A real Horror story.
- Thread starter t-tony
- Start date
Our safety inspection stations have the right to refuse an unsafe vehicle to be driven off their lot and receive full support from our provincial insurance under whose jurisdiction they fall! JIM
Yeah, but this is in the UK and called a 'garage forecourt'.....
is'nt there talk of going to a 2 year mot
Just talk, hopefully.
Tony.
Tony.
I was under the impression that the powers that be, were considering letting classic cars off the annual MOT as they are generally more cosseted than normal cars! By that I mean cars built before 1974.
Mike
Mike
So this week there were 2 horror stories to tell.
The first one was on Wednesday afternoon a regular customer came in with his Merc Vito looking extremely sad at the n/s/r corner, and he said to me, " I think the springs gone!".When I put it on the ramp, I found that he was spot on with his assessment, The spring had gone, completely, it wasn't there anymore. I would imagine that a rear coil spring for one of these would weigh in at at least 3-4 kilo so you wouldn't want to meet that bouncing down the road towards you.
You can see my temporary suspension spacer wedged in between the arm and the chassis rail. When it came in the weight of the body was sitting on the lower spring seat with the driveshaft in between, it also tried to chew through the brake hose too, which had been in contact with the clip on the C/V joint.
Luckily no one came to any harm and the customer went back to where he first felt the suspension drop and reclaimed his spring and rubber top and bottom spring seats from the roadside!.
Horror story 2 this week came in on Friday evening on the back of a Beaver tail with the N/S/F suspension collapsed, and after getting it off the truck and onto a 2 post ramp this is what I found. The car is 1999 vintage Japanese car. Remember last week's horror story?, well this car belonged to that young lady's mother. I must run in the family.
Again, no one was hurt in this incident, but probably more due to luck than judgement !
Also you can see that the brake hose again was damaged but thankfully not enough to burst it.
I wonder what'll happen next week?
Tony.
The first one was on Wednesday afternoon a regular customer came in with his Merc Vito looking extremely sad at the n/s/r corner, and he said to me, " I think the springs gone!".When I put it on the ramp, I found that he was spot on with his assessment, The spring had gone, completely, it wasn't there anymore. I would imagine that a rear coil spring for one of these would weigh in at at least 3-4 kilo so you wouldn't want to meet that bouncing down the road towards you.
You can see my temporary suspension spacer wedged in between the arm and the chassis rail. When it came in the weight of the body was sitting on the lower spring seat with the driveshaft in between, it also tried to chew through the brake hose too, which had been in contact with the clip on the C/V joint.
Luckily no one came to any harm and the customer went back to where he first felt the suspension drop and reclaimed his spring and rubber top and bottom spring seats from the roadside!.
Horror story 2 this week came in on Friday evening on the back of a Beaver tail with the N/S/F suspension collapsed, and after getting it off the truck and onto a 2 post ramp this is what I found. The car is 1999 vintage Japanese car. Remember last week's horror story?, well this car belonged to that young lady's mother. I must run in the family.
Again, no one was hurt in this incident, but probably more due to luck than judgement !
Also you can see that the brake hose again was damaged but thankfully not enough to burst it.
I wonder what'll happen next week?
Tony.
Never seen nor heard of a spring completely dropping out!
Also, on the second, that gator looks all but brand new, like it had had work done very recently. Thats scary!
And just to think Tony, you are just one guy in one garage. Times that by many of both and it shows the state of affairs on our roads.
suppose that would depend on weather my mrs brings her car to you, had to drive it all the way back from totnes to evesham earlier this week in limp mode with engine light on and showing a pollution fault (155 miles, not including the 30 miles i had to do first in limp to get to totnes to collect the mother in law) , though luckily it cleared up just 10 miles from home, now fine, maybe it didnt want to go down there
Too true Andy, that's the scary part. As HT commented last Saturday many, if not most, cars never see the inside of a workshop between tests.
Tony.
Tony.
The outer clip on the C/V boot is very dirty when you look closely Ian and it looks "new" because I had just wiped off copious quantities of freeing oil which I had needed to get the pinch bolts out. I would think that had never been apart in it's life to be honest.
I fitted 2 new springs and shock absorbers on the Vito because I noticed that the O/S/R one was actually broken, in so far as the "pig tail" was broken off and missing. When I fitted a new spring, with the old shocker on the O/S with weight off the suspension I could still pull the spring out of position and off the van!! When I replaced the shocker with a new one, even with weight completely off the wheel there was still considerable pressure preventing the spring coming off it's seat.
Tony.
Judging by your second shocker Tony, you should have father bring you in a box of bits next week and swear blind it was a whole car yesterday.
Mike
Mike
Really scary stories!....
Or in front of you, Dan! Some people only worry if the car doesn't start when they turn the key! JIM
well i checked the makes on my tyres at the weekend, errr all 4 are different makes, same tred (which is why i never really noticed) but all different never the less
Those photos are bloody scary.. Driving a lump of metal and the tyre goes bang.. try keeping it in a straight line.. I have at a slow speed.. due to hitting a lot of dropped nails a few years back.. scared the crap out of me.. How can you not realise that your car is not gripping the road ? Did she have numbers painted on the side and wearing a crash helmet per chance ?
I will be having a hand to check over my little Zed over the festive break.. up on stands and a full visual to see what might need doing soon. Always the best way is to treat an issue before it becomes a problem..
Well done for stopping her getting back on the road @t-tony ... you should have the traffic police on speed dial.. or a few posters reminding drivers what the legal responsibilities of driving a car are..
I will be having a hand to check over my little Zed over the festive break.. up on stands and a full visual to see what might need doing soon. Always the best way is to treat an issue before it becomes a problem..
Well done for stopping her getting back on the road @t-tony ... you should have the traffic police on speed dial.. or a few posters reminding drivers what the legal responsibilities of driving a car are..
That's the way it should be done Paul, but as I've said, we on here are a very different breed of car owners.
Tony.
@t-tony did you perhaps notice the brand of these tyres? The tread pattern intrigues me.Yesterday at 11.00 a young woman was supposed to bring her car, a P206 1.4 in for M.O.T., didn't show up and rebooked for today at 10.00, she rolls up at 10.30 expecting the same 11.00 slot today.
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Just goes to show, you never know what's coming the other way, she didn't want to leave it at the garage, she wanted to take it away and use it over the weekend!!!! Can you believe the stupidity of some people??
Tony.
