New MOT bay

[muddy]

Local garage has recently installed a set of new MOT kit.

Brake rollers now have load sensors so flash up the axle weight of the car on the wide-screen display.

Headlight beam setters reckoned both headlights were out of adjustment which is bit strange as they passed with flying colours last year (AFTER I had repaired the adjuster mechanisms) and have not been touched since. Odd.

Brakes OK although actual car weight as measured on site was much lighter than DVLA's book figure for a Passat 1.8.
By well over 100Kg. Again odd.

Suspension.
I drive this car quite regularly (when my other half borrows the Turbo) and our access track is reasonably bumpy and thus does not hide worn Passat front suspension at all.
New MOT kit has a hydraulically operated plate that front wheels are parked on. This moves the tyre/wheel left and right with considerable force (the whole car shakes) and ..... guess what? ...... " play in the lower rear arm ball-joints". Fail.

OK no problem. Standard wear issue.
BUT and it is a big BUT, when I drove home and drove down the same track the rattling from those ball-joints was now very pronounced and very noisy - unlike 45 minutes earlier.

The "shaker" had opened them up to a remarkable degree.
No question.
So be prepared, even if you have audibly quiet front suspension, to get a bit of a shock at MOT time.

[caldirun]

Local garage has recently installed a set of new MOT kit.

Brake rollers now have load sensors so flash up the axle weight of the car on the wide-screen display.

Headlight beam setters reckoned both headlights were out of adjustment which is bit strange as they passed with flying colours last year (AFTER I had repaired the adjuster mechanisms) and have not been touched since. Odd.

Brakes OK although actual car weight as measured on site was much lighter than DVLA's book figure for a Passat 1.8.
By well over 100Kg. Again odd.

Suspension.
I drive this car quite regularly (when my other half borrows the Turbo) and our access track is reasonably bumpy and thus does not hide worn Passat front suspension at all.
New MOT kit has a hydraulically operated plate that front wheels are parked on. This moves the tyre/wheel left and right with considerable force (the whole car shakes) and ..... guess what? ...... " play in the lower rear arm ball-joints". Fail.

OK no problem. Standard wear issue.
BUT and it is a big BUT, when I drove home and drove down the same track the rattling from those ball-joints was now very pronounced and very noisy - unlike 45 minutes earlier.

The "shaker" had opened them up to a remarkable degree.
No question.
So be prepared, even if you have audibly quiet front suspension, to get a bit of a shock at MOT time.

Sounds like they have made a very good investment!

[PassatPD]

Any chance that you could find out the make & model of their MOT kit? Sounds like its something which should be avoided!

[muddy]

Any chance that you could find out the make & model of their MOT kit? Sounds like its something which should be avoided!

I must admit I was a bit taken aback by the degree of change - but you can't argue with it.

Although I did think :-
You can legally run around on tyres with 2mm instead of 8mm tread.
You can legally drive around on dampers that are not leaking but neither are they producing the designed damping through natural wear.
You can drive around on brakes that are not up to full makers efficiency because there is a percentage leeway allowed for wear and tear

Yet there appears to no leeway allowed on "acceptable wear" on these suspension joints. i.e. they must be presented 'as new'.

I can tell you from first hand experience that an odd millimetre of play in a Passats joint will not fling you off at the next corner or make you veer dangerously all over the road.
But it is too late now, someone has advised the 'Powers' that we must have mint joints. Ho-hum