S

Spanky2k

Member
Hey all,

Our car went in for it's MOT today. It's been running fine lately so I didn't expect anything to be amiss in the test. The garage has said that in order to pass, they need to replace the anti-roll bar links, the suspension arm pin bushes and the suspension arm ball joints and it failed the emission so to pass that they need to clean the dpf. They're asking for not far off a grand for all of this on a car that's worth no more than £5k. It's done 2000 miles since the last MOT (all short urban trips).

Here's what the MOT test says online where it says it's failed:
  • Nearside Front Anti-roll bar linkage ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (5.3.4 (b) (ii))
  • Offside Front Anti-roll bar linkage ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (5.3.4 (b) (ii))
  • Nearside Front Suspension arm pin or bush excessively worn (5.3.4 (a) (i))
  • Offside Front Suspension arm pin or bush excessively worn (5.3.4 (a) (i))
  • Nearside Front Suspension arm ball joint excessively worn (5.3.4 (a) (i))
  • Offside Front Suspension arm ball joint excessively worn (5.3.4 (a) (i))
  • Exhaust emits clearly visible black smoke during acceleration (8.2.1.2 (g))
  • Exhaust emissions carbon monoxide content excessive (8.2.1.2 (b))
For what it's worth, I've *never* seen any 'visible' black smoke when I've driven it or when my wife drives away from the house. My gut tells me I should ask for the car back and take it somewhere else. None of this was mentioned as something to monitor at the last MOT 2000 miles ago.
 
Sounds iffy to me. Did they do the last MOT? Cleaning the DPF (not a guaranteed fix anyway) isn't going to stop black smoke, if it's there to start with. Me, I'd take it somewhere else for a second opinion .
 
It's a mechanic booked through ClickMechanic. They use garages all over the place, it's kind of a referral system but it all goes through the website and you pay through it. I had a major service done through the site last year in February and I did the MOT through the site last year (again, it needed extra work - new brake discs and pads on the front and shoes on the rear but that seemed more reasonable). I had issues with the car cutting out a few months ago and I took it to a local independent garage that sorted it out (previous thread in here) but I'm sure they would have noticed then if there had been black smoke or the emissions were bad enough to fail an MOT. They replaced the Crank Shaft Sensor then (end of March).

I would have taken it back to the local place but work's been really busy this week and I realised that the tax expired a few days ago and so it was also due it's MOT and the collect service that you get through ClickMechanic just seemed easier. I think I'll ask for it back tomorrow though and will try to get the local place to look at it. It took the guy two hours to get here from his garage due to traffic so I have a suspicion that he wants to make it worth his while.
 
Sounds like the drop links need replacing, not a big job at all, and probably an Italian tune up, and replace the air filter
 
That's not a £1000 worth of work. Couple of anti roll bar links is a piece of **** and should be less than an hour labour as per ball joints and pins, then a good thrashing with a fuel treatment in filter.
I'd either have a go yourself or take it elsewhere for another MOT and work if required. It'll still be cheaper, even factoring the loss of the initial mot cost
 
I had to google what an Italian tune up was! I sent the guy a message this evening asking to bring the car back and saying that we wouldn't be getting the work done and would be deciding what to do with the car. I'm trusting my gut with it so will take it somewhere else. It had a BG244 diesel fuel system cleaner through it in March and I've not seen *any* black smoke coming out of it so I really don't trust this guy.
 
I've yet to own a diesel that didn't smoke. My old D1 (which was only 5 or so years old at the time) would fill the testing station with smoke when they revved it up. My current L Series Freelander will produce plumes of smoke if I try and take off from the lights at anything above a snail's pace (basically when the rev counter get to 3k its like a switch to throw copious smoke).
 
As you only do short journeys then the DPF will fill up, the best way to clear it is to let the car do a regen itself by doing a 30 min motorway run above 50 mph.
This should probably be done about once per month.
 
Take to a normal mot garage, or even a council run mot station they have no interest in making money from you, whereas that guy does, black smoke maybe a split intercooler hose or loose jubilee clip, if the fail list is genuine then it should not cost no more than £300/£350 to get sorted including parts.
 
Yeah, Arctic2, that's more in line with what I would have thought it'd cost. £900 just seems crazy. He's dragging his feet about getting the car back to me because he says you can't legally drive it with a failed MOT (I thought he could with the special plates they use and I thought I can drive it to a garage to get repaired). He's saying he'll do me a favour and get it back to me this evening. Why oh why didn't I just take it to the local garage that I trust?!

@SilverParrot I'd guess that about once every two to three weeks we drive to our sister in law which is about an hour with half of that on the M25 at 70 so that should be enough to clear it out anyway. Most of our drives are probably about 45 minutes long but we don't drive every day. When we do, it's either to family (M25 and faster roads but further distance) or around London (shorter distance but much slower).
 
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Spanky2k said:
He's dragging his feet about getting the car back to me because he says you can't legally drive it with a failed MOT (I thought he could with the special plates they use and I thought I can drive it to a garage to get repaired).
Click to expand...

I believe since the new MOT regs this year it is now illegal to drive them away from the garage if they've had a major fail. Trade plates are road tax plates only allowing traders to drive cars without taxing them, they are nothing to do with MOT exemption driving.
 
The other problem you have is that even if you take it to another garage these failures are now registered on a national database .


https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/after-the-test
Failing the MOT
Your vehicle will fail if the test result lists ‘dangerous’ or ‘major’ problems with your vehicle. You might not be allowed to drive until you fix the problems.

You might also get a list of ‘minor’ or ‘advisory’ problems to monitor or fix in the future.

If your vehicle fails the MOT:

You can appeal the result if you think it’s wrong.

Driving a vehicle that’s failed
You can take your vehicle away if:

  • your current MOT certificate is still valid
  • no ‘dangerous’ problems were listed in the MOT
Otherwise, you’ll need to get it repaired before you can drive.

If you can take your vehicle away, it must still meet the minimum standards of roadworthiness at all times.

You can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and get 3 penalty points for driving a vehicle that has failed its MOT because of a ‘dangerous’ problem.
 
My understanding is that you can drive a car that doesn't have an MOT or has failed it's MOT if you're taking it to a garage as long as there's nothing listed as 'dangerous'. The MOT test results don't show anything dangerous, only 'major defects'. I'm hoping he'll still bring it back this evening here and I can take it to our local place tomorrow morning (already have it booked in). If he doesn't then I'll need to go down to his garage tomorrow morning and pick it up and drive it straight to the local garage here. Bit of an arse.
 
Ok, so the guy delivered the car back to me yesterday evening. I carried on with my story about how we were going to think about what we were going to do with it (didn't want to get his back up) and how we might just get rid of the car yada yada. He texted later saying "we buy cars too!" which I found pretty funny. Anyway, took it to the local garage today and it passed without any issues. Not even an advisory and there was no evidence at all of anything the dodgy guy had marked the car as failed for. So lesson learned; don't use ClickMechanic, at least not for an MOT!!
 
I was going to comment earlier but wanted to see what happend, I have had nothing but issues with ClickMechanic, now I only use a very good diesel specialist even if they are 30 miles away.

Glad you got it sorted
 
I’d second what Interceptorxj said check on line to see if the dodgy mechanic added his fails to the gov website , do let us all know and either way I’d report him as you now know he made it all up , as I posted in what I did today mine passed it’s MOT with a recommended local man who charges £47 and says I’m paying for his time and not to find issues
 
No, the results of the fail check are online, on the gov website so it's all listed there. I've emailed the DVSA as their number is currently out of action and have asked them what I should do. I imagine I should complain about the first test but it also said I should contact them directly if I wasn't happy with an MOT service so we'll see.
 
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