MOT FAILURE:Good News and Bad News
 

Well I put the old workhorse in for its annual mot today.

Instead of using my usual friendly MOT guy I went on a friend's recommendation to another place...wont do that again....cos unlike last year it failed.....

Admittedly I could see the work it failed on needed doing so couldnt complain....but it failed on:

1: NS TIE ROD END
2:NS LOWER REAR CONTROL ARM

Then I decided to ask for a quote....I couldnt believe what I heard....

Labour and Parts 180 quid!!!!!

I was like maybe the parts were expensive as they usually are....no the parts were costing 60 quid (which was cheap cos tps quoted me £100 for lower control arm and £40 for the tie rod end) and the labour was 120 quid!!

120 quid to change a tie rod end and lower rear arm I was shocked...so prompty said no thanks....will have a think about it.

That was the bad news.

The good news was....

I came home....went on ebay and found a tie rod end and lower rear control arm for £20 quid including delivery....so I know what I ll be doing towards the end of the week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So a job that was gona cost me £180...will now cost me £20 and few hours of my time in the freezing cold.....hmmm best buy some gloves and invest the rest of the 180 in a hot chocolate machine.....

All seriousness though....I just couldnt believe how the garage had allocated 3hrs labour for a job that will take about 50 mins!!!!!

It does need wheel alignment after changing track rod end so I think price was quite reasonable if it included wheel alignment.

I friend of mine did 2 lower arms on one side of A4 without alignment at a garage and it was £45 each arm and £90 for labor- total £180

Loosen the TRA lock nut off and count how many turns it takes to remove from the threaded part, put the new arm on the same amount of turns and the tracking should be almost the same place

i use tipex, mark a line around the threads before removing and then when you put the new one on just do it up to the mark where the tipex is +++

oh by the way 47p2 thanks for the pm's i followed the advice and i can not belive i have not done this months ago +++

Glad to be of assistance and everything worked out. Any before and after pictures?

Crap, just remembered I forgot to reply to your text Guy, you all sorted now? I didn't think it would fit anyway, spoke to Ranj about it.

3 hours labor is a fair estimate. The worse thing a garage could do, is quote an hours labor, then find the track rod is seized, and will require more time (and possibly heat) to free up.

They're unlikely to call back to say it's gonna take longer, because you as a customer wouldn't want to hear it, so they'll have to swallow the loss. And no garage like working that way.

Garage time
 

From business perspective I have to agree 3 hrs probably fair but it never goes the other way...if less than 3 then charge less...

The lower arm I changed 2 yrs ago so not worry about it...but I m just praying the tie rod end isn't seized....in this cold weather it isn't gona be fun...I m thinking spraying wd40 over the next couple of days before d-day...

Tippex will be on my to buy list

Ranj - You would honestly have made more money working that day and paying them to do it though, just admit it, you love working on the car.

There are better stuff out there then WD40 but it does fairly decent job. I recommend wrapping it with paper towels or rags soaked in WD40 or whatever you end up using otherwise most of it runs off and rest evaporates not doing much unless you spray every 5 minutes