Manky Monkey Motors

My daughter has a VW Sprinter 2000 campervan, today on the road she heard a strange noise and when she stopped to investigate she found one of the two straps that hold the fuel tank had rusted through and was hanging down - when she yanked it the other end also parted company.

Luckily she was just 20 miles short of the end of her 100 mile drive so she risked it and got there safely.

Thing is, the van was MOT'd with no advisories in November - isn't this the sort of thing that gets checked?  I'm sure I had it as a fail on a car once.  And if it is, could it have got that much worse since then?   It's just that I'm really wondering about the place she gets her MOT and repairs done.  It's an old van and I don't want her getting into trouble cos they don't tell her what's wrong with it!

The tester may not have seen it if it was rusting away on the top.

Re mot advisories it's all down to tester discretion.

If a tester doesn't want to put any on he doesn't have to

The other thing is as long as the tank is secure and won't fall it's not a fail. A lot of Peugeots suffer the same issue, but the tanks actually bolted in / secured at the top so even if they're broken it's not an mot fail

Cheers peeps - will pass that on to Lucy, she'll be reassured - she got recovered and is nearly home now!

Any metal that is rusty has to last for 3 months before the testing station is at fault, it's in the testing manual.

yup,
but seeing as its march now, its nearly 4 to 5 months, so no comebacks,,,,as already said, it could have been rusting where the tester cant see,
and 5 month in the winter on a small steel strap can cause a lot of damage,,,
testers discretion is a good thing, it gives leeway,
problem is, testers fail to use it,and the owners often hate them, thinking it someway makes them look bad... advisorys are good, they let the owner know of any future trouble, and show that the testers doing his job,

some say hard and fast rules are better, but it doesn't work,,
a slight rear wheel bearing wobble on a bike? possibly ok
head bearings, slight play, poss ok,
front forks, slight leak, and slight underdamping on front/rear shocks, again, on their own, poss ok,
but, all together? no, this is where the tester needs leeway,anyone 1 of the above may pass, but altogether , fail..
has to be a judgment call, its why some garages fail the car, and some may pass it,
its often not the tester being anal/slack, its just his perception of a hazard..


everything else doesn't even have to work after the test, just at the time of the test,
it has to be that way really, if it was longer, it would be a LOT more stringent, and tbh, impossible....

sayin that, the other year I had a woman report me to vosa,
her sons indicators stopped working a few months after I tested it, she wanted them fixing for free as I had done the mot for a year.so nothing should break.......
some people are idiots,,,,,,
also had a guy try to get a pair of tyres out of the garage I worked, after the bike passed its test, the owner fitted his offroad wheels sold the bike, and sold the supermotard wheels separate as the new owner did not want them,,,
the new owner then realised the offroad wheels had offroad tyres, so tried to make out I had dodgy passed it, (he also knew I was out of the country at the time)
he threatened court action and even got vosa down,,,
however, one look at the film from the test (that garage video,d tests)and all was clear,
vosa took that guy to court for their costs and won...lol...
(camera,d tests in EVERY STATION come very soon by the way, before 2017.......

also a point to note, if the vehicle changes owners , there are even less comebacks on the mot station.....

camera'd tests in EVERY STATION come very soon by the way, before 2017

That's interesting. Not heard of that one before. Will that be every MOT or a selected few each day for example?

Thanks people - there wasn't really any question of coming back on the garage, she was just a bit worried that they might not be reliable and whether she should use them!

As it is, the AA took the van to the garage then took Lucy home (a few miles away), the garage had ordered the straps yesterday and were fitting them today - and when I spoke to Lucy earlier she said the bloke said he would bring the van back to her if she could then drop him at home, just a couple of miles down the road - and the whole job was going to cost her £80 which seemed pretty good specially as they squeezed it in for her.

The AA offered her a courtesy car, she thought about the pros and cons - get a car, pay to fill the tank up to drive it 100 miles, or get a lift on the recovery wagon - the lift won!  That's my girl!

every day, some countrys in Europe already do it, Bulgaria for example, cameras 8.30 till 5pm,
so the best test is an 8.00am one ;)

doubtfull we will get that loophole though,,,,,
and ours are lookin like they will be realtime viewable by vosa

theres poss other crap being pushed through as we speak, like led headlights etc to be fitted to all new vehicles,
another noise reduction,
the 2 or 3 yr test is still on the cards,
worst thing, other countrys are being pushed to testing motorcycles, good thing in a way,
BUT, when completed, theres talk of emissions on mot,s .....
contrary to belief and and a lot of mag type folk, a LOT of bike road tax would go up,
some early 2000,s bikes and earlier over double , judging by some tests we ran on emissions....

What's the advantage of LED headlights? Can't be because they're low energy can it? As long as the charging system can handle them, surely it doesn't matter what type they are? Lower manufacturing costs?

This is all part of the Armegeddon scenario that ACE fought. Lots in the car test about failing modified components and 'unsafe items', which in the small print comes down to anything detrimental to the environment...spend a moment thinking about that :(  Chip tuning is back under scrutiny plus checks of vehicle identity when undergoing MOT. Videod tests will also stop the emission test dodge that is common in many stations.

LED headlights on new cars! More cars coming the other way blinding everyone, another reason to want to retrofit HIDs. Trouble is vosa have f**ked that up, insurance invalidated, better to run some poor sod down.
A***holes the lot of them.

[/quote] This is all part of the Armegeddon scenario that ACE fought. Lots in the car test about failing modified components and 'unsafe items', which in the small print comes down to anything detrimental to the environment...spend a moment thinking about that :(  Chip tuning is back under scrutiny plus checks of vehicle identity when undergoing MOT. Videod tests will also stop the emission test dodge that is common in many stations. [/quote]

Emission test dodge? Why would an mot test station do that? Backhander from owners desperate to pass? Or are there other reasons. Only asking because I've had a vehicle fail on emissions.

led lights,manky,  god knows why, cant see the improvement tbh,
the video test will stop nothing,
there are ways round everything, what it does is make it all cost more, that's all, from manufacture to the running costs,
vosa have been v quiet lately, worries me, but its nice that I don't have to do refreshers anymore..........
I,m just waiting to see how the new on line system works,
 they once  told us we wouldn't have to pay for hardware, that's outa the window now,
I gave up testing a few month ago, and I am now back doin them,
dunno if I made the right choice, lol....
what gets me is, people fight for this stuff, laws get quashed etc, then they just start again, till its implemented regardless with some things....
the more sensible test for brakes is an improvement though, imo, (cant say much for some other updates though)

What's the difference there then?