General Seicento Mot soon.... costs

[Andy2011]

Hi all,
Im new to all this car stuff, as this is my first car. Its MOT is booked for thursday, and it also comes with a service, all for £50 !, will i have to pay any extra on the service or does the replace oil ect come free (please )

But i have a good feeling that the Seicento is going to fail, Main reason is due to the handbrake, when on a flat surface and handbrake applied, i can go round the back of the car and push the car, not easily, but can move it.
Also slight incline at traffic lights, put handbrake on, i will roll forwards/backwards.
I tried to park it on the drive, quite steep, out of gear it easily rolled not even an attempt to slow, in gear it still moves :/
How much will it cost me to get repaired? Handbrake adjustment ?

 

[rallycinq]

Chances are your garage is doing an 'enticement' offer of service with MOT.

My guess is that its 'wipe over with oily rag and MOT'

Then once they have the car in their clutches, expect a call with a far larger bill.

Really you shouldn't be driving the car with defective brakes, they are not just an MOT item.

You could be looking at new actuators plus cable, shoes and drums. Budget £70 for parts, possibly same again for labour, plus the Vodka And Tonic.

Cheers

D

 

[Andy2011]

The brakes are fine, its just the Handbrake, so i think it may just need adjusting ? It does show some support for the car, but not enough for a slightly above average incline.

+ Looking at the last years MOT on it, it had rear (pipes) brake pipes slightly corroded. That the problem ?

And It says tyre 'scrubbing' what does that mean ? Cheers

 

[rallycinq]

I think you may be sorely disappointed.

Seized actuators due to lack of maintenance are a common problem, and if the brakes don't hold they are defective, end of.

Pipe corrosion has nothing to do with the handbrake, did you coat them to stop further corrosion?

Scrubbing tyres is posibly a tracking problem, did you have it tracked last year after the report?

Cheers

D

 

[marino]

Steer well clear of special offer mot's and servicing, they will turn your special offer £ 25.00 (example) mot into a £ 200 bill, they love to get their hands on an older car like yours and pull it apart,i use a fairly local garage to me and don't mind paying the £54.00 fee as i generally get an mot pass in return, if i does fail as in your case the handbrake then it's for good reason, all they are looking for is a roadworthy and safe car not looking to rip you off,this has been going on for years with some garages and probably always will, you just need to avoid them.

 

[allgood]

Hi Andy2011,

Just had mine done. My car failed on the handbrake as I knew it would. The guy put it on the machine and it rolled off. It was reading 8% which is one of the lowest he had ever seen. I was given the usual paperwork and recommended a garage around the corner. I booked it in the next day and they took apart the brake drums and found that the shoes lining had crumbled away and the linkages had seized. Had the whole job done for £76 including parts and labour within 3 hours and they took it back to the MOT centre to be retested for me couldn't be happier. Have my little Seicento for 13 months now

Allgood

 

[Ralf S.]

Andy,

As has been said, these "Cheap service plus free MOT" places rely on finding something wrong with your car, which they are then naturally in a position to fix.. since most people don't want the hassle of trying to take their car elsewhere.. so they get additional garage work out of it.

They may not exaggerate or "invent" problems.. they could take their approach and find lots of stuff that needs fixing... but less scupulous places will try it on with the unwary or naive.. so take care.

It's clear that your handbrake is shagged though so if that's all they find on their "list of things" that need fixing, then get it fixed.

'Cento handbrakes are notoriously weedy.. the problem is at the hand-brake lever end (the actuator).

It is possible to adjust the cable.. but that doesn't really solve handbrake tightness.. just the amount of lever travel.

Your rear shoes are probably okay.. usually handbrake weediness is not the shoes (though allgood shows that the shoes do wear out eventually).

You might need one or both new rear brake cylinders if yours are weeping.. but these don't affect the handbrake - they may just be spotted during any later work. Similarly, some pivots or levers in the mechanism could be a bit stiff and need freeing up..

You're probably looking at £100 of labour to get the handbrake sorted out, plus variously £10 - £20 for any of the components I've mentioned.

Anyways, if in doubt, don't feel pressured to have them do any work.. just say you'll need to bring it back when you have some money.. etc. and then take the beast away and consult someone else (or on this forum) for a second opinion.

Pipe corrosion could be a problem, though they have to be quite severely bad to fail.. just "some" rust on the pipes isn't fatal. It has to be "excessive" (with some of the pipe thickness eaten away). Get underneath the beast (stick it on axle stands) and clean up the pipes.. then stick a blob of grease on any manky bits.

Good luck, anyway..

Ralf S.

 

[Andy2011]

Thanks all

Just Rang them up to cancel the Service, as will be running a bit low on cash for the rest of month, down to £35, so a saving of £15 + any extra's they decided to put on.
Going to have more money to keep my Sei SX 1.1 02 on the road
Roll on thursday !! :/