MOT's and garages

[audiman]

That is a very serious breach of MOT law, if you had reported that to the Vehicle Inspectorate they would have been forced to stop testing mot's for at least a year. Getting unqualified staff to do ANY check is against the law and so is writing out a ticket days later after the car was inspected.

In fact you can still report them now and their VI area chap will go in and inspect procedures undercover. Or they pick a car from the car park which has just been mot'd and two VI men do it to the letter of the law. BIG trouble if things are missed or allowed to pass.

Like APG said, the phone number is on the back of the cert. PHONE THEM.

[audiman]

One more thing whilst im in full swing, places like Kwik fit, LEX and AA centres are all pressurised by big bosses to sell parts. Most smaller garages are not like this. Also their staff(in general, not all are like it) are so limited in technical knowledge, yet people still trust them with their brakes!!! I know that my local branch of Bathwith Tyres refuse to do rear brakes as they are, and i quote, "too complicated, we only do the fronts". This came from the manager.

Also the start of the thread mentioned using heating equipment on the steering components. DONT. This can lead to the damage a) of the plastic balljoints and b) of the metal. The heat makes the metal deformed and weaken. NEVER DO THIS.

[Pete_RS2]

If the track rod ends are seized, you need to pop the track rods out off the steering arm and then take the track rod and adjuster off as one thing. You can then get it in a vice or soaked in a bath of hot oil to get it released - I had to do this on mine - or the garage, that was doing the alignment, did and he didn't charge any extra

Cover them in copper grease so they next time it is easy to do.

Please don't take it to kwik fit - they are f@#4ing muppets :wacked:

Do you need to remove the wheels to take the track rods off ? Mine are seized and need to come off to adjust the tracking but I can't get my wheels off at the moment since I broke the locking wheel bolt key....

[Greg_S]

yeah, you need to take the wheels off, wouldnt like to try it with them on because it would be much more awkward to do.

Greg

[Ski]

any good places i can go to within the manchester area? prefebly near old trafford?

at the moment my friend does all the work for me as its the cheapest and he gets the job done properly.

[salmon]

Just in relation to the earlier post, I bought a Mk1 GTI in my younger days, blinded by a noisy exhuast and orange paint I failed to notice it was a complete knacker.

I decided to get the MoT inspectorate to have a look because it had a new MoT, and they found 22 minor faults and 3 major, so MoTs in general aren't worth ther paper they are written on if you don't know what you are looking at.

Also german swedish and french car parts where cheapest by far for rod ends when I did mine.