Nice shiny new MOT today

Nice shiny new MOT today – hurrah! Failed at first mind; examiner felt 2 of the 4 spinners could have been tighter – couple of smacks later they were! All hail the MOT exam – a qualified fresh pair of eyes to help avoid problems for me, mine and others I may encounter on the road – long reign the MOT.

Brought down a little when I spotted a small dimple of coolant on the inlet manifold - very minor and I have no intention of doing anything about it save for maybe a tweak on the nuts next time air filter is off. Pretty sure this is pressure finding the weakest point; last year it was a leaky freeze plug that appeared to be the escape route; now that is fixed we have this. Such is life in Jaguar land.

A warm feeling of satisfaction!

Your story about the spinners reminds me. I used to take my daily driver for a service and MOT at the same time/garage. They would always do the MOT first (and fail the car) and then do the service, fix the defect and re-test. I could never understand why they didn’t do the service first, find the problems and fix them - then do the test and pass it.

Used to annoy me.

Frankie

A slightly laughable and similar experience today; asked them to swapped front shocks (parts supplied by me) whilst car was in – Front wheels were coming off anyway. Ho hum.

Hi,

I used to work at a garage and we always MOTed first as the guy testing was different to the guy servicing and also used the brake test rollers etc.

If the service guy found a problem (say a duff wheel bearing), stripped the hub and replaced, reassembeled and then when it went for the MOT if failed on warped brake discs it would all have to come apart again.

We wanted to take it apart only once to ensure that customers weren’t charged more than necessary.

Fair enough; I have no quibbles with the bods at the garages the car goes to. I frequent two firms; one a general garage but with actual old school mechanics (Crane Bank Garage, Wallasey) and many of their customers run (not by choice) older cars that need to be kept going on a budget, and a Jag specialist (R G Bate who many will know from the technical articles in Jaguar Enthusiasts Club magazine) for those items where a little extra knowledge and specific experience is called for.