Jump to content

Tales from the testing lane.


Barry Cade

Recommended Posts

The audi failed on excessive play in a front upper suspension arm. Had a wee look online and apparently the pinch bolt is a mare to remove. GR0.1 news as I was hoping to travel north in it tonight. Looks like the 'stro will have to bail me out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If it's an a4 or a6 then yes the upper balljoints pinch bolt can be seized solid. Get a new one first. Also the inner end of the suspension arm bolt is facing the wrong way for one of them and the strut needs to come out too iirc. Fun fun fun. Why the Fuck Audi and Vw thought having a total of 12 balljoints on the front steering and suspension was required is beyond me. Don't get me started on the rubber mounted track rod ends.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tested a low mileage 2005 Agila today. Balljoint gaiter split, original rear tyres were so badly cracked between sidewall and tread, that plies were visible... customer didn't flinch, said "Get on with it"..... everything on the suspension came undone instantly, and went together smoothly (Think Mk3 Escort front suspension for an idea of what I did)  Whole repair was a lot less than an hour, and a few minutes back on the testing ramp for a retest. Happy me, happy customer. I still fancy an early Agila......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

any testers help with this one, been to look at some shite for a mate to see if it was worth buying, and it was but we walked away, its got an MOT pass cert but the emissions all say aborted and there are no emissions results on the last MOT. previous MOTs show it flew through the emissions test at the same garage. The seller said he hadnt noticed and wonders if their machine was dodgy on that day or something. as i have said we walked away unsure as its something ive never seen before. is this wrong?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

An emissions printout for the customer isn't mandatory, but the MOT station have to keep a copy for at least 3 months. Surely it'd be worth popping the car into a local MOT place, give the guys some cakes and ask if they'll do a quick emissions test? If the emissions tester goes down, you have to stop testing. Most "dodgy" places will just stick the probe up another tailpipe to get a printout...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As this is drifting towards an "MOT Testers difficult question thread"

 

I have read the gov.uk bike MOT stuff but am still confused.

 

For an 1999 sub 50cc "restricted moped" MOT is it if no lights fitted, no brake light, no reflector, no speedo, no indicators, visible tyre tread ??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As this is drifting towards an "MOT Testers difficult question thread"

 

I have read the gov.uk bike MOT stuff but am still confused.

 

For an 1999 sub 50cc "restricted moped" MOT is it if no lights fitted, no brake light, no reflector, no speedo, no indicators, visible tyre tread ??

I was also a class 1 and 2 tester- what do you need to know?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My nominations for this years rustiest car model award goes to...

 

 

 

Drumroll.....

 

 

The Jaguar X-Type. These things rot like they are made out of recycled Ka's.

These are a few pics,of by far the worst I've seen of the 3 I've failed in the last couple of weeks for the same sort of thing, and this one had already had sills... 51 plate 3 litre 4wd, the fail sheet ran to 3 pages, and wasn't even a full test- had to be abandoned as it ran out of fuel on the ramp...

 

On a better note- have a pic of a Beta Coupe I spotted next to a harbour yesterday (not kidding- Elie harbour).

 

 

post-62-0-11600700-1398712641_thumb.jpg

post-62-0-97036900-1398712666_thumb.jpg

post-62-0-32515300-1398712733_thumb.jpg

post-62-0-56897100-1398712760_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tested a car straight after service, where on driving it into the workshop for service they thought the brakes were rubbish.  Freeing off the sliders, fitting new pads and changing the fluid proved to be too much for the master cylinder and the pedal was non existent. The customer did mention that the brakes hadn't felt right for the last year.  It was booked for test with no later test slots available, so I tested it.

 

Service brake total effort was 0%, brake pedal had no reserve travel, brake pedal sank to the floor and the service brake failed to operate a brake, that's 4 fails straight off and all had the dangerous box ticked.  We couldn't get a new master cylinder for it and fitted a seal kit, the retest was fine.

 

We see a lot of Jaguars in for test, I've seen X type sill rot but not to the extent shown above.  The steel XJs like to rot close to the front suspension within the wheel housing, there's a lot of metal there so it's years before it becomes a fail.  I've had an S type with a cracked wheel and recently a couple of XFs where the brake hose has been fouling on something and those XKs do seem to be particular about which pipe you shove the emissions probe up, if you get the wrong one the lambda reading shows too high and thjose new shape XJs are heavy things to jack up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Cheapskate leasing companies.  Had a car in for test with the front tyres having a good 5mm of tread on them on the outside, on the inside of one the cords were showing - got a fail and dangerous, the other one was well worn on the edge and not failable - got an advise.  On the retest one tyre had been replaced, no alignment had been done and it'll onle be about a week before the other tyre is dangerous.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Seeing quite a few Vauxhalls lately with rotten subframes- Zafira's seem to be the worst. What's more worrying is that I can only see this if the undertray is missing, last one was rotten right where the wishbone mounting is, and I'd have given it a few weeks before the wishbone parted company.. One to watch.

 

New style Honda CRV's too, rotten power steering pipes. I now check these VERY carefully. The CRV seems to be of poorer quality that other Honda's in the range

 

Had a 2002 Fiesta TDCi in, failed on a fuel leak. Plastic fuel pipe had rubbed through on the air filter box, and as a biker, fuel leaks are a BIG no-no for me. Phoned Ford, to be told the pipe comes complete with a load of other pipes, and the primer bulb... £118+VAT. As it was a mates, I spent my lunch hour cutting out all the plastic pipe and replacing with proper rubber pipe, and making sure nothing was within rubbing distance.

 

Seem to be having a run on Mini, Mk6 Golf and new shape Audi A4 front wheel bearings too..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sod it, about a month late but harking back to rear drum parking brakes of the top hat design, BMW's etc.

 

MB owners note, the parking brake (foot operated hand released) is good and the parts don't rot out, but eventually when enough crud  has found its way into the brake then that crud will wear the brake shoes into mega grooves, when this happens and you need to replace the rear discs then highly likely new shoes will be required.

 

The horseshoe clips are a bastard unless you buy the correct tool to compress them, they are tucked behind the hub which is much heftier than the BMW one shown in the pic above, there are two large holes in the hub to allow the special tool to be used to release those springs...its possible but hells own job to replace them without this tool, i foolishly did, but it took hours to do, the scars and pinch blisters on my hands hurt for weeks and my neighbours learned a whole new vocabulary, never again.

 

 

i can't get the link to post (as bloody usual) but the tool you require is a Sealey Parking Brake Tool...Mercedes                ebay number 290771911601    roughly £12 and worth every penny trust me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Apologies to Barry/Tiff for the thread hijack.

 

As some of you may be aware I took over an existing MOT station at the beginning of the month. I do get some interesting old chod in every week.Today aswell as a 1959 Wolseley a Chesil Speedster came in.The reason I'm posting here is this.The previous station owner MOTed this nicely built kit car last year.The Chesil has done less than 100 miles since and has excessive play in two wheel-bearings.

 

These kits are built on VW Beetle floorpans and like I say this one was well built.I don't think Beetles had anti-rollbars (could be wrong) yet full right hand lock and the nearside tyre is rubbing on the ARB.You can see the wear marks on the sidewall so it's been doing this for some time.There is nothing broken or any movement on that side either.Looks to me like it was missed last year.

 

The previous station owner has retired but wanted to come in a couple of days a week for a bit of extra cash.Today was going to be one of those days yet for the second time he didn't show up.I'm so glad he didn't turn up today.If he missed stuff like this when it was his business imagine how lax he would be when just an NT.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Apologies to Barry/Tiff for the thread hijack.

 

As some of you may be aware I took over an existing MOT station at the beginning of the month. I do get some interesting old chod in every week.Today aswell as a 1959 Wolseley a Chisel Speedster came in.The reason I'm posting here is this.The previous station owner MOTed this nicely built kit car last year.The Chisel has done less than 100 miles since and has excessive play in two wheel-bearings.

 

These kits are built on VW Beetle floorpans and like I say this one was well built.I don't think Beetles had anti-rollbars (could be wrong) yet full right hand lock and the nearside tyre is rubbing on the ARB.You can see the wear marks on the sidewall so it's been doing this for some time.There is nothing broken or any movement on that side either.Looks to me like it was missed last year.

 

The previous station owner has retired but wanted to come in a couple of days a week for a bit of extra cash.Today was going to be one of those days yet for the second time he didn't show up.I'm so glad he didn't turn up today.If he missed stuff like this when it was his business imagine how lax he would be when just an NT.

 

 

Chisel? Chesil, right?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, many Beetles do have front anti roll bars: clipped to the bottom of each lower trailing link with two grommets inside steel clips.

And a vile (if cheap) job replacing them is too.

post-17481-0-50031200-1403121377_thumb.jpg

 

As with anything Beetle related there are any number of crap aftermarket alternatives, most of them should be failed for "being more shit than the original"

post-17481-0-37692200-1403121492_thumb.jpg

 

I seem to remember that Beetles have a separate lock-stop adjustment: stops for each direction acting on the steering arm.

On the top photo you can see a polished nut on the lower trailing arm and a corresponding groove on the tyre. A fault seen on several of the Beetles that cluttered up my life at one time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd want to fail that beetle for being stupid. I can see a Scat sticker and a anti-roll bar that looks like it's attached with various bits of B&Q hardware. The anti-roll bar looks like it's being ground off, the front tyres are stretched and the back wheels have daft camber. And I really hope that's not just a bit of fencing support metal I can see between the beam!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Surprised to have to have failed a 2003 307 today on sill rot- felt it weak under the thick sealer on the sills and was surprised how far it had gone once it was cleaned up. Renners are bad for this,as are Focus's . You can't see it, but a good squeeze with thumbs and it becomes clear... I much prefer gas welding to the horrible ordeal that is Mig. Use it wherever I can. The hole was the whole lenght of the patch..19.5 inches of ROT.

 

In other news, I have heard that the JAG featured earlier.....has been repaired??!!  This I want to see...

 

post-62-0-39026800-1403200292_thumb.jpg

 

post-62-0-26227700-1403200320_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...