Series 3 mot fail

well how rude

s3 failed on the following;

nearside front shock leaking - have to get some new
parking brake below efficiency - works for me but is high, guess it needs adjusting hopefully that's all
emissions - surprised it passed last year, wish I had got off my rear and changed the timing chain
drivers door not latching properly - I can close it, does need a good slam though
rear brake drums contaminated with oil?

could have been worse I suppose

mine passed a few weeks ago, emissions were good for the 10 minutes it was at the MOT station...before and after it has been smoking loads. Replacement carb is on order.

No electrical failures - how did you manage that?

boguing said:

No electrical failures - how did you manage that?

Click to expand...

spent ages sorting the electrics out after I changed the bh the other year

honolulujoe said:

well how rude

s3 failed on the following;

nearside front shock leaking - have to get some new
parking brake below efficiency - works for me but is high, guess it needs adjusting hopefully that's all
emissions - surprised it passed last year, wish I had got off my rear and changed the timing chain
drivers door not latching properly - I can close it, does need a good slam though
rear brake drums contaminated with oil?

could have been worse I suppose

Click to expand...

hopefully that should not cost much to get the parts you need.

well I have the timing chain already

dingocroft have some reasonably priced shocks

the oil on the brake drums just seems to be from the springs which I coat with sump oil, can't see it can have come from anywhere else and the truck stops fine so I shall give it a wash off.

think I will do the chain before buying anything, if it doesn't get rid of the smoke it still won't pass, the smoke is going to be the hardest to get rid of

pity the 3 doors aren't the same as a 1 else I could just take em off

and they called it a land rover deffender their spelling

Facing mine next month....footwells rotten so some welding to be done. Why does a two way wiper switch cost 30 quid!

What year is your S3?

1979 and older is just a visual smoke test. Seem to be some picky reasons .... Rear door, oil on wheels etc.
Is this a trusted garage you go to? Sounds like one that just sees 5 year old Ford Focuses.

honolulujoe said:

and they called it a land rover deffender their spelling

Click to expand...

Sacrilege!! Lucky enough here in Ireland vehicles pre 1984 are exempt from mot. Thank god! Think I would need to draw down a mortgage to put mine right!

Land Raver said:

What year is your S3?

1979 and older is just a visual smoke test. Seem to be some picky reasons .... Rear door, oil on wheels etc.
Is this a trusted garage you go to? Sounds like one that just sees 5 year old Ford Focuses.

Click to expand...

afaik it was just a visual, the fail said "dense blue smoke on idle" "visible black smoke on idle". reality is it is more or less as it was last year when I was surprised it passed so I can't really complain. mine is a '72

garage has a good rep locally but I agree they seem pickier this year, maybe they had an inspection and got told to toughen up, seem to have more staff this year too. Last year they were really busy so I think they just stamped it off

Jasper74 said:

Sacrilege!! Lucky enough here in Ireland vehicles pre 1984 are exempt from mot. Thank god! Think I would need to draw down a mortgage to put mine right!

Click to expand...

wish it was 1984 here too, not just for exemption, I might be able to save myself some mistakes.

John S said:

Facing mine next month....footwells rotten so some welding to be done. Why does a two way wiper switch cost 30 quid!

Click to expand...

two speed wipers, that's an extravagance

I bust the washer connection on my wiper switch, did it as a separate push switch - which I luckily had lying around - for that very reason, just didn't want to splash out on an expensive switch. guess if it was the wiper bit I had broken I would have had to.

The 13 year old apprentice probably saw the oil on rear drums and failed the hand brake..............

Bobsticle said:

The 13 year old apprentice probably saw the oil on rear drums and failed the hand brake..............

Click to expand...

As has been said above, I think the garage is being a bit "weird" - and, whilst I know transmission brakes can be a bit of a git, I also wonder how they are testing the brakes - the rolling road, or with a decelerometer ?

As for the oil on the rear drums - then, given the reasons above - was this the apprentice as well ??

Think I'd be looking for a new MOT place. One with a few more brain cells.

if I can't get the stuff done in the free retest period I shall take it somewhere else.

as it is all electronic now, will the new place have access to the reasons it failed at the old place?

parked on a slope with handbrake on and I couldn't move it by pushing, hardly an empirical test though, but I should have thought it was good enough as far as it goes.

did have to turn the adjuster quite a way to get it to go solid then backed it off till the prop turned freely so I guess it may not have been up to required performance. lever much lower when applied now.

cleaned off the rear drums. may start stripping down for chain later.

shocks look quite easy to do, chassis on stands, trolley jack under spring hangers, unscrew old ones and put new ones on with bushes?

The shocks just pull off once you have;
Struggled taking the wheel off,
run out of gas to heat the wheel nut
bent the brace
twisted your ankle jumping on the breaker bar
caused an oil leak by over heating
snapped both ends off the split pin
found the right sized drill bit to drill out the pin
broke all the right sized drill bits
been to alfrauds for a set of drill bits
ordered new split pins
had the hernia treated from removing top bolt
ordered new top bolts
ordered better bushes.

The chain however can get quite involved.

can't wait