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Post by lardy2001 on Jul 27, 2010 21:43:04 GMT
Hi there.
I'm a new poster to this excellent forum and hope you guys and girls may be able to help.
I recently took my Mazda 323F into have some checks carried out and as my MOT is due soon I asked them to do a pre-MOT check.
The following "faults" were found but unfortunately I couldn't ascertain from them whether any of these would be an MOT failure or not?
1. Coolant leak from sandwich plate to block 2. Sump corroded badly 3. Front Tyre's run out 4. Both anti-roll bar drop links worn 5. Slight run-out on both drive-shafts
Now I realise that if point 3 (Front Tyre's run out) means what I suspect it means (worn out) then this is clearly an MOT failure, which is easily rectified. But I was wondering if "run out" was some technical term for misaligned or such like?
So my question is would any of these faults (maybe apart from point 3) result in a MOT failure? If so are they expensive faults to rectify as the car isn't worth too much now!
Many Thanks in advance for your help.
Cheers
Matt
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Daveg
NT & VTS Council member
I believe I am perfect, but others may differ in opinion?
Posts: 1,549
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Post by Daveg on Jul 28, 2010 9:03:05 GMT
Hi Matt, welcome to the forum.
A coolant leak would need to be severe enough to cause overheating and serious loss, then the tester would refuse to test the vehicle because an emissions test cannot be carried out.
Again sump corroded badly, how bad, is there oil running onto the floor like a tap dripping, or is it just a slight leak?
Depending upon how bad the leak is, your vehicle could be a refusal to test the vehicle. With regards this point there has been a lot of confusion with testers over the years and oil leaks, some have thought that when a prohibition has been issued for a leak that telling the customer the vehicle has to go through an mot test again was pointless, but the part testers were missing was the car becomes a refusal to test it.
With regards the tyres the person probably means that they are out of shape, so again it depends how bad they are. What does the car feel like when you drive it?
If the tyres were bad to would feel a problem on your steering front axle, or when driving slowly you may feel the rear of the vehicle unstable. The best advise there is to get a qualified person to examine the tyres for you if you are unsure.
Anti-roll bar drop links worn. In the mot test there are guidlines for wear of bushes in the testers manual, but normally they have to be fairly bad to fail the test.
Finally, drive shafts to fail the test must be distorted. When the steered wheels are on full lock the drive shaft(s) will not turn straight without slight distortion, so the rule is to keep the steered wheels in the straight ahead position and check the alignment. If any one of the shafts are distorted noticeable, you would feel it when you drive the vehicle. I have only ever had to fail one drive shaft in my whole life for being distorted, but that vehicle had been involved in an accident.
Finally, there is no such thing as a MOT PRE CHECK. Only a qualified MOT Tester who has been trained by Approved VOSA staff at their Approved Sites can give the correct advice with regards issues surrounding the MOT Test Criteria and the standards to be applied. It is hard enough to get mot testers to agree standards, so to let commerical garages into the equation without mot proper training becomes a nightmare of misunderstanding ideas?
Dave
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Post by Matt Richardson on Aug 3, 2010 19:21:29 GMT
Dave,
Many Thanks for your reply - an excellent help, thank-you.
Coolant leak - no overheating, no warning lights and no day-to-day issue, just need to top up the header tank about every 2 weeks.
Sump - No oil leak at all.
Tyres etc - I had taken the car in to get this checked out as when driving in the wet my car went straight on when turning, but they suggested that the car was "safe" to drive - and thinking back I was probably going a little too fast to make the corner in the wet!
I assume tyres are under the MOT free re-test, so if I fail on the tyres (very possible I guess) then I can get them sorted and re-test within 24 hours for free?
Apologies for using the term "pre-test" - I couldn't think of anything else to call it!
Many thanks again for your help.
Matt
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