The Kwik Fit MOT

A word to the wise..... DON'T !!! 

it failed on three points 

1) Rear Coil Spring (Fair enough)

2) Emissions

3) Brakes (balance)

SET RANT MODE = ON

Now I knew the catalyst had to be at temperature to "light up" and start working and it seemed the MOT tester was blissfully unaware of this fairly important point needless to say it only just failed on his emissions tester....

Now I've been and witnessed a fair few MOT's in my time and I was starting to get a little suspicious of this testers motives, but lets recap for a second

it failed on a rear coil spring, Emissions and brakes

Call me a cynic but isn't that Kwik Fits bread and butter ?? The rear coil spring was a given it had snapped off at the bottom, no arguing with that one, but the brakes ?? when it had only recently had new discs and pads fitted less than 6 months ago ????...

So not being one to lay down and take the bill for new discs/pads and a catalytic converter even though I was warned that if I drove it away I would lose the "special" prices .... I went to my usual MOT tester whom I couldn't get an appointment with previously hence Kwik Fit..... and told him the sorry tale.... 

He agreed the rear coil spring was a given, but he doubted the other failures..... so he told me to whazz it up the road for about 3 miles in third gear at high revs to really toast the catalytic converter and then he would put the gas analyser on it .... 

low and behold it came out as a pass, not only that it came out bang on the manufacturers specifications, he also inspected the brakes and said there was nothing cosmetically wrong with them and that light surface rust was not a failure of any braking system and was more to do with the amount of road salt about than anything else....neither was it a fail nor should it have been an advisory.....

So I'm off to my usual MOT tester tomorrow and he says as long as the rear coil spring is replaced (already done that today as was the front wheel bearing) it will pass with flying colours and the other advisories are purely cosmetic rubbish in order to get in business for Kwik Fit....

And as a small footnote, I knew the nearside front wheel bearing was shot..... it sounded like a Wellington bomber over Dresden, and despite the MOT tester wiggling the wheels and rotating the wheel whilst jacked up he didn't spot it, not only that he took the car out for a drive with it sounding like a Wellington bomber and still he came back and didn't mention the bearing noise (and that would have been an automatic fail) 

I had the new bearing on the back seat ready to fit after the MOT thinking that it would fail on the bearing alone .... but alas he couldn't even spot that.... 

So another recap.....it failed on all the things Kwik Fit make their money on, the only thing he couldn't fail were the tyres because they are very obviously brand new....

I am appalled that an MOT tester is allowed to operate like this and am wondering if a freedom of information request into Kwik Fit would highlight if the MOT testers were actually on commission for any failures that get fixed that day....

Had I stupidly agreed with him the costs would have been

£165 catalytic converter (that's normal price not Kwik Fit price)

£86 for two discs (nothing wrong with them)

£25 for pads (nothing wrong with them)

£276 + 20% VAT  .... FOR NOTHING !!! they would be removing perfectly serviceable parts !!!!

I am seriously underestimating the prices here I was hearing £500 - £600 on the phone to other customers who's cars had failed the MOT with similar problems one guy was quoted £375 for a set of discs and pads because they were scored NO NO NO scored discs are NOT MOT failures.....

Give them a very wide berth.... my advice at a push if you desperately need a tyre fitting then go, other than that forget it.....

Anyway here's the complaint I fired off to rip off Kwik Fit central I will have to see if it bears any fruit... but I won't hold my breath.....

SET RANT MODE = OFF

"I had my BMW booked in at 12pm today at Pensarn in Carmarthen for an MOT and everything went well until it failed on emissions, it also failed on a broken rear coil spring. I was however suspicious when the tester stated that my brakes were imbalanced and that my discs were borderline/in need of attention, he soon retracted that statement after I told him that the front discs and pads had been changed less than 6 months ago at a BMW garage, they are in fact gleaming as you would expect at only 6 months old, he then stated that maybe they just needed a little clean up, rust on discs or pads are not covered under the MOT as long as they pass the brake test which he seems to think they didn't when they both equally pulled 220 kg is beyond me, not happy with his findings except for the broken rear coil spring, which I accept I went to my "usual" MOT tester based in St Clears, low and behold it passed it's emissions after having it's catalyst warmed to the correct temperature and not only did it just pass it was well under.

I am in two minds to get VOSA involved in this because it's disgraceful that a car other than it's broken coil spring, which has now been replaced is failed because the tester didn't know what he was doing. He didn't even know what a mass air flow sensor was when I was questioning him about the emissions failure.

I would appreciate a full refund of my £30 MOT fee as it will go towards a MOT test centre which isn't swayed by commercial profit, had I accepted his findings I would now be considerably out of pocket having to buy the discs/pads and probably catalytic converter in order to pass the MOT, I'm surprised he didn't fail the tyres as well but that would have been very hard considering they are new. Dick Turpin was at least honest in that he held a pistol to your face before asking you for money.

Sincerely

Derek Brabrook"