I'm gonna say that despite the tone of this post I am not actually murderously angry, just pretty frustrated and deeply concered for my car :)

 

Pretty unimpressed, my car failed and is now out of MOT. I took it to a National tyres in Elgin and was suprised to hear it had failed. Brake efficiency! Cough splutter, please stand still while I murder you Mr test man. We can come back to that one, and rusty sills.

 

Now rusty sills, Mark looked at these on my request the other month and said something like, "Tom they're not the best, not the worst, will need doing some time they're now wax oyled and won't be rapidly getting worse." Totally what I expected and I plan to do a full Bodymech job on the car as funds allow next summer, me and Mark agreed this was sensible. Now I have some smirking test man with a toffee hammer and a strong arm telling me

 

"When I see an old car I go straight to the sills, give them a really good looking at."

 

I bet you do fella, pass me that hammer, actually you can keep it I am going to bludgen you to death with this 4 pot k sport rear calliper.

 

"The back brakes are too weak" lets play spot the difference pal, see those 17 inch brakes on the front, and the milk bottle tops on the back, and these new k sport ones to go on. I am not paying you for new rear pads!

 

I quickly took the car to another garage for a second oppinion where it is still sat waiting for a test. I am not after a dodgy mot, just a fair one, to look at the car you can tell it's no banger, held together with tape, it is a pride and joy. I will not pay a man with spry paint and an arc welder 300 quid to rip my side skirts off and pass it when I am going to pay 4 figures for a proper job next year.

 

Sorry, its upsetting to see my car like that, I feel i rescued it from national, I absolutely love the poor thing, I felt as bad as if they said my best friend had failed on rust!

The difference in front to rear does not matter,

50% front 16% rears is minimum,

If there all working right they should pass even with the biggest brakes in the world on the front has long as the rears have a minimum of 16%.

 

Sorry if I read wrong but sounded like your saying it failed cause fronts are a lot more powerful then the rears...

 

Just go back and put a complaint in and ask for a retest or your going to ring vosa and say its an lsd diff and was tested on the rollers...

they may think and pass it quick lol...

 

Tell them it should be tested with a deceleration meter with 50% front and 16% rears being the minimum.

Haha, I will keep that one up my sleeve Terry, the bloke was an idiot, couldnt point to a brake disc, he was the man that orders tyres on the pc I think. It probably failed for some genuine reason I don't really know but will report more clearly after this second oppinion, from a real mechanic with proper blue dungarees stood swearing and smoking roll ups :) he is my man for a sensible test, not a branded polo shirt in sight.

Given we know it does not cause any damage on the 300zx what your talking about is the actual Vosa advice that I highlighted, the key here though is the rules, regs and advice has to cover every car that can come in and every kind of roller tester so becomes generic in its application, any tester worth his salt will know what does and does not work in the real world and an experienced tester will have learnt many area`s of the test can be misleading, from this Terry I take it you never test cars with lsd or abs on the rollers? so you have not gained the knowledge then from actually trying it out to see if that is the case, widening your experience procedures is always a good thing and a little application of good sense goes a long way, but do accept in principle the rules state otherwise.

 

Jeff TT

 

No I dont because it can break them,

The wheels out of good practice should be tested independent and its easy just to use the meter,

If it can break the diff why chance it I don't understand just do it right and I know it wont break,

 

So your saying if one wheel is spinning on the rollers and the other is stopped its a good idea on an lsd...

I think any tester willing to test other peoples cars to find out is not worth his weight in gold,

By all means test yours but ill test mine with the deacclerometer.

 

Are you a tester jeff,

Edited July 5, 201411 yr by Terry

No but I am, and agree with you totally!-LSD's are bloody expensive and that is good enough reason not to roller test em IMHO!

National Tyres?-your asking for trouble,same as Halfords,Kwik Fit etc for MoT'S....................

Good luck,hope you get a pass!

If not, can you sill and MOt a car in time for TOTB :wacko:

Are you a tester jeff,

 

No, saying that I am not a chef but can cook my dinner.

 

Jeff TT

No, saying that I am not a chef but can cook my dinner.

 

Jeff TT

 

Lol...so can I but I doubt anyone else would eat it...

 

The problem with testing is vosa, u really do have them breathing down your neck,

They give u a manual to follow but leave the decision the tester, so if things go wrong they can blame the tester.

 

They say to test to the minimum and be has light as possible, then when they come round to do a check and just walk in there has hard as possible and make sure they find something to moan about...

 

I tested a corsa about 3months ago checked the headlamp aim it was good enough, I then done the rest of test jacking the car up etc, I then got a check has I pushed print they walked in,

 

So they check over it, headlamp aim is out by about a human hair lol, I say yeah but its been jacked up so may have not settled properly, I got away with that one,

 

Then the 2 front springs had the ends cut for lowering they were seated and doing there job and I knew the customer so I let it go 30 points for each front spring; but about a year ago this would of been ok but vosa changed the rules...

 

I had gone on the rollers got a lock on the wheels, I tested them both fronts both rears everything seemed fine,

 

He tests them individually each wheel the n/s rear showed up low but when we then tested them again together and showed him how I did it they jumped about and locked out,

So I asked do I have to test them individually he replied no but its good practice,

And said 20points, but he said from what u said in the interview this will be thrown out,

 

I got my papers through and no they didn't throw them out so I now have 80 points for 5years if you get 100points I loose my licence,

So I now have 5years with 20points 1thing found on a check I will likely be banned,

So its now an horrible job looking over my shoulder and to make it worse if you fail something being strict and mr vosa decides it doesn't warrant a fail you can still get the same points for being to nice,

It seems everything they do is based on an average the average tester does about 3and a half tests a day with I think about 30% fail rate,

 

I test an average of 11 tests a day with a 3% fail rate, so we show up red,

 

But most garages have more then 1 tester im the only tester some days I do around 20tests.

So im thinking of going back on the tools with no stress,

Or going back to doing engineering working on big nuts and bolts lol,

 

Its like have 9points on your licence and driving your zed around waiting for a speed camera to jump out on you lol...

 

And the reason I have a low fail rate is we do a lot of cars for garages near us and car traders that have been pre checked so they nearly all pass,

But vosa don't see it that way and walk in or send shoppers to catch u out...

 

And no doubt if I tested an lsd on the rollers then they kick off with that, so I'd rather just test it right then 1, I know I wont break it, 2, the lsd could possibly cause incorrect readings like its dragging, and vosa ain't gonna kick mu butt lol...

mot is a strange thing when you think about it. if it passes on the date and time it was done the car is deemed road worthy at that time. yet it doesn't say the car is road worthy from that point in time it was done. the system of mot is very floored indeed.

That does not make it flawed Dan.

 

It clearly states that an MOT is NOT a certificate of road worthiness.

yes on that day at that point in time but from there once you drive it away the mot does not say the car is road worthy. if you get were am coming from

that's flawed in its self you go to the mot to see if the car is road worthy. but you say the mot is not certificate of road worthiness its kind of strange

It does not make it flawed.

It would be criminal for the DVLA to say that a 12 month MOT certificate means a car is road worthy for those 12 months. A car can become unroadworthy just from hitting a pothole hard enough....and how many of those do you hit every year or even every month?

 

There are many things that make a MOT flawed in my eyes. But the fact that it is only a 12 month occurrence is not one of them.

I understand what you are saying 100% so in the real world your car was road worthy at the time of mot. yet like you say you hit a pot and do some damage you drive around no even knowing and the car is not road worthy. so testing a car is great in the day the mot was done. yet you me or anyone could be driving round in a un road worthy car

Better than it never being tested though and being un-roadworthy all the time.

Better than it never being tested though and being un-roadworthy all the time.

 

100% agree yes.

If not, can you sill and MOt a car in time for TOTB :wacko:

 

Lol!-you'll be fine mate..........