Pontiac Owners Club UK

Well its only 10 days until the MOT expires and I thoroughly checked most of the usual items but took the car to the MOT centre nearby today and it failed on four items...

1: Offside front (Flexie hose union) braking system leaking
2: Front (at front of engine) power steering pipe(s) or hose(s) excessively corroded
3: Offside front (marked) body or chasis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings
4: Offside front brake application uneven

Sigh....I personally thought the bit of rust on the chasis was okay as its still pretty strong with no holes etc...

The cheek of the situation was the MOT guy saying "No being funny sir but we have worked on a few of these american cars and the parts are impossible to find and they are a nightmare to work on and almost impossible to fix so its probably not worth your while getting it repaired"....!! Yeah great advice, not!

Anyway I am now on the lookout for a pair of front brake hoses ( http://www.poc-uk.org.uk/forum/viewtopi ... =50&t=6916 ).

I am not sure what to do about the power steering pipes, I have not had a chance to look under the car but I believe from memory they are two metal pipes at the very bottom of the engine very close to the front....I've not done any work on power steering systems before but can these be replaced by flexible hoses or will I need to source a like for like replacement?

Many thanks!

Jay

214jay wrote: The cheek of the situation was the MOT guy saying "No being funny sir but we have worked on a few of these american cars and the parts are impossible to find and they are a nightmare to work on and almost impossible to fix so its probably not worth your while getting it repaired"....!! Yeah great advice, not!

man what a spoon, I'm guessing he must be a 'technician' rather than a mechanic

pretty much all that he thinks is impossible I find easier to get parts and work on than the daily.

no friendly testers in you area ??

check the power steering pipes are not leaking...if there just phospated,wire wool them ??otherwise they will need replacing .you can get these made up from places like PIRTEK

MOT testers eh! They're all the bloody same

All sounds very fixable, as mentioned in other thread get some stainless flexi brake hoses, they'll improve your breaking with less balooning

I think mine were Earls branded.

As John said, wire wool the PAS pipes and not sure what your corrosion issue is without a pic

smev wrote:man what a spoon, I'm guessing he must be a 'technician' rather than a mechanic

pretty much all that he thinks is impossible I find easier to get parts and work on than the daily.

Ditto exactly what he said!

Find another MOT tester! I wouldnt bother going back to that place if he's got an attitude like that.

Thanks for the replies. There is definately no leaking from the power steering pipes, I will have a better investigation tomorrow. I will take some pictures of the corrosion and post them on here...To be honest they scraped back a lot of the hammerite/POR15/Dinitrol in a lot of places to expose some surface rust. I can agree with the braking problem pulling to one side but it needs an overhall/clean so I can sort that tomorrow.

I have had no problem finding parts or working on the car/engine...if anything its a drem to work on, I enjoy it!! The MOT guy was a 'qualified mechanic'....cough!!

I think the closest MOT friendly garage is Robin in Middlesex?! I think I should have talked to them rather than the local garage.

Many thanks.

the bloke could have had in mind to try and prise your car from your hands as silly low money - knowing much of that is simple and cheap to fix

im not sure they ought to be scraping back and damaging paint. However if there is genuine rot in there its probably best you know about it now before it gets too bad.

you are NOT allowed to scrape off paint
if there is no hole in the chassis and it dose not move under thumb pressure then it shouldnt fail

put a couple of pictures up if you can

sounds like you need to find a better test centre (though at least go back and ask for an appeal form, even if you dont appeal it will scare the crap out of them if they know it should not have failed on some items)

bloody MOT testers, all rogues

maybe you should take him to court for damaging your paint
Naughty naughty!
Cars are easy to work on, the modern cars are a complete arse, couldnt even change the brakes on our vectra c because they made it so you HAVE to take something off other than the caliper to get the disc off, then theres the winding back the piston, where a good home vice did the trick on the poncho.

Well I have had the chance to have a good look at the faults picked up by the MOT centre...

1: Offside front (Flexie hose union) braking system leaking - FIXED, THE BOLT WAS LOOSE, NOW TIGHTENED AND NOT LEAKING

2: Front (at front of engine) power steering pipe(s) or hose(s) excessively corroded - CANNOT SEE ANY EXCESSIVE CORROSION, JUST SURFACE RUST AND NO LEAKS....SEE PICS BELOW
3: Offside front (marked) body or chasis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings - I CAN AGREE WITH THIS ONE, I HAVE FOUND A HOLE AT THE BACK OF THE DOOR SILL UP BEHIND THE EXHAUST PIPES - A PIG TO GET AT BUT EASILY FIXABLE
4: Offside front brake application uneven - HOPEFULLY A GOOD CLEAN AND SERVICE.

I would be interested to see wht you think of the power steering pipes, I think I can just clean them up with wire brush and sandpaper and they should be okay!! Thoughts?









Jay

SUPERCHARGEDGTA wrote:bloody MOT testers, all rogues

You should have taken some chocolate biscuits with you. Probably would have passed straight away then!

quick rub down and matt black spray up will do id say

I would not class them as seriously corroded
wire brush them and if not pitted then they are ok

spray everything with schutz that will look ok then

Hi guys

Well I have welded the chasis and am just looking at the poer steering pipes....it turns out that they have made a mistake. They have marked all the problem areas....they have marked the pipes coming from the oil filter, not the power steering. Does anyone know if the oil pipes are part of the test???

Thanks!!

Jay

yeah I dont agree that those pipes are an issue. Wirebrush, then overspray the whole lot incl the edges of the body work with Dinitrol black underbody wax and it should be fine.

These are the pipes it would appear they are reffering to. You can just make out the yellow mark on the two pipes towards the top of the picture. These run to the oil filter....I am very keen to find out if these being corroded as part of the test...if not then I can bring that up

no, water pipes are not part of the MOT
sounds like he really knows his stuff this guy---not!

Thanks John, they are acually oil pipes as they connect to the oil filter, are these included in the test?

Yes, they dont strike me as being 'experts' to say the least!!

no, they are water pipes that take water to the oil cooler above the oil filter
but oil pipes would not be part of the MOT anyway

yeah there water my gta rotted out on one of them and leaked so cut and put in some rubber heater hoses in the end

As said above,water pipes,i took mine off altogether on my GTA.

Ahhh, that makes sense (sorry to doubt you ) have sanded back those pipes and the corrosion is minimal anyway, just surface rust and paint

Brilliant, well in that case I am pretty well ready to get it back to them fo rthe re-test. Just have to get the exhaust Y-pipe back on as had to remove to do the welding. Reversed it out the garage without the Y-pipe on...Wow!

Thanks for all the advice!!

Jay

i suspect youve been a victim of incorrect application of the new MOT rules that came in Jan 1st. as I think certain items are now testable that werent before eg power steering system and pipes? so probably the testers just been a little over zealous and not been sure what the pipes were for. Maybe we can give a little leeway for this whilst the new rules are digested