start to press down open the valve ,tell them to hold the peddle down and shut the valve and keep doing that until it is bled ,do not for get to catch the old fluid in a jar or tin and this has always worked for me .

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That's exactly how I bled the brakes, find it works fine for me, I am beginning to think the same about 1/2 price MOT stations now! As for the engine covers apparently its on there because they cant check what's underneath.

Well I spoke to them today, the leaking pipe/s turned out to be nothing more than the unions needing tightening which they have done FOC. The front to rear brake pipe which is now excessively corroded I was told was the case as they use some sort of tool? which they put on the pipe and tells them the level of corrosion, anyway £80 to do the work to pass the MOT, which overall is a lot less than the first failure list which if left with them would have been around the £400 mark, with the £80, plus all the other bits which I did myself it is now more like half that, so although not happy with the service, I don't feel like I have been ripped off, but I did email customer service to let them know how I felt.

rickster30 said:

The front to rear brake pipe which is now excessively corroded I was told was the case as they use some sort of tool?

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That wool would be a screwdriver or a wire brush to see how much metal is left after the flakey rust is removed!

Even my local Ford garage doesn't stock brake pipes, they make them to order with pipe & a flagging kit, pretty sure that's what the MOT centre would do too.

My MOT centre always prints off an itemised price list for fixing all the failures (if any) and advisories, a good idea in a town where 75% of the population are probably over 65yrs old & most can no longer work on their own cars.
He doesn't bother with me because he knows I fix my own cars, van, bikes.

I'm not sure how these half price testing stations work, I thought the cost of the MOT was set by VOSA?
If they can't charge people more than the set cost, how can they charge people less without making the costs up through charging for repairs?

duncanpage4 said:

That wool would be a screwdriver or a wire brush to see how much metal is left after the flakey rust is removed!

Even my local Ford garage doesn't stock brake pipes, they make them to order with pipe & a flagging kit, pretty sure that's what the MOT centre would do too.

My MOT centre always prints off an itemised price list for fixing all the failures (if any) and advisories, a good idea in a town where 75% of the population are probably over 65yrs old & most can no longer work on their own cars.
He doesn't bother with me because he knows I fix my own cars, van, bikes.

I'm not sure how these half price testing stations work, I thought the cost of the MOT was set by VOSA?
If they can't charge people more than the set cost, how can they charge people less without making the costs up through charging for repairs?

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They did the job yesterday, half price was online using a code, won't be using them again, plus when they re did mot test after repairs, both front brake pipes are now slightly corroded which they weren't on previous fails??

rickster30 said:

They did the job yesterday, half price was online using a code, won't be using them again, plus when they re did mot test after repairs, both front brake pipes are now slightly corroded which they weren't on previous fails??

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I definitely think they're creating work.
Wouldn't use them again mate.

Please post the name and address of these people so others can avoid them. That way they will go out of business and hopefully get bought out by knights in shining Armour.

I agree about the brake pipes that go behind the rear inner wheel arch

replaced my brake pipes, front to back, managed to get the pipes in one piece, from the abs u it all the way to the rear drums

also bought new pipes that went from the drums to the flex pipes ,Munich were also replaced

think I saved a fortune by doing them myself

got to get a new rear silencer fitted on mine, mot runs out in April

hope u get on ok and passes the mot ok