need a quick answer

[marilyn0-84]

I've recently had 4 new tyres fitted,an mot,and from my mot i had my front wheel bearings done.i've been told i've got brake fluid leaking and ive got a loose ball joint at the front suspension.can this be true so soon after mot?
should any of this been picked up at the mot?
also have wearing bake pads.

[Agent_Smith]

how long ago was the mot? also an mot is is only as good as the vehicle was at the hour of mot,, ie... you could have put somebody elses tyres on the get it through the mot and put you bald ones on straight after??

cars can go wrong at any time and i suppose the examiner could of not thought the problem was serious enough to fail the mot with?? did they not give you an advisory sheet with the mot??

[marilyn0-84]

the mot was about 5wks ago and they were brand new tyres fitted.the work is being done the same place where the tyres were fitted the mot was done and previous work. it was my mother in laws car its 5yrs old and there has been a lot of work done over the yrs but i've always thought shes had a raw deal when shes put it into different garages and now it's my car i want to make sure i get the best care and obviously at a good price.

[Agent_Smith]

it was just an example about the tyres?

i think that if you trust the garage then let them do it, i have recently taken a van to my local mot centre and besides the failed item's they also gave me a adviced sheet that told me that my brake pipes could do with being checked in the not to far future???

[Buenchico]

(Posted in 2 parts):

Leaking brake fluid isn't that easy to spot on a cursory examination. I once had a problem with 'soft' brakes on my car. I took it one of the big companies that deals mainly with tyres, brakes and exhausts. They took the whhels off and diagnosed worn brake pads, which they replaced. When I drove away, the brakes still didn't feel much better. I took the car to another (similar) company, to take advantage of their free brake check. They couldn't diagnose the fault. Eventually, took the car to a firm (KwikFit) who said "We don't do free brake checks because the only way to really check brakes is to take the whole assembly apart. We charge �20 for that but we refund your money if we carry out any repairs". It was only then that two leaking brake cylinders were discovered.

My point is that leaking cylinders can be hard to spot. All that the MoT test involves is a quick visual check (without taking the whole brake assembly apart) and a check (using a rolling road) that the brakes meet the minimum standards for efficiency. As long as the car gets through the rolling road test (and there's no problem with the visual test), it will pass that part of the MoT. (Even if the examiner can see that the brake pads are low, he'll still pass the car if it can get through the rolling road test).

[Buenchico]

As far as the loose ball joint is concerned, the examiner shouldn't have passed it if it presented a potential safety hazard but he would ignore it if it was very minor. (The examiner's duty is to ensure that the vehicle is safe to drive immediately. He has no way of knowing whether you drive 5000 miles per year or 50000 miles per year, so he can't be expected to certify that nothing will go wrong before the next test. It's only the 'here and now' which counts).

I can't see that there's any way that you can criticise the MoT examiner. As far as your local garage is concerned, you need to think about the way they work. Some garages try to ensure that every car they service is kept as near to new condition as is possible for its age. There's nothing wrong with that approach but it does mean that they'll be keen to change any part as soon as there's any sign of wear. Other garages (like the one I use) see their duty as simply ensuring that their customer's cars are safe, legal and reliable (but not necessarily 'as new').

The first type of garage will constantly find plenty of jobs which 'need doing'. Garages like mine only do 'what's necessary'. Neither of them are actually 'fiddling' you. It's just that they work to different philosophies. Choose your garage with care!

Chris

[__LEE__]

Where was the brake fluid leaking from.? front or rear?

was the bearings done 5 weeks ago too? reason i ask is because its quite easy to damage a front ball joint while changing a bearing. so it may have been ok at time of test.

Buenchico.. Worn pads do fail a MOT test. there is a 1.5 mm limit.