Mechanic ripping me off?

[van ordinaire]

If only the MoT was just about brakes, steering & similar safety related items - but now . . .

Is it any wonder that it takes at least 1/2 as long again as any other's equivalent test.

Getting back to the original trackrod ends issue, while those pictured are clearly not new, they do look relatively recent, so wouldn't have failed; unless of course, they're s/h replacements!

[white exec]

Agree, those track rod ends look recent, but not shiny-new.

[Bick]

Second hand bits?

[picassodad]

MOT and new track rod fitted a week ago, the newish one seen in the picture with the old nut and corroded threaded part, that much corrosion in a week ??

Mr Brown said " I can show you chemicals that will do that" but what do they do to the road then Mr Brown??????

The MOT is a farce, but a little bit more tigher than last year.

MOT's should be done via non business people, government people, so no back handers etc..

Businesses are in business to make money. The cost of setting up an mot test station is huge. Upset a customer and you never see him again. He tells at least 100 people" oh dont take it there, they will fail the mot !!! " and so it goes on.

VOSA staff can decend on any MOT test station and shut them down for any wrong doing, even the wrong order of doing the test.

MOT testers can go to prison these days.

That is not a new track rod end, to get that corroded in a week, your car will deslove in a year.

Go back and demand to see the old parts.

[Gibbo2286]

MOT and new track rod fitted a week ago, the newish one seen in the picture with the old nut and corroded threaded part, that much corrosion in a week ??

Mr Brown said " I can show you chemicals that will do that" but what do they do to the road then Mr Brown??????

The MOT is a farce, but a little bit more tigher than last year.

MOT's should be done via non business people, government people, so no back handers etc..

Businesses are in business to make money. The cost of setting up an mot test station is huge. Upset a customer and you never see him again. He tells at least 100 people" oh done take it there, they will fail the mot !!! " and so it goes on.

VOSA staff can decend on any MOT test station and shut them down for any wrong doing, even the wrong order of doing the test.

MOT testers can go tp prison these days.

That is not a new track rod end, to get that corroded in a week, your car will deslove in a year.

Go back and demand to see the old parts.

You are kidding, you think government employees don't take backhanders.
The reason the MOT is done by private companies is because the government couldn't afford to fund it at its outset, put all the costs and the risks on the garage trade.

Each year there's a new cost for the testers, when it started all you needed was a headlamp tester a jack/ramp and a brake tester, a hand held one that you popped in the car and did the brake test on the road, nowadays there's a hundred grands worth of kit needed and it's all at risk if one of your testers does a favour for a mate and gets you struck off.

[white exec]

Vehicle testing (the ITV) is done here by a network of regional government funded and operated test stations, each with 4-6 lanes, and capable of handling the largest HGVs as well. Latest equipment; vehicle amd tester both digitally photographed and time-stamped. Very professional, with no involvement of business or trade. Cost i.r.o. €42 for the test, which now includes connection of OBD for checking certain systems/parameters.

[GiveMeABreak]

which now includes connection of OBD for checking certain systems/parameters.

That last bit interests me Chris; is the connection for testing purposes or is this for diagnosis?

I would be interested to know if they undertake some sort of checks to see if ‘certain systems’ have been switched off I wonder. Appreciate the XM won’t have anything too modern like TPMS, etc., but am curious,

[Mandrake]

For those not familiar, the whole reason OBD-II exists in the first place was not to provide easy diagnostics of cars (although it does that too!) but because the US department responsible for vehicle testing (don't know the agency name off hand) wanted a cross-manufacturer, standardised way to to get emissions related data from the on-board computers as part of their vehicle testing...and this was legally mandated starting in 1996.

So every time you take a post 1996 car to it's vehicle test in somewhere like California (which is the strictest of all US states) one of the first things they do is plug in an OBD-II reader as part of the test to check for any self reported faults such as rich/lean running, misfire counters, catalytic converter efficiency faults etc... if the car's ECU reports emissions related faults, it's a fail! This is in addition to performing actual emissions tests with a gas analyzer.

So while most other countries haven't previously used OBD-II as part of the MOT test it makes perfect sense, because that's what it was invented and standardised for in the first place.

[GiveMeABreak]

I'm not sure what data they would get for emissions in Europe though - I mean as long as a regeneration is recorded for those systems with active regenerative systems, that would be useful to show mileage in between regens - not sure about passive systems though. I can't see how over here and in the case of where Chris is based in Spain, that they could fail a car for having the mixture too rich or the soot loading too high as that isn't really relative - but I'll have to do some research to see what I can dig up.

[moizeau]

California is very strict. If you import a bike, first thing..rejet the carbs and get a European exhaust, you're down 20 bhp on an old Z or GS before you start

[bobins]

California is very strict. If you import a bike, first thing..rejet the carbs and get a European exhaust, you're down 20 bhp on an old Z or GS before you start

In a highly unrelated, but strangely coincidental incident - I'm actually stripping and rebuilding an old set of '86 Kwaka ZX1000 carbs for my brother at the moment... as in : I did one yesterday, and I'll do another 1 or 3 tomorrow Not a US import, so no issues there, but the previous owner had managed to put one of the emulsion tube jets in upside down

......I believe I might have scored 8/10 there for an FCF posting going off topic

[moizeau]

Can we have a pic of the bike please?

[bobins]

Not at the moment, I'm afraid, as it's quite a few miles away I can do a picture of one shiny carb that's been cleaned versus three that haven't though

kwaka carbs - own work

[picassodad]

Was told at interview by interviewer that " vosa has a bottomless pit as far as funding goes"........