MOT Failure - Price seems high??

[Petrol Pete]

Lemforder.

As I said , I fitted FEBI due to time and use constraints and have since had to replace them both due to wear . Off the top of my head I can't remember how long they lasted . I can check my records when I get home.

I know some 'known' brands like to push the price up a bit but you have to ask yourself why can you buy an 'identical' part for £30 when the 'named' one cost £100 ? I sometimes buy parts from MB but as I plan to keep my car I always research (as best as I can) where other non MB sourced parts are made.

Lemforder are OEM suppliers to MB but just like all other suppliers they have factories all over the world so no one should expect parts to have 'made in Germany' marked on them.

 

[ALFAitalia]

Even some of the parts from the factory are marked "Made In China".

 

[Riva811]

I had this crap in the past as well. this is more like "I will milk you MOT failures". Best thing to do is get your MOT at halfords.
Dust covers on suspension arms? I argued with my indie if i need to have them on, he said you didnt even have them on before and passed MOT just fine.
I also hard the parking break not having nough stopping effort, car goes into parking break just fine, indie passed it.

 

[OneForTheRoad]

Yeah I've just read that Drivetec is GSF's own brand apparently, is gsf a bad brand?

Gsf is a company. German Spanish french.

 

[OneForTheRoad]

Even some of the parts from the factory are marked "Made In China".

View attachment 158491

That'll be the label and box .

 

[ALFAitalia]

I had this crap in the past as well. this is more like "I will milk you MOT failures". Best thing to do is get your MOT at halfords.
Dust covers on suspension arms? I argued with my indie if i need to have them on, he said you didnt even have them on before and passed MOT just fine.
I also hard the parking break not having nough stopping effort, car goes into parking break just fine, indie passed it.

You were both wrong....its a definite fail......from the testers manual.

Defect	Category
(a) A suspension pin, bush, joint or bearing: (i) excessively worn (ii) likely to become detached	Major Dangerous
(b) A suspension joint dust cover: (i) severely deteriorated (ii) missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc.	Minor Major

Handbrakes have to pass a minimum efficiency on the rolling road (or tapley meter if its four wheel drive) to pass too......or its a fail.

 

[TC350]

I had this crap in the past as well. this is more like "I will milk you MOT failures". Best thing to do is get your MOT at halfords.
Dust covers on suspension arms? I argued with my indie if i need to have them on, he said you didnt even have them on before and passed MOT just fine.
I also hard the parking break not having nough stopping effort, car goes into parking break just fine, indie passed it.

I can understand the hesitation about accepting the need for work to be done when the MoT garage is saying they can do the work. You can’t help wondering just how necessary it is. But there’s no way I’d skimp on tyres, brakes or suspension - they’re the bits that keep me safely attached to the road.

I don’t want an MOT that lets me off some bits, I want a proper MOT that may save my life and the life of others.

 

[John20]

I know my parking brake

I can understand the hesitation about accepting the need for work to be done when the MoT garage is saying they can do the work. You can’t help wondering just how necessary it is. But there’s no way I’d skimp on tyres, brakes or suspension - they’re the bits that keep me safely attached to the road.

I don’t want an MOT that lets me off some bits, I want a proper MOT that may save my life and the life of others.

Hi I totally get that. For my case though, I'm 99.9% certain the MOT guy didn't put the parking/handbrake on properly. The reason being, is I've done it myself... you push the pedal down for the parking brake and it clicks few times, and you stop. So you think its fine, but then you quickly realize it's not fully on, it's holding the car a little bit... but not fully on. But if you push it down properly, it holds firm and strong. When I first started driving this car, I forgot to take the parking brake off because I#ve not had a car before with buttons for parking brake... and so I forgot to undo it and I'd goto drive away... especially after getting fuel and the car won't move. That's with me actually trying to drive away etc. I don't know when enabling parking break this stops the engine from actually being in D/Drive and engaging the wheels but I can certainly say it doesn't move. Even on a really really steep hill like in Dover, where you're almost driving vertically down some roads... the parking brake does it's job well.

That said, maybe the tests they carry out in MOT station will test the brake is even stronger than this, and maybe that's where its failing? I don't know, but it 100% holds the car very well in my real life situations

 

[OneForTheRoad]

I know my parking brake


Hi I totally get that. For my case though, I'm 99.9% certain the MOT guy didn't put the parking/handbrake on properly. The reason being, is I've done it myself... you push the pedal down for the parking brake and it clicks few times, and you stop. So you think its fine, but then you quickly realize it's not fully on, it's holding the car a little bit... but not fully on. But if you push it down properly, it holds firm and strong. When I first started driving this car, I forgot to take the parking brake off because I#ve not had a car before with buttons for parking brake... and so I forgot to undo it and I'd goto drive away... especially after getting fuel and the car won't move. That's with me actually trying to drive away etc. I don't know when enabling parking break this stops the engine from actually being in D/Drive and engaging the wheels but I can certainly say it doesn't move. Even on a really really steep hill like in Dover, where you're almost driving vertically down some roads... the parking brake does it's job well.

That said, maybe the tests they carry out in MOT station will test the brake is even stronger than this, and maybe that's where its failing? I don't know, but it 100% holds the car very well in my real life situations

Might be a bit low on one wheel ?

 

[Riva811]

I can understand the hesitation about accepting the need for work to be done when the MoT garage is saying they can do the work. You can’t help wondering just how necessary it is. But there’s no way I’d skimp on tyres, brakes or suspension - they’re the bits that keep me safely attached to the road.

I don’t want an MOT that lets me off some bits, I want a proper MOT that may save my life and the life of others.

Depends on what "dust covers" are in this context. For my car, the suspension arms can have an addon cover to prevent dust rotting the bushes. My car never had them on ever. I never saw an MOT failure on that
I did see a failure on the parking brake which works just fine as the OP mentioned.

 

[OneForTheRoad]

Depends on what "dust covers" are in this context. For my car, the suspension arms can have an addon cover to prevent dust rotting the bushes. My car never had them on ever. I never saw an MOT failure on that
I did see a failure on the parking brake which works just fine as the OP mentioned.

If your referring to the plastic caps , they're just for protection until the arms are fitted.

 

[Aristo]

Labour will be almost all of that cost - check their labor rates relative to others and I would always go for a specialist you trust - as what they may charge in labour will be made up easily by their knowledge and more efficient problem solving/remedy skills.

 

[DSM10000]

Sometimes cheaper isn't better.