Probably one for Mottie, Carmemoranda, and anyone connected with the MOT scheme, please!
Long story (slightly!) shorter... My dad had to give up driving recently. He has an absolute howling dog of an old Freelander, (2001 vintage) with about 175,000 miles on it. Really, it needs scrapping, but he loved it to bits, and like a mug, I told him I'd try and get it one more year... Not entirely altruistic, as my middle sprog is learning to drive, so as my dad's not using it, I thought it could live out the last of its days with some L-Plates on it.
I gave it the once-over and yeah, there were some holes in the sills that needed welding... fair enough. However, the big one, was that there were also some small holes in the rear subframe. They're impossible to weld due to their location, and good second hand rear subframes for those, are like hens' teeth.
So I took it in to my local MOT place, who I've always had a good relationship with. It failed on the holes in the sills, an ABS light on, and (bizarrely!) a rust hole in the boot floor - but crucially, NOT the rear subframe - hooray!
The ABS light was a mistake on their part. It's fine, but on the Freelander 1, it doesn't go out until the car gets over 5 MPH and the control unit sees a good signal from all four ABS sensors. I'm sure they'll be reasonable about that, if I show them the bit in the handbook explaining how it all works. (But I'm curious, because they said they tested the brakes with a Tapley meter due to its permanent 4WD system, so they must have driven it above that speed to do the brake test)?
The hole in the "boot floor" was a joke! It's entirely non-structural. The boot floor was fine, the "rusty bit" was actually the remains of a 2" drain bung that Landrover put in a recess when the shell was being dipped, to let the fluid out. It's only held in with seam sealer!
Anyway, when I got the tester to come out and show me the bits he was talking about, I thought I'd best not antagonise him and just agree to weld up this drain hole, but unfortunately, he then spotted the subframe holes that he'd missed! I jokingly said "well, you can get me next year on those", and he laughed at the time but...
...I've just called to book the restest for Friday and the girl on reception said they were very busy and can't fit me in for a retest until Tuesday - which will be 11 days... That's unusual for them, because every time in the past, they've just squeezed it in if I leave it with them for the day, as they only have to check the bits that have failed. I've therefore got a horrible feeling that I'm about to be stung for a full retest, AND that I've just done a load of welding for nothing, because this time, it will fail on the subframe...
I wouldn't really have minded it failing on the subframe in the first place, as I'd have only paid one MOT fee, and just scrapped the car instead of doing a shed-load of pointless work... (and ordering all the stuff to give it a service...)!
So, at the end of that long tale of woe, question for the MOT-savvy on here:
1. Does my "10 working days" for a partial retest include the day of the first failed test itself?
2. Does it include Saturdays?
3. Do MOT stations have any discretion on this, or is it all DVSA computer-controlled so that as soon as they type in the registration, the computer will decide?
4. I'm assuming I can't take it to another station before then for the partial retest within the 10 days, and that it HAS to be the station that originally failed it?
When the receptionist told me, I said "Oh, but that's going to be outside of my 10 days for a retest!", she said not to worry about that, "it'll be fine", but I'm not sure that wasn't just to try and reassure a worried punter. They've always played very straight with me in the past, and I know the proprietor quite well as his kids went to the same primary school as ours.
Long story (slightly!) shorter... My dad had to give up driving recently. He has an absolute howling dog of an old Freelander, (2001 vintage) with about 175,000 miles on it. Really, it needs scrapping, but he loved it to bits, and like a mug, I told him I'd try and get it one more year... Not entirely altruistic, as my middle sprog is learning to drive, so as my dad's not using it, I thought it could live out the last of its days with some L-Plates on it.
I gave it the once-over and yeah, there were some holes in the sills that needed welding... fair enough. However, the big one, was that there were also some small holes in the rear subframe. They're impossible to weld due to their location, and good second hand rear subframes for those, are like hens' teeth.
So I took it in to my local MOT place, who I've always had a good relationship with. It failed on the holes in the sills, an ABS light on, and (bizarrely!) a rust hole in the boot floor - but crucially, NOT the rear subframe - hooray!
The ABS light was a mistake on their part. It's fine, but on the Freelander 1, it doesn't go out until the car gets over 5 MPH and the control unit sees a good signal from all four ABS sensors. I'm sure they'll be reasonable about that, if I show them the bit in the handbook explaining how it all works. (But I'm curious, because they said they tested the brakes with a Tapley meter due to its permanent 4WD system, so they must have driven it above that speed to do the brake test)?
The hole in the "boot floor" was a joke! It's entirely non-structural. The boot floor was fine, the "rusty bit" was actually the remains of a 2" drain bung that Landrover put in a recess when the shell was being dipped, to let the fluid out. It's only held in with seam sealer!
Anyway, when I got the tester to come out and show me the bits he was talking about, I thought I'd best not antagonise him and just agree to weld up this drain hole, but unfortunately, he then spotted the subframe holes that he'd missed! I jokingly said "well, you can get me next year on those", and he laughed at the time but...
...I've just called to book the restest for Friday and the girl on reception said they were very busy and can't fit me in for a retest until Tuesday - which will be 11 days... That's unusual for them, because every time in the past, they've just squeezed it in if I leave it with them for the day, as they only have to check the bits that have failed. I've therefore got a horrible feeling that I'm about to be stung for a full retest, AND that I've just done a load of welding for nothing, because this time, it will fail on the subframe...
I wouldn't really have minded it failing on the subframe in the first place, as I'd have only paid one MOT fee, and just scrapped the car instead of doing a shed-load of pointless work... (and ordering all the stuff to give it a service...)!So, at the end of that long tale of woe, question for the MOT-savvy on here:
1. Does my "10 working days" for a partial retest include the day of the first failed test itself?
2. Does it include Saturdays?
3. Do MOT stations have any discretion on this, or is it all DVSA computer-controlled so that as soon as they type in the registration, the computer will decide?
4. I'm assuming I can't take it to another station before then for the partial retest within the 10 days, and that it HAS to be the station that originally failed it?
When the receptionist told me, I said "Oh, but that's going to be outside of my 10 days for a retest!", she said not to worry about that, "it'll be fine", but I'm not sure that wasn't just to try and reassure a worried punter. They've always played very straight with me in the past, and I know the proprietor quite well as his kids went to the same primary school as ours.
Car's worth maybe £500 and the postage was pretty steep... 
