car bodging

[The Natural Philosopher]

I talked to the MOT cahp at te grafe.

What they do, is wash off all te grease and even brush the pipes with a wire brush to see if the corrosion is severe enough to warrant failure.

The ministry approved chap who retested my car after a garage tried to use the MOT to scam me, said that they are within their rights to fail anything they cant tell ought to pass as well.

(By the way, you are within your rights to remove a car from a garage even if it has no MOT, and they have failed it, if the purpose of taking it there was to get an MOT, and if it still *has* an MOT, then retaining it on the grounds that it is 'unsafe' until said garage spends several thousand on it (unnecessarily) is actually a criminal offence of extortion).

Or fail it outright.

I think getting my rear brake pipes replaced last time was around £80. I've done it myself when younger on a Saturday afternoon for about £20 including a brake flare tool.

A small price to pay - less than a tank of diesel then - for knowing that they were sound, and that the brake fluid in the system had also largely been flushed out.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Most 'routine services' are based on some assumption or other.

Fuel filters, on account of fuel being more, or less, contaminated with particles from more or less rusty tanks etc etc.

Air filters, on driving in more ore less dusty conditions..

Pollen filters, on actually using the internal ventilation system in the spring and summer, rather than opening the windows.

Brake fluid and coolant changes are both based on the assumption that the fluids will over time degrade and ultimately damage the systems they are inside.

Whether the cost of replacing those system is less than thee aaccumulated costs of changing the fluids, is a moot point.

I know at least one fleet car manager who would buy brand new Fords, run them for around one year and about 80,000 miles without servicing them AT ALL and then trade them.

Their value was not lessened by the fact the oil resembled tar, the brakes were worn to a whisper, if they still worked, and the spark plugs barely were able to generate a spark. All that counted was the body looked good and the plate was a late one.

[Adrian]

And that's exactly what often happens - especially on 4x4s and motorbikes, where the master is more likely suffer direct water ingress.

It's still a good idea to change the fluid every two years.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well yes, but listen up.

Brakes can boil with NO water in them, as disks and pads reach red heat under hard driving. In fact only a Porsche out of half a dozen 'performance' cars tested was capable of sustained braking round a race track indefinitely. Police cars involved in serial high speed chases have had accidents because parking with the handbrake on after a high speed chase boiled the fluid.

Yes, pumping the brakes will help but that takes a bit of extra time.

So the point one is that nearly all cars are capable of being driven harder than the brakes are designed to cope with, and any reduction in braking is a Badde Thynge.

The second point is that boiling brakes will always let you down when you need them most, under prolonged heavy emergency braking.

The third pint is that water in the fluid leads to corrosion in the master and slave cylinders, especially if the pipes are copper and therefore don't remove the water by rusting themselves. ;-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

Drum brakes are really bad news. I have seen a drum brake full of water that had been driven through bad weather, then parked up in a garage.

IF its worn there is a worn area where the shoes go and a lip that stops the water draining.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Then he was as big a fool as you, as it makes no financial sense.

The used value of a near new car depends very much on whether it has a full service history. One which had been run for 80,000 miles without being serviced would not command the top price. As you'd know if you'd ever been near an auction of such vehicles.

They might, however, sell easily at a knocked down price to someone willing to take a gamble.

[Adrian]

If he saved £2k on servicing, and the hit to the value is only £1500, then he saved £500 per car...

Of course, that ignores the effect on the business of people being stuck at the side of the road rather than in the meeting.

[Clive George]

Given this was apparently a few years back, I'm guessing "somebody willing to clock them and flog them on to an unsuspecting victim".

[The Natural Philosopher]

(a) this was a long time ago.

(b) remember these cars were just a year old. So within the 'annual service' bracket.

(c) It is possible he got faked service stamps.

[The Natural Philosopher]

yes, this was the sort of time you might be seeing 'minder' and 'the sweeney' on the box for the first time. 70s?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Maybe. I've not looked at the auction prices of near new high miles cars recently, but I'd be surprised if you would recover the saving in service costs at sale time. Although being Turnip, he probably thinks the cars ran for 80,000 miles with only petrol costs.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Normal way to dispose of high mileage near new is at auction. A main dealer won't want them in his showroom. And it would be a very odd fleet who sold to the public direct.

Of course high mileage near new are prime candidates for clocking. But this generally happens after they have been bought from the original owner, and now in the used car trade.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If it was a long time ago, even less chance of it running to high miles without attention.

FFS. Every car even with a sophisticated service indicator needs an oil service based on usage, which includes miles. Only if it *doesn't* reach those miles or whatever does it need an annual service. And none will go anywhere near 80,000 miles without saying they need a service. Maybe a quarter of that. And a lot less years ago.

Now that I can believe, being a pal of yours. Would he also live by Christian principles, like you?

[<hgtr]

Its very unlikely that there would be much of that with 80K miles per year per car due to lack of servicing. Much more likely to be warranty faults.

Corse Ford would fix warranty faults with no servicing being done on the car is another matter entirely.

[Alan Braggins]

Trying to slow down the deterioration, so that next year it's still only slightly corroded, is reasonable though. It would have been better to do that immediately after the advisory, rather than wait till just before the test, but if this years advisory says the same....

(But if this year's says "badly, but not quite a fail yet", probably better to just replace them now.)

[Harry Bloomfield]

Alan Braggins a écrit :

I never wait until advisories appear, my repairs are done before I take it for an MOT. I do a pre-MOT and MAKE SURE things are right. This year, last week in fact, I spent two days crawling all over it. It just needed some slight fettling, none of which was MOT related.

[Mr Macaw]

If he hits a pedestrian or child, it means they were crossing without looking.

[Mr Macaw]

The back of your car is stronger than the front of his.

[Gib Bogle]

Living in Los Angeles a couple of decades ago, I restored the engine on a ~1960 Dodge Dart Seneca, a slant-6 with push-button automatic transmission (like a blender - this car was marketed at women). As it turned out, I should have restored the brakes too.

I had left the country, and my wife, who was due to follow me, had sold our other car and was using the Dodge for the last few weeks. She was staying with a friend who lived at the top of a very steep road with a roundabout at the bottom (this is in the city). One morning she went out, hopped in the car and headed down the road. Halfway down she discovered that there were no brakes. Showing admirable presence of mind, she pushed the reverse button on the blender controls. Amazingly it went into reverse, making a horrendous noise but bringing the car to a halt. If it hadn't the only option would have been to steer into the cars parked along the road.

Mechanical carelessness saved by good luck.