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Author Topic: MOT standards... or mix of.  (Read 1345 times)
WessexElectricNutter
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« on: April 17, 2015, 12:44:24 am »

One thing looking in my blogs reminds me what I forgot to update.

And heres one for you. The silver Espace only did 4000 miles last year. By comparasion, the Clio did 15,000 or roughly. The blue Espace I did 500 miles. Why? First the gearbox I was worried about it going bang. (God, putting that on the road was fun, cambelt and MOT, all £1427 IIRC, that was a new cat included but luckily not much else as it had an MOT at the same time.). And it still misfires, but my god, it was a bloody nice car to drive! My omega is nowhere near as nice to drive and yes, I have driven it, just not in my posession. Funny thing is, the blue one has been largely fault free until one evening in february when I found a flooded footwell and the radio packed up. Then I cleaned as much of the footwell out as I could and had a look. Yes, the positive wire went to the radio again. Which means I need to strip down the dash and remove the wing mirror again. Just like the silver Espace.

Back to the said vehicle. I found MOT's to be very funny. Took it to a well known chain garage rhyming with ouchfords, thinking, "It'll pass like the blue one did."

WRONG!
Right, first problem, I knew about, wipers, they perished and ordered some new ones. I went to pick them up from the place I brought them and to my suprise, I spoke to the guy and went.
"These are the same size."
"They're suppose to be."
"No they're not, I'm sure of it"
*checks*
"Ahh, right, we got some in Portsmouth and I can get them in tomorrow."
"Ok, I'll do that then"

Then:
"Also, have a feel at that.."
"I see what you mean, someone did the dirty." (Put old blades in and claimed a refund.)
So, £46 later and still no wipers. MOT fail no.1

MOT fail number 2, 3 and 4
Well, lower suspension arms, one side had a worn bush,  the other side had a worn ball joint. On top of that, a drop link with a split dust cover. The garage I took the car to be repaired weren't particularly convinced that they were fit for fail items. One arm came from the UK (Surplus genuine new renault part), the other came from Germany and was a patterned part.

MOT fail number 4:
LED side lights... I wasn't expecting that, same test station past them in 2014. 2 sidelight bulbs.

MOT fail number 5:
This one puzzled me, a lot. The brakes are good on an espace, automatic ones rip your teeth out if you stop too hard, even if you blow the brake pedal, the result is the same. The silver one is a bit more relaxed. Still, I checked the braking previously by braking hard on a 40mph road and sent everything in the back flying. So we established the brakes are effing good, right?
WRONG!
The print out was a total of 850 or so KGF IIRC. On a vehicle that weighs 1960KG, roughly 46% total service brake. So I got the guys that did the lower arms to look at it too. "Nothing wrong with it, talk to them or get a VT11". So I challenged them over it:
"We don't use the maximun braking effort in the MOT test as it over exerts the brakes." and I'm thinking "What would you do in the real world if you had to do the sweedish equivelant of the Moose test but you can't steer away from it? Slam the brakes on?". Which is exactly what I did when a poor domesticated pussycat decided to run out infront of my car, get hit by the car comming towards me, ran back, got hit/pushed by my car (I saw the fur in my headlights) and then into the bushes. Maybe it should be called the "Cat Test". "How quickly can your car stop to avoid an obstacle?".
With that, I spoke to the other garage that did the arms again, they got something like 1,605KGF (very good, enough to stop a 2 tonne monster in a very short distance.), they weren't happy and yes, we discussed the issue at great lengths.
So, I brought some brake calipers (TRW, new old stock), brake discs (QH, new old stock) and brake pads (Brembos - new) and didn't fit them. Rebooked the car for an MOT and.... it passed.

What was the excuse? "It had been standing around for a while." Yeah, but I gave it a brake test before hand and it stood around for the same amount of time before and after the MOT retest.
So, £150 totally wasted. Now all I am after is some grooved and ventilated discs. Yes please! I've been told with my driving style that I need a set of racing discs and pads. Put it this way, I have a reputation for scaring my colleagues, even though my girlfriend feels safer with me driving than my younger sister. Maybe I should all offer them a drive with my sister and see what they think afterwards, or better, my dad who drives very fast indeed.
Logged

Renault Clio Mk1 1.4 (Automatic) (1996)
Renault Clio Mk1 1.4 (manual) was 1.2 (1997) - under repair
Renault Espace III 2.2 DCi Privilege (2001) - NIRU
Renault Espace III 3.0 V6 Privilege (2001) - NIRU
Vauxhall Omega 2.5L V6 Elite (1998) - under repair
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