No reason why not but read on....when I turned up with my 740 I found, to my horror, that the usual tester was not there (difference of opinions, apparently) and the new proprietor (of a couple of weeks) was doing the tests.
I was swiftly ushered away into the waiting room (after so many years I'd got sufficient rapport with the previous staff that I did the second mans job during my tests) and could only watch while the poor old Volvo was subjected to the most severe rogering that it has ever experienced, I kid you not, it took as long for the man to type out the two failure and three advisory sheets as it did for the actual test, I suppose he thought at 21 years old and nearly a quarter of a million miles the car deserved nothing less.
Now you're all thinking I have had an easy ride for the last few years and of course this is true to some extent but even the garage foreman was embarrassed and apologetic about this result.
The potentially most expensive failure point was leaking front struts. Fairly sure these weren't leaking, I inspected them immediately on returning home and found that the gland nut at the top of the piston, under the rubber shroud, was both bone dry and lightly rusted. The 'leak' was the waste oil that I had previously applied to the spring seat plate, an easy matter to clear up if I had been present during the test. Because I know the car and had the mechanical knowledge to stand my ground I was be able to get this decision reversed. Without knowledge an unnecessary expensive part would have been fitted or the car would have been scrapped.
Were it not for the computerised system I would have simply got a second opinion from another garage, but I now really have no alternative but to get the car retested at this garage, however whether I ever return there in the future is another question. This establishment is well off the beaten track, so relies purely on word of mouth. Therefore if the proprietor gets a reputation for harsh testing he will lose most of his trade. The facilities are fairly low tech so his clientele are those, like myself, who run older vehicles. Luckily my P4 is not due for test for another nine months so I have a little time to find a 'sympathetic' MOT garage, otherwse at nearly fifty years old it has no chance.
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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In a nutshell steptoe a young man of 21 really cant have the experiance needed to do mot testing (ok there are exceptions) he will always er on the fail or adviSe as he doesnt,/ cant have the experiance.
My mot testers are both in their early 30"s and in the 2 years they have been testing cars for me i have only once disputed a failure but for goodwill kept quiet about it (maybe he had a row with his wife? that morning) anyway they are both sensible and fair,something you need to have for testing machinery.
If it was me i would move on to pastures new if you are sure he was over zealous
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The car's 21 years old - no mention of the tester's age.
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You could go elsewhere, but you run the risk of encountering another unknown tester possibly with a different set of prejudices. I think on balance it's better to swallow your pride and simply put right the things he picked up.
I've noticed with older cars that even supposedly impartial testers go a lot on first impressions, and use unfamiliarity with older systems as a reason for failure or a caution.
I encountered a tester once who had clearly never seen a rear-wheel drive car before. He tried to convince me that the odd feel you always get when turning a drive-train backwards through one wheel indicated severe axle wear. I managed to convince him that straight-cut differential planet gears do sound like that, so he instead failed it on excessive rear wheel bearing movement. He refused to say what end-float he would find acceptable, and wasn't interested in looking at the specification quoted in my handbook. So I just accepted it and swapped the hub assembly for a spare. He didn't understand about end-float on that one either, but grudgingly admitted that it was probably less than the first, so passed it.
About 100,000 miles later the axle is still running well, and no other tester has ever mentioned gear or bearing wear.
My tip in future is always clean and polish your car before an MOT test, and give everything a cosmetic test beforehand, not just a physical examination. Testers are only human, and can't help being instinctively more impressed by a car that looks as if it is looked after and serviced. I know you were doing just that with your old oil on the spring pad, but testers don't understand the concept of oiling things to forestall trouble.
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Why use old oil? It's presumably full of sulphur and other nasties. There's a reason why you change the oil in your engine, isn't there?
My car gets £10 spent on it before its MOT for a complete wash, in and out, plus some blacking on the tyres from some Polish boys. It may be myth, but I understand that if a failure point is borderline, the MOT inspector can use his discretion to pass the car if he would let his family travel in it; and a clean car shows more evidence of owner-care than does a dirty one.
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I once (inadvertently) drove through a pile of the tester's alsation dog poo. He didn't pull that wheel around much!
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Why use old oil?
It's perfectly OK for stopping rust - that's what Steptoe is up to, these old Volvos were notorious for rotting out spring seats on the struts. Doubtlessly some who post on here would use Mobil 1 for this job!!
It's also perfectly OK for a garage owner to do MOTs - my father did so for many years. In many garages, there's only the boss and a lad - and as BB says higher up, in most cases the lad isn't up to it. The real requirement for an MOTer is responsibility. You don't *need* a great many year's worth of experience behind you to qualify as a tester.
The problem here is the new broom. Whenever there's a change in the ownership or status of an MOT station, VOSA take a special interest for a while. It's almost as if the tester is on licence, or on probation - if he attracts the attention of VOSA, he loses his MOT status, and probably a large source of income for his garage.
The garage owner is probably over-reacting to this VOSA keenness, but, in his shoes, it would take a bold garage owner to do anything more cavalier.
There's every chance that this garage will settle down and be OK - or alternatively annoy so many people the customers will leave in droves. Word of a harsh (or lenient for that matter) MOT tester spreads quickly!
Number_Cruncher
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Hmm, Bellboy, I like the word zealous, I will think about it every time I look at the advisories about the sagging headlining and the oil leak, both perhaps to be expected in a car of this age and mileage (still doesn't need topping up between changes though)
Actually I think you are all correct regarding the presentation of the car; it had just woken up from it's summer sorn, so being well coated with dust and with the two spare wheels in the rear plus the charger starter, must have looked like the archtypical vehicle fetched from the scrappie to try to catch the poor man out.
I am well aware of the need to present a tidy car, but in my defence, whilst I knew of the impending ownership change, I did not anticipate the new owner dispensing with the services of the previous tester and taking on the job himself. I guess he hasn't as yet built enough of a rapport with the existing staff (he had his own apprentice to assist with the MOT) for any of them to mention to him that I have 4 MOT's done every year plus occasional associated work
In fact what got up my nose, as well as the failure, was his attitude. Bearing in mind he is the new proprietor, presumably hoping to keep existing customers as well as gain new, a pleasantry or two to soften the blow would not have come amiss. As it was he sent the foreman over with the sheaf of failure notices and only grudgingly spoke to me when I came back to challenge the decision over the shock absorbers.
I will give him another chance next month with the motorhome which is both low mileage and beautifully presented, but any more zealousness and he will lose both my custom and my recommendations of the business.
Actually the point I was trying to draw out was while we are sometimes sceptical over having MOT's done at garages which also do repair work, is not the sole proprietor testing vehicles at his own garage even more a matter for concern especially when there is such a huge list of advisories and failure (by comparison, last year, no more than 2K miles ago, I got one of each)
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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Is he an authorised tester?
If you want a scrupulous test then chalk VOSA on the underneath of the car.
My sister in law is a VOSA inspector, and used to do loads of the mystery shopper stuff. One particular day she found that after the first one, all the known dodgy garages were doing proper tests. On return to their depot they discovered that someone had written vosa underneath. Presumably while she berated the first tester one of his mates had popped out and made his mark
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Well I was a garage proprietor for 20 years & I did most of my own MOTs as it was my licence & garage & if an inexperienced tester had missed something crucial it was my business that could have suffered. If you felt your test was unjustified then appeal. If you were that unhappy with it why an earth take a second vehicle there. you can still take it for another MOT elsewhere, I never took any notice if it had just been done else where as I carried out my own mot to my standard & felt confident with that. I too have seen harsh MOT's in the past.
A damp strut is only an advise & the oil has to be oozing out to fail or the damping effect inefficent to fail.
I never experienced any down sides with VOSA, infact as long as defects are advised but not dangerous its not a problem. My motto was if in doubt give the customer the benifit of the doubt. A long list of advises is healthy.
Doc
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Just to conclude the thread the Volvo did eventually get the coveted ticket after about two weeks efforts and a £250 bill. Much of the cost was in welding the floorpan, a fair cop as I can't weld, but I grudged the £100 bill for fitting handbrake shoes (how can these wear on a 740?) and a rear offside handbrake cable. Unfortunately I was away whilst the welding and the retest were carried out so had little choice but to agree to the work.
This has raised an interesting query; is there a VOSA standard for the amount of effort to be applied to the handbrake to reach the required efficiency? As it was only 3% down I had got it through the test, when I was the 'second man' under the old regime, by applying both hands to the handbrake lever ;). This time the tester explained that the cable, already frayed where it passes through the axle bracket (advisory) was pinging its remaining strands when he put the effort on.
So the total cost of the MOT was about £350, more or less the value of the vehicle, however the car has been very reliable in the past years, so I suppose better the devil I know. On a positive note the boss was much more friendly and approachable this time, obviously settled in now, and working as a team with his mechanics.
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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In fairness Steptoe you picked up the Volvo's weekness - as someone that's grown up with them and now has a 89 740 estate with 260K on the clock and a mate who head mechanic at a large Volvo dealership I live and breath them plus their Trucks everyday.
Anyway the Handbrake cable is a right pig it takes knowedge to set them up right not just how the book says and the shoes could have easily gone. if the bind on - although they don't bind on straight but at an angle.
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I'd take that Volvo 749 to a Council MOT Station if I were you.
In fact for any age of car I'd take it to a Council MOT Station.
Each Council MOT Station usually does thousands lots of taxi, police cars, and council vehicles per year, but by law they also have to also accept private owners cars for testing if they request it, although I got the impression they aren't keen to take on more work so they don't sort of advertise the fact.
I've got total confidence in them. Totally straight with them only failing items which are absolute fails - no funny business. Because they aren't set up to do any repairs, they don't have any incentive to fail you on anything.
Also they usually charge less than the standard rate. Took my brother's car in recently and the MOT was only £34. Ok it did fail on a minor item (new regulations on number plates - which i fixed myself), but I didn't have to leave the car with them, and I was allowed 7 days to return it for a free retest, which passed.
Theres more info at www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-mot and check out the running forum discussion thread on the outcome from many happy Council MOT customers (link on that page.)
(moneysavingexpert.com has been under DDOS attack since Friday so page may or may not load.)
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BT Depots do them as well if you ask nicely !
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During the mid-1960s up to the council boundary changes in 1974, I used to take my cars to the local council bus depot for their MOTs - just as in Artic's case no repairs were undertaken, the test was very thorough and any minor problems could be quickly sorted out.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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>> Anyway the Handbrake cable is a right pig it takes knowedge to set them up right not just how the book says and the shoes could have easily gone. if the bind on - although they don't bind on straight but at an angle.
If they are like the 240 the usual failing is that the shoes rust and the linings then delaminate and fall apart. And the disc/drum assembly can be rusted on solid.
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