MOT Failure

My daughters 206 failed its MOT today with two faults, the front offside
tyre had a bulge and the Pads were worn. Rather then pay the £148.00 they
wanted to do the repairs (this was besides the £39.50 for the MOT) I decided
to take the car away even though this would mean having to pay again for
full re-test if the they didn't carry out the work . When I removed the
wheel I could see that the pads had loads of wear left in them. I
immediately called the test station to be told that because they're not
allowed to remove the wheels they can only guess at the amount of brake
wear!!!.

Question, can they fail a car on worn pads if it passes the brake test.

Thanks in advance Keith.

 

as a rule if i cant tell
i pass and advise they are checked
some stations however are just looking for work

 

If it passes the brake test and the pads have wear in them, in my opinion
that is not a reason to fail the car. But in my experience there are places
that, having found one reason to fail a car e.g. a bulge in a tyre, then
produce a whole lot of other fictional causes for doing so. I would not
like to suggest that if you had left the car with them they would have
changed the pads and charged you for it, but what I would recommend is that
you don't go there again.

Ron Robinson

 

if you find they are failing your car for the brakes that are not faulty
you can take it to your ministry of transport testing station for retest
and although you have to pay again if they find brakes are ok they will
refund your test fee but as they failed the tyre as well i donmt spose it
makes a diff but for future info you can go there

 

There are many test stations which will do a free retest, even if you take
the car away. I have used the same one for years now. It gets round the
"fail it for the work" effect. They do an honest test, and are happy to do
the work if required.

Brian.

 

Thanks for all the advice.

I went back to the testing station the following day and after they had
removed both front wheels and inspected the pads admitted that they did in
fact have lots of wear left in them and issued the MOT certificate.

Wont go there again.

Keith.

 

Ditto.... But, as an aside, if you read the blurb on the wall, they HAVE to
give you a free re-test if it fails on brake work, not sure on the time
restraints though.....

 

isn't a MOT retest free if carried out within 14 days?

 

Looks like the garage got off very lightly. I'm sure they were only too
glad to write you an MOT certificate.
You should have contacted your local trading standards at the least.
You cannot claim the brake pads need changing when you haven't seen
them - looks like a classic MOT scam. They'll always try and make some
money somewhere. Everytime I've had an MOT done the underside of the
car is also inspected and from there it is normally always possible to
see the brake pad thickness.

I've had similar problems in the past where fictitious faults crop up.
I now use an MOT testing station that doesn't do any kind of repair
work so there is no incentive to make things up.

 

If the pads are below - approx 3 mm or so, or appear to look unsafe the MOT
inspector has the right to fail it on this, he has to make a decision on an
pretty unsafe method designed by some top knob sat behind a desk - you have
to remember pads don't last forever, also the braking material is ONLY
bonded to the pad. The inspector has to cover his own back. If he feels
the brakes are unsafe he should fail the vehicle. Its too easy for the
other poster here to give his opinion without seeing the vehicle. Remember
the inspector most certainly was trying to save you from an accident. The
Rolling road only determines that the brakes are braking evenly and work to
a certain degree, obviously braking at 50-70 can't be determined on a
rolling road. Also remember there was probably other things wrong with the
vehicle, which the inspector could have failed it on. That's all I'm saying
for now!!

Bill

EX MOT inspector