I’ll leave others to comment of what ATS could or couldn’t do after the MOT, but as far as I’m aware once an MOT tester has started a test, he/she isn’t allowed to carry out any repairs during the test. I think we’ve all seen testers tweak headlight adjusters to get it within limits, but reinstalling a coolant hose wouldn’t be permitted whilst carrying out a test. They do get ‘mystery shopped’ - how would they know you weren’t from DVSA? Your car failed its MOT, so no reason to refund.

Thanks for the input.

I wasn't specifically saying the tester to do it just a Mechanic who surely could then retest it but nope too hard that was for them.

Edited by Lee182 on 16/07/2022 at 20:12

Firstly I've learnt my lesson here and will in future go to my local independent and not try a save a few quid.

I must have been in there about an hour trying to get them to just put the pipe and clip back on but nope nothing. I've never ever encountered anything like this in my life!

.

Myself I'd always stick to my local trusty independent. They have been great over the years.

Re pipe and clip, it's not just about sort of getting you going re a clip etc. It obviously failed for a reason and if they just put the pipe and clip on and it failed again and your engine expired going up the road who would be liable???

The other MOT issue at a place that can't do repairs is you might have to trailer the car to somewhere re repairs it as many MOT failures types mean you can't drive the car away legally.

Yep, that is the biggest lesson I've learnt over this fiasco. I would completely understand it if it was a 'burst water pipe' but for them not to even see the hose dangling in mid air is just plain wrong, what would it take for them to point this out to me, lazy jobsworths is all I can say.

Anyway rant over!

So-after you fixed the hose-did you have a re-test and did the car pass/fail?

What do you think! I wouldn't give them the steam off my p*** if they were on fire, sorry but I have respect for people and if the shoe was on the other foot I'd try to help out the person but hey that's just me I guess.

So-after you fixed the hose-did you have a re-test and did the car pass/fail?

What do you think!

I wouldn't give them the steam off my p*** if they were on fire, sorry but I have respect for people and if the shoe was on the other foot I'd try to help out the person but hey that's just me I guess.

Booked into a local actual competent Garage.

>>To be fair to the garage, they've done a loss-leader through groupon.

I think it's reasonable to expect the same treatment whether you have paid their normal price or used an offer. ATS didn't have to do the Groupon deal, but they did and they should honour it.

I would infer that that was the normal level of "service" at that branch.

I assume they do offers in the hope of recruiting new customers and selling the odd tyre. That has rather backfired on them if they punish the customer for using an offer.

I'd suspect your cooling fan isn't working. Stationary running for the emissions testing then caused the system to overheat, pressurising the system and blowing a hose off.

The normal pressure-relief point in a cooling system is not a hose connection to the radiator. So to that extent there was something wrong, but perhaps not enough to deem the car unroadworthy. IMHO the thermostat needs checking.

I have never paid full price for an MoT in over forty years. The number of fails I've had can be counted on the fingers of one hand and from memory they were all justified. I've had loads of advisories, most of which disappear the following year which is why I tend to ignore most of them. Some of the advisories disappear even with the same tester!

In recent years I've used Groupon deals and haven't had any issues. Maybe I don't look like a muppet that's begging to be mugged off.

So I will not go back and have advised my other family members who used to go of their customer service. Obviously this was only one dealership but for me… no more of my hard earned going their way.

This of course has nothing to do with an MoT. It goes to show the potential difficulty for such places in keeping up with clever gadgets in unexpected places on modern cars (or other kinds of appliance). Hopefully it was a lesson learnt by the clumsy lad.

Like you, I decided not to patronise my nearest MoT garage after their latest work, where they serviced my car without reference to the written instructions I had given them the day before. I informed them that I would not be making use of the free next service they offered in compensation.

There are numerous reports of aluminium TPMS valves failing catastrophically when the cap is removed. Often this is due to metal (steel) caps being used causing bi-metallic corrosion. Presumably though, in your case a different cause for the initial loss of pressure was identified.