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Need to get my car M.O.T'd


RossP

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Well good being not that old and wont probably need anything major.

Don't take it to a franchise garage, ie arnold clark fiat,

theres a few things you can check to make sure it wont fail on little minors

wiper blades - make sure there not smearing your screen or torn

horn

ABS - when you start the car the abs light will illuminate and the goes out, if no automatic fail!

tyres - minimum legal tread is 1.6mm/make sure rubber not perished

suspension - go round the four corners and bounce them to test the shocks, the car should go down then up and stop, not jumping up and down

Lights - all bulbs need to work including number plate lights

seat belts - all seat belts must reel out and work any fault in a seat belt is and automatic fail

brakes - if you have alloys it will be easier to see, the pads should have a good chunk left on them idealy 5mm, also the disc make sure its not scored or pitted

hand brake - the travel of the hand brake should be minimum if it handle comes up too easy the cables will be stetched

Exhaust - just make sure theres not loud noises coming from it other than the tail pipe and it's secured well

brake pedal - before you start the car, pump the brake pedal till it goes solid- then with your foot on the pedal start the engine and the pedal should sink to the floor, if no then theres a problem with your servo or brake master cylinder

also you'll know yourself if your car is not right, any noises or unusuall vibrations, try running about with the music off to see if you can hear anything

i would suggest my garage as the boy who does the MOT's is an honest bloke, they arent the type that encourage you to get this and that done, Where as when i worked at arnold clark they picked up on every little detail! you may want your car to be thouroughly checked like arnold clark do, but if you dont want the shite patter that it "needs" it

go to some of these

Nivlem - charles street

Bruce motors- hardgate

pitstop - stafford street

Car Clynic - Tullos BOD

First Drive - Fetteresso

AW Autotech - Ardarroch road

Linksfield Garage

Pittodrie Cars

hope this helps

Avoid Woodside garage,i heard they robbed wing mirrors off a customers car,they didnt notice till they left

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Well good being not that old and wont probably need anything major.

Don't take it to a franchise garage, ie arnold clark fiat,

theres a few things you can check to make sure it wont fail on little minors

wiper blades - make sure there not smearing your screen or torn

horn

ABS - when you start the car the abs light will illuminate and the goes out, if no automatic fail!

tyres - minimum legal tread is 1.6mm/make sure rubber not perished

suspension - go round the four corners and bounce them to test the shocks, the car should go down then up and stop, not jumping up and down

Lights - all bulbs need to work including number plate lights

seat belts - all seat belts must reel out and work any fault in a seat belt is and automatic fail

brakes - if you have alloys it will be easier to see, the pads should have a good chunk left on them idealy 5mm, also the disc make sure its not scored or pitted

hand brake - the travel of the hand brake should be minimum if it handle comes up too easy the cables will be stetched

Exhaust - just make sure theres not loud noises coming from it other than the tail pipe and it's secured well

brake pedal - before you start the car, pump the brake pedal till it goes solid- then with your foot on the pedal start the engine and the pedal should sink to the floor, if no then theres a problem with your servo or brake master cylinder

also you'll know yourself if your car is not right, any noises or unusuall vibrations, try running about with the music off to see if you can hear anything

i would suggest my garage as the boy who does the MOT's is an honest bloke, they arent the type that encourage you to get this and that done, Where as when i worked at arnold clark they picked up on every little detail! you may want your car to be thouroughly checked like arnold clark do, but if you dont want the shite patter that it "needs" it

go to some of these

Nivlem - charles street

Bruce motors- hardgate

pitstop - stafford street

Car Clynic - Tullos BOD

First Drive - Fetteresso

AW Autotech - Ardarroch road

Linksfield Garage

Pittodrie Cars

hope this helps

Avoid Woodside garage,i heard they robbed wing mirrors off a customers car,they didnt notice till they left

Where is your garage you work at?? My car is due it's first MOT in Sept. Looking for an honest garage to put it through.

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Guest Tam o' Shantie
Well good being not that old and wont probably need anything major.

Don't take it to a franchise garage, ie arnold clark fiat,

theres a few things you can check to make sure it wont fail on little minors

wiper blades - make sure there not smearing your screen or torn

horn

ABS - when you start the car the abs light will illuminate and the goes out, if no automatic fail!

tyres - minimum legal tread is 1.6mm/make sure rubber not perished

suspension - go round the four corners and bounce them to test the shocks, the car should go down then up and stop, not jumping up and down

Lights - all bulbs need to work including number plate lights

seat belts - all seat belts must reel out and work any fault in a seat belt is and automatic fail

brakes - if you have alloys it will be easier to see, the pads should have a good chunk left on them idealy 5mm, also the disc make sure its not scored or pitted

hand brake - the travel of the hand brake should be minimum if it handle comes up too easy the cables will be stetched

Exhaust - just make sure theres not loud noises coming from it other than the tail pipe and it's secured well

brake pedal - before you start the car, pump the brake pedal till it goes solid- then with your foot on the pedal start the engine and the pedal should sink to the floor, if no then theres a problem with your servo or brake master cylinder

also you'll know yourself if your car is not right, any noises or unusuall vibrations, try running about with the music off to see if you can hear anything

i would suggest my garage as the boy who does the MOT's is an honest bloke, they arent the type that encourage you to get this and that done, Where as when i worked at arnold clark they picked up on every little detail! you may want your car to be thouroughly checked like arnold clark do, but if you dont want the shite patter that it "needs" it

go to some of these

Nivlem - charles street

Bruce motors- hardgate

pitstop - stafford street

Car Clynic - Tullos BOD

First Drive - Fetteresso

AW Autotech - Ardarroch road

Linksfield Garage

Pittodrie Cars

hope this helps

Avoid Woodside garage,i heard they robbed wing mirrors off a customers car,they didnt notice till they left

I think I've used these guys for the last time. When I first went I was dead impressed, my 8 year old Audi A4 went through MOT without ANY work (which is something I've never experienced before, usually there's a token cheap part like windscreen wiper blade that gets replaced at extorsionate cost & labour).

Took the Audi back for a service and they warned me about the sump plug being seized and that they would try to get it off without damaging it and if they couldn't, I'd have to order a new sump! 'Luckily' they managed to change the oil with no probs - and this minor service cost me over 500. I figured at least they seemed to do a good job with everything.

Sold the Audi last year for an MR2 roadster, and last Autumn I got new springs & front/back droplinks fitted - labour only = 300! I was shocked to be honest.

Prior to the MR2's MOT this year, I had a CEL for a while, which my code reader identified as overheating o2 sensors (parallel) on the manifold. Since both were being affected at the same time it was safe to say that something else was bothering them. I took the car back to AW since they had been decent on my MOT previously, even if they charged a bit too much for labour since then. The guy phoned me up, surprise surprise engine running too rich = failed emissions test. His fix was to replace both o2 sensors. I asked him if his 'advanced engine diagnostics' equiment had flagged up a more general problem since I thought it was strange that two sensors should independantly break simultaneously without any other problem present. He said no, it was just the o2 sensors. I was in a pickle here because I was going on holiday a few days later and the car's MOT would expire while I was away. So I just said to replace them both, and do the rear brake pads/discs while he was at it, as he had flagged the discs as being borderline condition. I even HAD new pads ready to fit as I was going to do them myself.

Middle of the day I get a call saying that there is a problem with my o2 sensors, they've seized up and might need to be drilled out, in which case I'll need a new manifold. Funny that I got a similar message about my sump plug last time they did work for me - have they got issues with threads? Here's where it gets even more suspicious. The car is an X reg, September 2000, and when I bought it last May the o2 sensors were taken out of the manifold within a week of ownership (so that I could get some precautionary work done on the manifold) with no problems. So they came out freely after 7 and a half years, but a year and a few months of my ownership has somehow made the sensors weld themselves in? Right...

'Luckily' once again they managed to drill it out and reseal it somehow... total cost then? Labour, 2 x o2 sensor, and one set of rear brake discs = 750. The most I have ever spent on a garage bill. I got the car, it ran beautifully for the first time in ages. I thought at least the CEL is out and the car is smooth as hell once again. Couple of hours later, the CEL was back (guess they just reset the ECU to clear the light) and everything was rough again. The exhaust tips are black again so the sensors are no doubt fucked again and wrecking my engine (which to be fair I attempt to wreck myself at every given opportunity).

To cut a long story short, what started out as a promising business relationship has gone sour. Can anybody vouch for the others?

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With regards to your sensor issue Tam, check that they definitely changed them both!

The front sensor (nearest your manifold) is normally the one that causes the most problems. Had that with my Golf.

When you say it's running rough, how so? I had the issue of the car running totally fine then, after leaving it idling for a minute or 2 with no revving or anything, it would feel like it dropped a cylinder! It was a combination of the front lambda sensor and also a pooped coilpack. Get your plugs and coils checked incase it's anything to do with that too!

Maybe a compression test on your cylinders too as a just incase.

This is all presuming it's still doing it!

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Just sounds typical of trial and error diagnostics, the machines flag up whats wrong but don't actually tell you why, thats left to the mechanic to find out, they probably wanted to replace 2 sensors just to be sure and get it out the workshop, i thought they were quite reputable :S

alot of the time they just replace things to see what happens and iff it will cure the problem, could have been anything like the airflow meter, and egr valve, some garages have a good way of trying to keep their backs clean if something goes wrong, most people give away they dont have a knowlege of cars straight away to the garage which makes them rub their hands in glee

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Guest Tam o' Shantie
With regards to your sensor issue Tam, check that they definitely changed them both!

The front sensor (nearest your manifold) is normally the one that causes the most problems. Had that with my Golf.

When you say it's running rough, how so? I had the issue of the car running totally fine then, after leaving it idling for a minute or 2 with no revving or anything, it would feel like it dropped a cylinder! It was a combination of the front lambda sensor and also a pooped coilpack. Get your plugs and coils checked incase it's anything to do with that too!

Maybe a compression test on your cylinders too as a just incase.

This is all presuming it's still doing it!

There are three sensors on my car, 2 parallel on the manifold one on the cat. It was the manifold one(s) that was/were being flagged.

The idle problem. Sometimes pulling up to red lights causes the engine to feel like it's about to stall, dipping below 500rpm (though typically it is pretty low on these cars, maybe more like 600-700rpm). If it weren't for the CEL I would have thought it might have been a battery/alternator issue, as much like the Audi did, the revs drop if you push the electric window button down or use other electric bits. When I had the battery replaced for a service on the A4 this issue went away. When I start up the car from cold, the idle is really high, 1500+rpm, settling back down to 600-700rpm when warm.

The other problem I had put originally down to clutch slip as I have 98k miles on the clock - just a slight lag before power is delivered when pushing the gas from a low rev, however if I blip the throttle and floor it it's fine. Cleaning the MAF/resetting ECU fixes this temporarily, but once the CEL comes back on the problem reappears (possibly due to the ECU running at a conservative map when the light is on).

The compression is possibly not great, these engines are prone to "oval bore syndrome" and it does drink oil, engine is at nearly 100k and has had some pretty serious abuse in its life no doubt. The current 'solution' in my head is to swap it for a 2ZZ-GE - 190bhp @ 8400rpm out of the box :guns:

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Guest Tam o' Shantie
make sure there isnt tears in your airbox pipe or filter box, if its drawing in more air past the flow meter that will cause it to over fuel

i've a cold air intake with a heatshield ilke this

n721071516_2092479_3302326.jpg

so pretty unlikely that any damage could have been done to the cone filter inside, it's apexi so well regarded for quality too

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There are three sensors on my car, 2 parallel on the manifold one on the cat. It was the manifold one(s) that was/were being flagged.

The idle problem. Sometimes pulling up to red lights causes the engine to feel like it's about to stall, dipping below 500rpm (though typically it is pretty low on these cars, maybe more like 600-700rpm). If it weren't for the CEL I would have thought it might have been a battery/alternator issue, as much like the Audi did, the revs drop if you push the electric window button down or use other electric bits. When I had the battery replaced for a service on the A4 this issue went away. When I start up the car from cold, the idle is really high, 1500+rpm, settling back down to 600-700rpm when warm.

The other problem I had put originally down to clutch slip as I have 98k miles on the clock - just a slight lag before power is delivered when pushing the gas from a low rev, however if I blip the throttle and floor it it's fine. Cleaning the MAF/resetting ECU fixes this temporarily, but once the CEL comes back on the problem reappears (possibly due to the ECU running at a conservative map when the light is on).

The compression is possibly not great, these engines are prone to "oval bore syndrome" and it does drink oil, engine is at nearly 100k and has had some pretty serious abuse in its life no doubt. The current 'solution' in my head is to swap it for a 2ZZ-GE - 190bhp @ 8400rpm out of the box :guns:

Is at a cable throttle or fly buy wire, it sounds like it could be the idle speed control valve located on the throttle body, worth changing to see what happens.

or as you said a new head, but is it worth it?

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Guest Tam o' Shantie
Is at a cable throttle or fly buy wire, it sounds like it could be the idle speed control valve located on the throttle body, worth changing to see what happens.

or as you said a new head, but is it worth it?

'in my head' not a new head! the 2zz-ge is a completely different engine (also a 1.8l) designed for Toyota by Yamaha. Since a lot of Toyotas use both the 1.8l 138bhp 1zz-fe and the 1.8l 190bhp 2zz-ge they are a fairly straightforward swap (yeah, they put a 220bhp supercarged 2zz in a fucking 1.5 tonne corolla, but their 970kg mid engined RWD roadster gets stuck with under 140bhp)

so i think i'm just gonna gather the bits until this one goes pop then proceed...

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