MX-5 OC Forum

The missus took her car, a 97 Honda CRV to the local garage this morning for the MOT.

It failed, and now she is thinking the car is as good as a write off. We are planning on selling the car as she needs a 7 seater, but now she thinks its not worth anything.

Im trying to convince her thats not the case! Ive been through the lsit with her and told her it sounds a lot worse than it is. The advisories are just that, and do not make the car fail.

The garage also seem to word the failiure sheet to sound a lot worse than it is too! Last year she took another car to the same garage, and ended up virtually giving it away becaue they did the same thing with it....

Here is the failiure details:

Offside front drivers seat insecure                     

Nearside front suspension arm excessive play in ball joint,

Offside front (track rod end) steering locking device missing.

Well, so, the seat needs tightening up somewhere (They have told her they wont know until they remove the seat, hence a nice labour charge before they start.

The ball joint... well, Im sure I can do that once they point out to me which one it is when I go round later.

The locking device missing... a glamourous way of saying the split pin is missing!

And here is the advisory list:

Nearside front (bottom) suspension arm rubber bush deteriorated,

Offside front (bottom) suspension arm rubber dush deteriorated,

Nearside rear tyre worm close to legal limit,

Nearside rear coil spring corroded,

Offside rear spring corroded,

Nearside rear radius arm rubber bush deteriorated,

Offside rear radius arm rubber bush deteriorated,

Nearside inner rear (sill) body has corrosion,

Offside inner rear (sill) body has corrosion,

Nearside rear vehicle structure has corrosion,

Offside rear vehicle structure has corrosion,

Offside front Anti-roll bar rubber bush deteriorated,

Brakes ONLY JUST passed,

All 4 tyres cracked and need replacing

To me there is nothing major there. I have been under the car recently when i replaced part of the exhaust, and there is surface rust on it. Not as bad as what was on my 5 before I had it undersealed.

Rusty springs??? Come on!

Bushes, yes, I can imagine they are, but there is no knocking or banging coming from the car when you drive it, in fact it drives fine. The brakes work well, better than mine.

Why oh why do garages have to scaremonger people like this? Or am I missing something?

Well, I have a busy weekend ahead, but just looking for comments from anyone about this.

Thanks in advance

Andy

 Yes, quite.

Only things..and how long are these pieces of string...that would bug me a wee bit are in red.

Nearside front (bottom) suspension arm rubber bush deteriorated,

Offside front (bottom) suspension arm rubber dush deteriorated,

Nearside rear tyre worm close to legal limit, ?????

Nearside rear coil spring corroded,

Offside rear spring corroded,

Nearside rear radius arm rubber bush deteriorated,

Offside rear radius arm rubber bush deteriorated,

Nearside inner rear (sill) body has corrosion,

Offside inner rear (sill) body has corrosion,

Nearside rear vehicle structure has corrosion,

Offside rear vehicle structure has corrosion,

Offside front Anti-roll bar rubber bush deteriorated,

Brakes ONLY JUST passed,

Usual dilemmas...value vs. making good vs. something else with stealth costs.

I learn't this in the UK a long time ago.........never.....never......never ......take your car to a garage for an MOT!!!!!!!!!

Use a council run MOT testing station. They have no axe to grind, no little erners on the side....there's a list here

http://www.mx5oc.co.uk/forum/forums/t/205.aspx

As to the failures

Tighten the seat5 mounts, or weld up the hole that the seat has fallen through

Fit a new ball joint, a few quid and an hours work

Fit a new splitpin or a bit of locking wire.

Less than £50......................................then sell it

Rule 1 - never get your car MOT'd at the garage that will do the repairs. It's like signing a blank check.

I get my cars MOT'd at a number of places, but where I go to fix them depends on what needs fixing - specialist stuff goes to specialists, easy stuff gets done at home. Nothing ever goes to the chap at the MOT centre, and if he fails it he has to retest it for free, so he's less inclinded to make stuff up.

 Did he do the suck through the teeth bit?when rubbing his hands

I can hear them now...

we're in the money.we're in the money...

Andy take it somewhere else mate,i'll give you the number of the MOT station i use if you want?

Regards

Most of the fails will be quick and easy jobs, with the Haynes manual a weekend tops.

The advisories are exactly that, potential problems but not critical right now.

I'd take it to another garage, and tell them you think that you've been messed about. They can see the previous MOT on the system anyhow, so will know that it has been failed somewhere else - no point lying about it.

Either the car is virtually a write off (from that list it sounds like it is headed that way) or they are being incredibly tight or over-zealous.

Go to an MOT station that only does MOTs. I assume this is a garage that either wants her to trade in her car and buy something else, or wants you to pay them to do the work. Or, of course, your car is a death trap.

Jack.

Thanks for all the input, appreciated

Well, I left work early so I could take the car round to the garage so they could point out the bits that failed. The mrs rang them to say I would be there at 430. Got there, and the place was all locked up

Anyway, went back home, looked under the drivers seat, and saw that the latch that clamps down onto the runners was stuck in the open position. Five minutes later, a bit of a tap with a hammer to loosen it up, some silicone lubricant, and its now working fine. Maybe I should have taken the seat out so I could see properly first!!!

Took the wheel off the drivers side to look at the missing locking device:

Five minutes later, new split pin in place.

On to the other side of the car to look at the ball joint, fair enough, spotted this one straight away, it needs replacing. Does look a bit awkward as it comes in one piece as the upper wishbone. Not sure how I will get in to remove the two bolts that hold it at the top, as the spring is in the way. Think you can jsut make them out in the pic below.

 Must say Im tempted to get the garage to do this one. Saying that, they want 65 quid plus vat for the part, where I can get it for about 40 including vat. Then a couple of hours labour on top I guess...

Anyway, showed all this to the mrs, and needless to say, she is feeling a lot better now. I also showed her the "corrosion" that has been noted on the advisory. Absolute rubbish. There is hardly anything there, just the odd bit of surface rust, that could easily be rubbed down, treated and undersealed. The guy at the garage told her it will all need welding next year. I showed her the bushes, again, signs of wear, but nothing major. I said that the bushes cost a few pence, but to replace them, it would cost a lot more at the garage becasue of the labour of doing it.

Here is pic of a badly rusted spring according to the garage. Hmmm. Call me stupid, but it's just the powder coating peeling off!

In my view ,its a case of the garage was hoping that she would ring them up tomorrow and get them to do all the work, as some Im sure some people would do if they didnt know any better. Would be a nice little earner for them.

Needless to say, I wont be going back there after the re test. Cowboys springs to mind.

I'd suggest a call to VOSA as well while you're there.

They are all for MOT centres being thorough, but they take generating work by overstating condition fairly seriously - might stop someone else getting stung.

They may well want to come and have a look at the car and the paperwork you've been given, as well as what you were told by the garage.

It does look and sound a lot like trying it on to generate work.

Jack.

I guess there is a rail outside the garage to  hitch the horse to

Just to add, this is worth watching

<rant> Definitely sounds like you need to find a different test centre to take your cars to.  We're really lucky in that there's a great garage nearby that's been doing MoTs on my and my dad's cars for years and I trust them implicitly.  Your experience however is the reason that I don't trust most garages.

It really annoys me that they do crap like this - I know they're a business, but ripping people off isn't good business sense.  Unfortunately as was pointed out above, I'm sure that there are plenty of people who simply don't know any better and end up paying out £100s (or £1000s) on the back of an advisory like your other half's just had.

Grrrrrr! </rant>

Glad it's all looking less serious on the car front anyway :)

Amy.

Well, all 3 failiures are now fixed.

The wishbone cost £40, with a nice trip over the pennines in the 5 to collect it this morning, and then about an hour and a half to put it on the car. That included spending about 30 minutes cutting the old bolt ball joint bolt off with a hacksaw as it was rusted solid. The garage wanted a couple of hours labour for that...

In for the retest Monday, for one final visit to that garage

yes been there with several garages til we were recommended to the one we have used for all our cars for 14 years. Only had 1 failure on mot in all that time because he does such a good job in servicing our motors. He also told me when he worked for a franchise dealer before going on his own, the mechanics were paid more on a commission basis if they found more work on each car, even when it wasnt done or not needed!

You cant beat recommendation for anything, anyway good luck with the retest, let us know how you go with it.

 Didnt know these even existed - thank you for that