marcb

I'll have to take a good look at each shock - just in case one really is an aftermarket. Would they had aftermarket struts avaiable before I acquired the car? I understand your reasoning, But would this still apply if the hole position was distorted off-centre by a hammer or crowbar while the bolt in place and slack? It's only a flimsy sheet of painted mild steel. The rust marks seem to show it's displaced by than these couple of mm's this device is supposed to define. Honestly, the car hasn't gone anywhere it sits for months at a time in a garage block. Doesn't a spring need to be flexing to get stress cracking? Could a spring crack just sitting years under static load not moving? Oh I thought I made that clear. Yes, they said no, been thrown away. I have often. Once it turned out was just paint flaking off. Already. Lesson learned. Exactly. I've now spoke to someone who knows what they're talking about. I did consider that. With elastic thread and trignometry. Yes! Exactly. I've seen this so many times but this is the first time I've been caught myself. Lesson learned.

While speaking to the service manager of the Marshalls Skoda a few minutes ago to book it in, I asked him about this and he says he's often seen new cars with non-equal number of threads here, I asked "even 8 /13 threads?" he said yes and it varies quite a bit. Interesting. Hmmm..... Respond to online review.

I don't think it will be fair to name and shame them because I get the impression the entire motor trade works like this and doing so just for them would be unfair discrimination. I do feel for motor mechanics they are under constant pressure to get through the order book and customers are always demanding cheaper prices. If a bolt doesn't come undone or a tool breaks on the job they have to cut corners to get things done. So covers and brackets are missing. The price of made-in-china throwaway society. I'll be naming and shaming them to the UK DVSA for letting me collect an MOTd car with MOT defects, the split CV boot, red ABS/etc lights and unsecured brake flexys reaching moving parts are all MOT failures. I can't prove any of this but if enough people do this the government will investigate and intervene for the benefit of national MOT test standards. I'll also leave a fair and factual online review. Businesses can use negative reviews to their advantage to make their best improvements.

With their past record so far as converting a minor MOT failure into a crop of future problems the last thing I'll do is go anywhere near this garage ever again, let alone expect them to be able to put anything right without causing more issues. I'll recommend to anyone if you have a low mileage car like me that's never had any repair work since new and you want to keep it that way, to get a second MOT opinion before considering having "MOT work" done. Especially anything to do with engine or suspension.

It's not just about pulling to one side. If I keep the car now I expect tyres edges will start rapidly wearing too and then ball joints, bushes and wheel bearings soon start to go. ??Not quite with you on this?. The photos are quite revealing: rust markings on either side suggest one strut is now set higher than it was, and the other side now strut now set lower than it was. So are you saying it doesn't matter and that has no significant measureable effect on camber/toe? Fair point but if it's not anything I've pointed out so far then for sure something else is bent or twisted, out of shape or misaligned, or missing, like for instance the carrier bracket plate that someone mentioned before. Does that measureably affect toe/camber then? As I understand the 4-wheel-laser-alighment "tracking" places won't touch these bolts, only fiddle with the track rod ends and hope it fixes it, and then say "your bushes are worn/ result of dry steering/ braking into corners/ tyres are worn..." etc etc as a reason why they can't correct the alignment with the trackrod ends. Have I got this right?. Unless forced out of shape while in a hurry to get the job done? I doubt it ever had a coil spring issue to start with. The car is STILL on its original front brake pads and with plenty of thickness. This car only comes out a few days a month. And a broken spring? well that's completely impossible. I would had instantly noticed a pulling to one side or other on taking the car out. In any case the specific MOT failure was "fractured" not broken. They certainly didn't show me this supposedly defective spring, all I have is word for it. There'd never been an advisory from previous MOTs about an impending spring issue. Looks different maybe beause it's been bent out of shape? I would be very surpised if it is an aftermarket strut, the car has no history at all hardly used, spends most of its life garaged. Or maybe an aftermarket strut just now been fitted? ! Accident/warranty repairs previously? The car has no history as such before me I'm aware of, with me it's spent most it's life garaged, it's a low mileage time capsule. If it did had any previous repairs then I don't know about, in any case I've never noticed anything, I've never any issues with the car apart from a headlight bulb and a cracked rear tyre, that's all the history I have contributed. As to considering an 'idiot mechanic' or not, what's clear is the car was perfectly fine until this mechanic got into contact with it and cocked it up, having also left brake pipes flailing around, put back together wrong, missing brackets, letting me collect the MOTd car with a broken CV boot & red danger warning lights blinking, brake pedal like pressing down on a foam block, and more I've not mentioned, I think maybe someone else can put it better than me.

Mine is a MK2 like the lower picture. 61 plate. I keep calling it a MK1.

Very good advice indeed. Clean around the area before open and closely inspect and prepare the sealing faces before reclosing.

I think at this stage I've got less to risk by opening the hydraulics now than detaching the caliper. Some caliper bolts have threadlock gel applied so I'd prefer not to touch the caliper unless neccesary. My reasoning is there's an (still undiagnosed) issue with the brakes that I haven't mentioned: they seemed to had put an air lock (implying they must had removed a brake pipe). I think airlock because after they gave me the keys and MOT certificate and first drove away the brake pedal response was spongy and red brake and ABS and traction control lights all blinking on and off like a xmas tree. This was also at the same time the broken CV boot was splashing grease everywhere. At this moment the pedal slowly sinks to the floor while holding on a hill and there's a springyness in pedal movement neither wasn't there before the MOT.

Posting I was middle of writing suddenly posted by itself while I was trimming size, on the tablet I was using at the time the green 'submit reply' button suddenly jumped right under where my finger was pressing 'delete'. Then wouldn't let me delete the posting. And Edit only lets you delete text and any accidently added sections won't delete once added. So starting again... Me neither. The hole in plate dictates position is probably bent or distorted out of normal place by the big hammer or crowbar or whatever car mechanics use. What's clear is the car hadn't been reassembled correctly so all can do now is speculate. Yes as you point out there's quite a difference in (8/13) threads. I'd not considered this because I've not seen signs the track rod end threads been disturbed, there's no tooling marks on the nuts or rod hexagon sections, in fact signs of disturbance right here was the very first thing I'd looked for. If they had disturbed the track ends (somehow managing not to leave tooling marks) then it beggars belief why they would even want to disturb the track rods anyway? Unscrewing one right off the rack would be more time and work for them to do than popping it off at the joint with a popper. ...Unless they were deliberately trying to muck up the car for some reason. I certainly hadn't asked for toe setting. Just wanted the minor MOT failure (supposedly) fractured spring done nothing else. So it seems then it's normal for these cars to drive fine and straight .... up until the first ever mechanical intervention. I'm very lucky here as I'd escaped this until now being such a low use car. From that point forward there's then bits missed off and the car pulls to the left. I can see now how the car is so sensitive to wheel alignment going off, reading about plates that move position if the mounting bolts are slackened. I imagine these cars when they're built in the factory are put on a jig to align everything then all the bolts are tightened. Woe betide anyone slackening off these bolts after that. I think the take-away here is don't let mechanics touch your car, and I've learned the lesson is if you have a time capsule low use car low mileage and you ever get an MOT failure for front suspension: Get a second opinion first before anyone unscrews any nut bolt or screw as the car is never the same afterwards. Sigh.

Won't be any aftermarket parts on this car this is the first time had mechanical work, the car's like a time capsule spent most of its life garaged. The only thing been replaced is pair front tyres and one tyre at the back which had full tread depth but had an age crack (MOT advisory each year). Low mileage it's still on the original front brake pads. Why I'm now doubts whether there really was a fractured spring in the first place, they refused to show me the ones they took off said they "threw them away". "the dust boot is meant to just hang loose at the bottom" On my example the N/S shock the rubber dust boot neatly unclips and clips back down onto a circular plastic lip and it stays put there (while the car raised and fully extended). But the O/S (where there's missing parts) there's no lip at all to clip onto, the boot flails around like the photo posted. Maybe after all the years the plastic became brittle and it "fell off and got lost". Something missing there, it's difficult to believe the car was built that way and even less that there'd been an aftermarket shock on that side. That would had been before I got the car which was almost brand new at the time. I would had thought if it was loose all this time there would signs of water staining on the black paint. The garage disturbing the cross member? I wish I knew, god knows what they'd done to it, that could explain a lot. I'll have to take a look at the bolts for tooling marks and look for signs of put back different place. I see on the strut photos posted above, there's a hole the clamp bolt passes through. I guess the hole is to help get the wheel alignment in the ball park during assembly (and I guess the hole's position might even be calibrated at factory?). In my case I suspect the idiot mechanic wouldn't had respected that at all, likely bent it out of shape and render it useless.

Having looked again at videos, no tooling marks either side the track rod hexagon bar part. It would to had been spun round and round lots of times, no first few threads disturbed next to nut and no tooling mark on the nut to slacken it either. Looks like the steering was left connected and suspension leg somehow pulled clear out the ring clamp. Maybe the steering gear had been bent downwards. I've driven the car in the rain since taking the videos.

@ J.R. Hitting the CV joint. That might had been how they split the rubber boot. The two photos are one of each side from about the same angle. They're still from a video I took. If this 6mm difference isn't enough to cause the problem then there must be something else bent or twisted or missing , and I expect it's beyond reach of Sepulchraves advice. Good idea about them not able to break the trackrod end and choose to unscrew it right out, but there's no markings on the thread either side. They might had left the rack still connected and extracted the suspension leg. Disturbing the toe seeing would had explained the crooked wheel but not the pulling to one side that wasn't happening before. It seems too much a coincidence the wheel skewed to right by the same amount pulling to left. The car is noticeably more sensitive to changes in road camber now.

From what I'm seen so far with missing parts loose brake and ABS lines and other things I've not mentioned I'm very reluctant to let them get near my car ever again. Shoddy workmanship definitely. Appalling. I think they may also have omitted the rubber bump stop on the offside shock absorber, the rubber dust cover is flapping around with nothing to clip onto at the bottom. I think I'm on my own with this, I'm sure they're just going to deny everything if I got an inspection done they'll say they're not responsible for what happens after the car leaves their premises. Trading Standards yes. And report them to DVSA for MOT fraud for letting me drive away with MOT failure defects.

I think I might be answering my own question here. I've just sketched out what I think might be going on. Purple colour exaggerated. The suspension leg compresses OK to equal length both sides (weight of car), but the nearside stubaxle/hub/wheel-bearing-housing they'd positioned it much lower than the offside one. You can see the markings in the rust clearly that it's not been put back as they found it. The mind boggles how they couldn't have seen these markings and re-used them to put it back the way they found it. Or at least put paint marks or something.