Yesterday morning i had a phone call from my verrrry concerned Father-in-Law,(Who knows NOTHING about cars), and has a 55reg Fiat Punto.

This was the convo....

Mick.(FiL), "Kev, i took my car for an MOT and it failed on the Horn not working, they said it could be a fuse but if not it may be a spliced wire in the harness. If it's a wireing issue they would have to take the air-bag off and drop the steering column to find the fault"

Me. "So how much are they saying to fix it"?

Mick. "They said between 3-4 HUNDRED £'s"

Me. "I'll be around shortly and have a look"

So off i went with my electric tester, a Snap-On one, where the whole handle lights up when a Live wire is touched.

A quick check of the fuse for the horn, all fine, connected the tester to Negative side of the battery, placed the probe onto the Positive connector on the horn, told him to press the horn, Bingo! the handle lit up.

Me. "Your horn is knackered Mick"

A 2 mile drive to a friends parts place, £9.97 for a new horn, 2 mile drive back, literally, 5 mins to replace the horn as it was sooo easy to get to, just by the slam panel at the front of the engine bay, and..... BEEEEP,BEEEEP.

Me & Mick. " "

So, beware of issues that a Garage Fails your MOT and quotes you a stupid amount of money to repair!!!

ALWAYS Ask here or on ST-RS.

Job done for a tenner and not £300-£400!!

wow what a bunch of rip off merchants. there was something in one of my magazines about them charging hundreds for simple jobs and stuff

lol similar with me... garage removed rear drums to check the state of the pads... a thing i had not requested for but told me its standard practise for them to do i wasnt aware they was doing this before the garage had told me that the rear bearing was seized and needs replacing... also they replaced the CAT on the car as the manifold had a small crack in it... i dont belive that as i never heard the exhaust blowing or anything.... most of this wasnt phoned too me to check if it was ok and they pressed on... all the parts were on the car when i got it and i got told then about the CAT... and its a s**t CAT anyway and it wont pass june's MOT now.

Garage's are sly buggers!

Common practice unfortunately folks.

Complete B*stards.............

wow this is why i always go to the same garage all the time!

i dont let a garages do any work unless it balancing and tracking tbh

It is shocking... but... that's how they end up making money by ripping off people who are unsuspecting.

On a side note:

The Father-in-Law was told that Laws have changed...

He had 2 weeks left on his MOT, BUT, because he took it in before the expirey date, and it Failed, The car was not road worthy, thereby was illegal to drive on a public road.
Not being roadworthy made his insurance invalid and if pulled by Mr he would be charged and given 6-9 points on his licence.

This is new to me, but i bet it's true.

So beware everyone.

no its not... your MOT is valid tell it runs out whether it failed a new test unless it is Deemed in a serious state... a Horn not working is not a serious state which would caus damage to other motorists, it would not be the sole caus of an accident.

if your brake lines burst on the MOT test ramp this would be considered a state that is unroadworthy... cords showing on tyres would be considered too.

the police would not know if you got pulled unless the car was in state of danger to the road.

what changes the state of the car from being roadworthy to unroadworthy when the peice of paper from last year said it was ok for exactly a year

as nosnow said its legal to drive until the MOT runs out even if it fails if took in earlier, I know this because last week I took mine for an MOT and it failed because my brakeline was twisted but I took it the day before it expired so it was legal to drive it home and fix the problem and drive it back

Yet more reason why MOT test should only be done by places that dont do repairs! I am going to start using the council test station as that way there is no risk of stupid fails just to make money!

Bit harsh tarring all testers and garages with the same brush lol......I'm a mechanic and a Tester lol.

Sadly though, it does happen. When a mechanic tells a person what's wrong (Wether it a horn, bearing) then the customer will 99% of the time say to fix it. 3 hours labour later for a 1/2 hour job and the garage is in the money.

But, I can honestly say its a minority. Most places are legit and won't do this.

As for the MoT running out, this is untrue. If your car fails, the car is allowed on the road until the expiry day has come around (12 midnight).

Also, not sure if anybody knew this, but if you have your car tested 30 days before it's due to expire, it gives you an extra month on your test for the following year (13 months). Should the car fail, its still legal on the road, while you get it fixed within the 10 WORKING days.


As stated, if any of you guys have an issue with your car/MoT, either send me a message or put up a topic and I'll do my best to give you an answer the same day.

An honest answer!