MOT failure! (Now passed)

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Vantman
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MOT failure! (Now passed)

Post by Vantman »

Took the BX to my local Citroen specialist on Wednesday morning for a check over before its annual MOT,i helped check the relevant items,greased the hydraulic pipes and wiped away a few oil drips.

Off the car went to the MOT centre 500 yards away,came back 45 minutes later with a failure of badly leaking octopus!! Needless to say i was a bit miffed especially as we had checked it over prior to the test and the car had travelled only a short distance.

Do they just fail randomly? The car gave no indication of losing pressure,as the night before i had done a 70 mile trip and then drove 12 miles to the garage the next morning without any problem.

So a new octopus was delivered from the local dealer yesterday and will be fitted this morning and then the car will be retested.
At least it failed whilst at the garage and i didn't have to be recovered!

Brian.
Last edited by Vantman on Fri Aug 16, 2013 11:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MOT failure!

Post by Thread Bear »

I always choose to observe the MOT. I avoid those where you have to sit in a little room. Its not secret, its your car. You should be able to talk to the tester who can then show you what the problem is :^o. I have bought more cars than I care to remember. Often MOT failures. The comments on the fail sheet can be from plain wrong, through mystifying, to confusing, at times scratch... . There is no doubt certain cars get victimized, some testers have pet hates :evil:. An MOT station needs to show a few fails even in a run of perfect cars or the VOSA police will be round suspecting collusion and stopping money being made that day :( .

So in the same way I insist on seeing parts removed as defective from my car, I want to see what is claimed to be defective at MOT :^o . Adding extra bits to the test seems very popular these days. Loose wheel trim and such. Well if it were so, you have the right to walk in the test area and take it off and shove it the boot, anyway 8). It also is interesting how often a fail just happens to be something the business happens to specialize in. How strange :? .

[-X A good sensible MOT station is a must for the car enthusiast as they help keep the car in good order by spotting stuff before it fails and checking you have made your repairs correctly.

offtop:c Pre 1960 MOT free? Handy but not for me after a big restoration. MOT is a cheap way to insure you have not made an error.

While in rant mode. If we are all so darned geenly safety conscious :mrgreen: etc hype yap. Why are there no free places to go and set your headlights? #-o I have lost the wall we used to use which had a set of target painted on it. You parked in the right place and adjusted onto the target suitable for your car. Simples. Halfords, Shell, Tescos, LVO's, anyone? So I am on gestimate setting till I can nip over my MOT place and nip onto the light scanner. How many cars have lights pointing all over the place? :x
Miguel - 16 TRS Auto S, light blue, 43k miles - £450
Pluto - 14 E S, White, 105k Miles - in work
Egbert - 19 16v Gti, White, A/C & Leather, - Keeper
Walt - 17 TZD Turbo S, graphite, 70k miles, good op extras - Keeper
Scraper- 17 TZD Turbo E, blue, 208k miles - parts
Homer - 19 TXD E, Red, 189k miles - £250
Gary - 17 TZD Turbo E, 118k miles - in work

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Re: MOT failure!

Post by tim »

The MOT guy must be very good at BX's to diagnose an 'octopus' just like that. How can he possibly tell? A leak is a leak and you only have to refer to this forum to seehow hard it is for the owners themselves to find that elusive drip. As I understand it any hydraulic leak is a failure so if you've accumulated enough run-off underneath then you are looking at a failure. In the past I have said that yes, there's fluid underneath but that's because a strut return pipe blew off last week and it's just residue, sorry I didn't have time to clean it up. Knowing grin from MOT man..... moral, get underneath with a wad of tissue paper before presenting the car! You may well have a leak but it also may well not be the octopus. How old is it??
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Re: MOT failure!

Post by Vantman »

The car was prepped before presenting it for MOT as stated in the first paragraph of my original post.
Brian.
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Re: MOT failure!

Post by Vantman »

New octopus fitted,the BX now has a new MOT.
Brian.
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Re: MOT failure! (Now passed)

Post by Tim Leech »

Well done Brian, I doubt you will ever have to fit another one so thats one less thing to worry about!
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Re: MOT failure! (Now passed)

Post by Thread Bear »

An octopus worth the dripped ink it was written off with?
Miguel - 16 TRS Auto S, light blue, 43k miles - £450
Pluto - 14 E S, White, 105k Miles - in work
Egbert - 19 16v Gti, White, A/C & Leather, - Keeper
Walt - 17 TZD Turbo S, graphite, 70k miles, good op extras - Keeper
Scraper- 17 TZD Turbo E, blue, 208k miles - parts
Homer - 19 TXD E, Red, 189k miles - £250
Gary - 17 TZD Turbo E, 118k miles - in work

'87 Trooper, Borgwards, Saabs, MG ZB, Bellamy Trials, Fiat Jolly & Bianchina, Goggo Dart, Messerschmitt, Heinkel, Bubblecars
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Re: MOT failure! (Now passed)

Post by Caffiend »

It seems that octopuses can "let go just like that" - mine did last year on the way to the garage for welding, only an 8 mile or so drive. Glad you got it sorted anyway :)
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Re: MOT failure! (Now passed)

Post by Way2go »

Vantman wrote:went to the MOT centre 500 yards away,came back 45 minutes later with a failure of badly leaking octopus!! Needless to say i was a bit miffed especially as we had checked it over prior to the test and the car had travelled only a short distance.
Good that it's sorted. :D

Some of this type of problem is that the MOT tester does not just observe things, he moves, shakes and taps things looking for any sign of weakness or fault in various areas of the car. Prodding at areas prone to rust now seems to be a favourite part of the job too. I guess you have to be philosophical and think that he exposed a weakness if that was the case.

Incidentally, it does not have to be a major disaster if the octopus fails whist on a journey, just put & keep the height lever into intermediate and extremely little LHM will be lost until you are able to effect repairs. Loss of LHM will then only occur when switched off and the car settles. (PS: this assumes you have not previously ty-rapped/jubileeclipped the strut returns to ignore strut seal failures! [-X )
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Re: MOT failure! (Now passed)

Post by electrokid »

Well done Brian - glad it's sorted :D
Why are there no free places to go and set your headlights? I have lost the wall we used to use which had a set of target painted on it. You parked in the right place and adjusted onto the target suitable for your car.
One of my MOT failures this year was O/S headlamp aim too low. When adjusting it on the re-test I noticed that the line it was being adjusted to was marked 2 degrees. IIRC there's a label on the inside of the bonnet giving the headlamp adjustment to be 3 degrees down. Should I insist that it's set to 3 degrees down as per the label or allow them to be set to 2 degrees down as per the test device ?
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Re: MOT failure! (Now passed)

Post by Way2go »

electrokid wrote: Should I insist that it's set to 3 degrees down as per the label or allow them to be set to 2 degrees down as per the test device ?
It's probable that there is some hysteresis in the suspension settling under test that can affect this, so 3 degrees probably gives you a safety margin to avoid them saying it is too high next time. I've found it sufficient to measure the height of the main beam against the garage door for level and then just set it down a smidgeon. :D
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