Hi,

I'm new to these forums.

I have a 2000 Felicia (V-reg) that I've owned for four years. Every year, it's failed its MOT because it needs new springs. I'm trying to gather information to see if this is a common problem with them. I do less than five thousand miles a year, mostly on motorways and duel carriageways. I'm a careful drive- I don't bump up and down curbs or anything like that. It has just over 100k miles on it now.

It's had all four springs replaced- two last year, and one per year the other two years. (That make sense?) Is it common? I guess that I'm slightly concerned that my garage is ripping me off- but it's the only one in the area that will service Skodas.

What is your experience with this?

Thank you!

Essentially the only ways it could fail an MOT on springs are if they are physically damaged, excessively corroded or incorrectly fitted (or if the spring mountings are damaged/corroded, but that's a different issue really). Otherwise under normal conditions I wouldn't expect springs to need changing within the lifetime of the car. The shocks are a far more likely failure, and the original ones are likely to need changing after about 10 years of normal wear, or less if they've seen heavy use or suffered from rust (quite a common issue on the Felicia).

I have to say I also find it hard to believe your other local garages won't service a Felicia - mechanically they're one of the most basic cars around and far, far simpler than anything modern and electronic.

Another point - if you'd like an unbiased MOT, find out where your local council MOT station is. Since they're only a testing facility there's no incentive for them to 'find' extra work that needs doing

i can only echo the above comment, the springs don't often go bad on these, but the dampers are well known for rusting through.

I have a 2000 Felicia (V-reg) that I've owned for four years. Every year, it's failed its MOT because it needs new springs. I'm trying to gather information to see if this is a common problem with them. I do less than five thousand miles a year, mostly on motorways and duel carriageways. I'm a careful drive- I don't bump up and down curbs or anything like that. It has just over 100k miles on it now.

There's something funny going on here - as said above the struts themselves are well known for rusting, but that's not an annual occurrence. And as far as driving style is concerned, that really won't be a problem; I used a totally standard Felicia FOUR times to recce the stages for Rally GB, and as a result it took plenty of beatings. It never had a problem with the suspension (or anything else for that matter), so it's definitely not going to be the springs.

As for them being the only garage that will service a Skoda, as said above they are as simple as it gets, so any decent one will do it, and there's lots of stuff you can do yourself with minimal tools/skill needed. I'd never have a car done by someone else, given the four times I have done have all been horror stories!

Am I reading this correctly? The garage replaced 2 springs in one year, and one each in each of another 2 years!!?

A competent and responsible mechanic would only replace springs as axle sets.

Everything else I'd have said already well covered.

Thank you. This is so helpful.

I live in a very rural area, so there's not many garages around. We don't have a council MOT centre, though there is one in a town about thirty minutes away.

The mechanic keeps saying springs, but could he mean anything else? I've only been driving for four years, so I'm still learning.

I'd have to find the MOT sheets for exact details, but every year that it's gone in, it has cost me at least £300.

Once again thank you.

£300 seems a little on the high side for a typical service and MOT - I've paid that much a couple of times in the past (on a Corolla and a Mondeo) but only when new tyres and things like brake lines were needed as well. As for part costs, whether it's actually springs or shocks involved, they're both about £50 a piece from Skoda, or a bit less (probably around £25-£35) for 'generic' replacements. I guess it's not impossible he's replaced the entire strut (shock + spring) for the sake of a worn-out shock, but that really is unnecessary work for the sake of it.

Just in case anyone's interested, here's a link to the elusive VOSA test stations, which are what I was actually thinking of last night:

http://www.transportoffice.gov.uk/crt/doitonline/bl/vosateststationlocations/vosateststationlocations.htm

There's one or two that don't do class 4 (PLG up to 3000kg, i.e. cars ), but most of them do.

Thank you. This is so helpful.

I live in a very rural area, so there's not many garages around. We don't have a council MOT centre, though there is one in a town about thirty minutes away.

Well, I'd go somewhere else - £300 buys you a fair bit of petrol (at the moment!) to get to a reliable, honest garage. £300 is a LOT of money for an MOT and service - MOT is about £50 or so, and a service on a Fel isn't going to cost the earth, it's a simple car. I spent less than that in 4 years on the one I used as a recce car, including all the MOTs and the servicing. Seriously.

So is a thirty minute drive to far for you to take your car to have the MOT?

i don't like the sound of this garage your using or the monies you have paid them.

i recommend that you travel the extra distance and have the MOT done somewhere else in the future.

On that note i remember when the garage i have been using for the last 5 yrs moved premises, they managed to MOT my car but had to fail it, but they then didn't have the equipment to do the work, so they took it to another local garage who MOT it again and failed it on six things!!! strangely, all six things things where different to the fails i had received from my garage! just goes to show how much they vary.

annoyingly one of the fails was for incorrect tyre sizes as i was running 205/50/15 on the front and 155/70/14 on the rear! this was because the car was used for drag strips at the time, but my garage had never given more than an advisory and this garage failed it!

£300 buys you a fair bit of petrol

ha £300 would buy you a whole felicia with tax and mot on ebay :yes:

On that note i remember when the garage i have been using for the last 5 yrs moved premises, they managed to MOT my car but had to fail it, but they then didn't have the equipment to do the work, so they took it to another local garage who MOT it again and failed it on six things!!! strangely, all six things things where different to the fails i had received from my garage! just goes to show how much they vary.

annoyingly one of the fails was for incorrect tyre sizes as i was running 205/50/15 on the front and 155/70/14 on the rear! this was because the car was used for drag strips at the time, but my garage had never given more than an advisory and this garage failed it!

Em, it's illegal to run smaller rear tyres than fronts on a road car.

Is it? Where does it say that?

MOT manual doesn't mention it as a fail anywhere.

Edited 17 February, 201115 yr by djaychela

^ i agree with darren, there's no regs which say the tyres have to be any matched or unmatched sizes front to back, but you must have the same type and size of tyre on each axle (in a pair)

Where do I say it's specifically an MOT failure? It's a breach of MV C&U Regs.

ha £300 would buy you a whole felicia with tax and mot on ebay :yes:

I paid £230 for a 1996 felicia 1.3 with some MOT on it at the end of january...

Where do I say it's specifically an MOT failure? It's a breach of MV C&U Regs.

Where?