I have booked my car yesterday 12/09/2013 for an MOT at 14:00 the manager told me someone would call at 15:00 at 15:30 I called and was told my car failed due to drivers side dipped beam being too low. I went over there and inspected, I was shown the adjustment doesn't work on the headlamp unit. I have asked the MOT technician to try the same adjustment on the passenger side headlamp and when he did try to adjust the dipped beam with the same adjustment the lines did not move, so the conclusion was that both of them were broken but the passenger side was inline which would pass and the drivers not hence the fail. I was told to get a new headlamp unit and I was happy to do so. I went back to work and found out that I could only get a new headlamp unit for a Saturday delivery which would cost me around £90. I decided to go back and inspect further and I have noticed that the adjustment that was used by the MOT technician was for a full beam and not the dipped beam. I then took the car back to work called Skoda and was told that the two adjustments were at the front of the headlamp unit. I then carried out the adjustment myself and took the car back and spoke to the MOT technician and advised him that he used the wrong adjustment as the one he used was for the full beam. Now I have shown him the adjustment that he was supposed to use to start with and his reply was he didn't even know there was a second one for the horizontal line as the one he used only moved the light sideways. Now I’m very disappointed with the MOT technician, not only he completely misconfigured my full beam now he was adamant that both of my headlamp units were faulty. I almost bought the driver’s side headlamp unit yesterday which would set me back and still there would be no solution to the problem as the MOT technician could be bothered to kneel down and spot the horizontal adjustment for the dipped beam.

 

Now because of this I ended up with no car no MOT for the day almost spent £90 on a new headlamp unit and a complete incompetence from people I would call car mechanics, and a complete waste of time. Now if this was someone different they would have to spend a lot of money to get this resolved just because someone doesn’t know a thing about cars and works in a garage and claims to know everything.

Apart from complaining about the poor workmanship (the original MOT failure is correct due to incorrectly aligned headlights), I would expect the garage to rectify the misaligned main beam that they have wrongly altered.

 

What have the garage said?

Before I post anything else I'm not going to defend what happened - just adding suggestions for completion in case anyone stumbles across the thread in the future.

Just out of interest - the 12-09-13 wasn't the last day of your current MOT was it?

As long as you still had some days left on your MOT you could have driven away and investigated the issue separately, also sourced a replacement part (if needed) online for probably less money and you could have received it at your leisure without the need to pay for £90 Next Day delivery.

Apart from complaining about the poor workmanship (the original MOT failure is correct due to incorrectly aligned headlights), I would expect the garage to rectify the misaligned main beam that they have wrongly altered.

 

What have the garage said?

They now rectified the issue and the car is ready for collection.

Before I post anything else I'm not going to defend what happened - just adding suggestions for completion in case anyone stumbles across the thread in the future.

Just out of interest - the 12-09-13 wasn't the last day of your current MOT was it?

As long as you still had some days left on your MOT you could have driven away and investigated the issue separately, also sourced a replacement part (if needed) online for probably less money and you could have received it at your leisure without the need to pay for £90 Next Day delivery.

12/09/13 was the last day unfortunately. 

I always book mine in as soon as I can to make sure I have lots of time to sort problems. You can MOT the car up to a month before it runs out and it will renew for a full year based on when it would have run out, so you don't lose anything.

mot'd mines the other day, failed again on what it did last year, the drivers side trackrod end, thats 2 years in a trot now, lets see if it'll be 3 next time.

Odd this came up when it did... mines just failed on the exact same problem. Heading down to the garage now with some instructions on how to adjust it / make sure they were checking the right beam... 

mine passed with flying colours the other week. Even with a leaking passenger side front shock and, imo, miss aligned headlights.

 

Depends who you go to I guess, I think the light test should be hooked up to the computer somehow so they cant just go "meh, they'll do"

A last MoT I had to stop the garage from trying to adjust my xenons as they had no idea about putting them in learning mode, and they called themselves VAG specialists.

Well back from **** Fit (MOT ran out yesterday and I didn't realise so in desperation I took it down to them). Its true what they say, you can't get thicker than a Kwik Fit fitter. From what I can see, the lights are adjusting fine - no bother. But they were rammed so took the car away and dropped in at a local garage I sometimes use and they said "ah, its a 5 minute job, we'll sort it first thing Monday". So dropped it off with them Monday, watching what they do and then whipping it back to to Kwik Fit and go ape and tell them they shouldn't have failed my MOT just because the tester finished at lunchtime and wanted to get off home so couldn't be faffed trying to adjust the lights...

 

First and last time they ever get any business from me.

I always book mine in as soon as I can to make sure I have lots of time to sort problems. You can MOT the car up to a month before it runs out and it will renew for a full year based on when it would have run out, so you don't lose anything.

 

Now they are done on-line in real time if it fails are you then unable to drive it for the remaining time left on the old MOT or can you only drive back home/to get it sorted etc?

Now they are done on-line in real time if it fails are you then unable to drive it for the remaining time left on the old MOT or can you only drive back home/to get it sorted etc?

 

Interesting question. Anyone know the rules well enough? I'd have thought you still have the rest of the MOT.

The old MOT is still valid however you are then driving a vehicle knowing its defective. That's covered in the definition of dangerous driving.

The old MOT is still valid however you are then driving a vehicle knowing its defective. That's covered in the definition of dangerous driving.

 

Interesting, but not entirely unexpected. Thanks.

The old MOT is still valid however you are then driving a vehicle knowing its defective. That's covered in the definition of dangerous driving.

 

It also makes the MOT invalid now

A last MoT I had to stop the garage from trying to adjust my xenons as they had no idea about putting them in learning mode, and they called themselves VAG specialists.

 

What's this learning mode? Having xenons on my motor it might be handy to understand what this is.

they enter learning mode (via vcds or the system vag use) and you adjust them. This position is logged in the ecu as the default position for the level on flat ground.

The car now has a default position so when it does the sweep it knows where it should go etc

The old MOT is still valid however you are then driving a vehicle knowing its defective. That's covered in the definition of dangerous driving.

Thanks. I was wondering what would happen-SWMBOs Seat has so far got through every one but guess it'll fail at some stage.

My dad's old Mondeo was tested in the last couple of years of its life with my dad pointing out to the tester that it had a broken spring. The car then sailed through the test and dad was subsequently approached by VOSA on collection who asked it they could also inspect the car post-test. Unsurprisingly the broken spring was discovered (all this took place at the test station) and subsequently replaced but I don't think the test station were ever even taken to task over it.

 

 

And from an above post, why the hell has a so-called professional tester passed a vehicle with a leaking shock absorber? This begs the question of what else is he missing, or allowing through when it should constitute a fail?

 

Some specialists! If VOSA knew about this the tester's permit/certificate would surely be revoked?

 

Mike

 

I know. The only thing I can think of is when the car was taken to the place for its MOT it was ****ing down with rain so the rain might have masked the leak slightly. Still no excuse really

Speaking as a MOT tester there are alot of different cars out there and a tester can't be expected to know how to adjust the headlamps on every one.  If I find an out of adjustment headlamp I'll look to adjust it during the test (this is the only repair allowed to be conducted during the test), if I don't feel comfortable adjusting it, then I'll fail it, leaving the vehicle presenter to sort it out.  Regarding presenting the vehicle for test on the day that the MOT expires, I have absolutely no sympathy and it won't influence the test outcome with me, you can have the vehicle tested 28 days before the MOT expires and not lose any time on the new MOT (should it pass).  Should it fail, your current MOT is still valid.

 

It's also not part of the MOT testers job to diagnose the cause of the issue, only to report as to whether it is a pass/fail or advisory.

 

To be fair to the tester not only did he not know how not to adjust the headlamp, so did the person (owner?)presenting the vehicle for test.

 

With regard to leaking shock absorbers, I've advised far more than I've failed, they have to be really bad to fail and as the 'bounce' test is no longer part of the MOT they can't be failed for a negligible damping effect.

An mot center once broke mine by turning too far, they turned the wrong adjuster

Fordfan.

If the reason for failure can be deemed dangerous the current mot is no longer valid.

This has been of discussion a lot recently as its not long been enforced

Interesting all of this.....but does this apply to the fl as well...