Well happy to report, my car is now finally ready with another MOT pass for a happy year of motoring
Was it all plain sailing at the MOT test? No, there was a hiccup when I come back I found the car at failed, so I drove it home in order to proceed with repairs. I received the MOT failure certificate, detailing my faults and the car had failed it’s MOT. This is important to note, because it means the car had successfully went through the full MOT test, and basically once the items it failed on were fixed it could be put in for an MOT retest. Assuming the parts were repaired correctly, it “should” be an automatic pass for the car at this point. The car wasn’t issued with a VT30 Failure certificate (otherwise the test is aborted and there’s other problems to sort out)
What was the outcome of my MOT test, what did it fail / pass on?
Other than the usual brakes / emissions below, I recorded my faults as noted
- Brake performance – No issues recorded, so my previous repair on the handbrake was clearly good enough for it to pass
- Emissions testing – Turbo test limit (manufacturer limit 1.25), fast pass value on my car was 0.36
Repair Immediately (Major Defects)
- Shock absorber fluid leak (OSR)
- Front Coil Spring fractured/broken (NSF + OSF)
Repair ASAP (Minor Defects)
- Brake hoses slightly chafed, rubbing on tyre when jacked up (NSR + OSR)
Monitor + Repair (Advisories)
- Shock absorbers has light misting of oil (NSR)
- Brake hose has slight corrosion on ferrule (NSF + OSF)
Can you drive your car home if it fails an MOT?
Yes, and no. It depends on the conditions of the failure. If a car fails with ANY kind of dangerous fault, the answer is a clear no. It must be recovered. In my case, my car failed with some majors. As long as the vehicle is in a roadworthy / safe condition, and still has remaining MOT on it (in my case my original MOT was due to expire 5th September), it means I could drive the car back home and also use it. I still opted to use it as little as possible for driving however, I mainly used it to pick up the parts I needed for the repairs, and then left the car off the road until finished. You’re also allowed to drive the car back to the MOT centre for a re-test as long as you can prove it’s booked in for a test.
How much did it cost to fix my car?
The actual cost to fix my car (if I just replaced the parts required) would have been £85.80 in parts and £54.00 for my MOT which means my overall MOT would have cost me £139.80, which isn’t that bad when you factor everything in, especially including the age of my car and the mileage it’s currently on (18 years old and 173,000 miles)
Now, the actual amount I spent on my MOT was £252.22, which was £198.22 for parts, and £54.00 for the price of the MOT
This is still a good overall cost. The reason why it was more expensive, was because being Axle components, they’re usually recommended to replace in pairs when repairing the vehicle. As it relates to the geometry of the car and balancing for stability. Plus I ordered a couple of extra parts. I technically only needed 3 items to pass my MOT as I received the failure note. I basically only needed 2 springs for the front, and a rear shock absorber for the OSR. What I ended up purchasing was axle supplies
I ended up buying 2 new shock absorbers for the rear, and 2 new springs for the front (later on I also purchased additional parts). This was because the factory shock absorbers were still on the car, and an absolute ballache to work with. It was simply faster and easier to replace all in one go. The additional parts I purchased were new Front shock absorbers, new drop links and new tie rods. I never fitted the tie rods, but kept them as spares as I’m sure I’ll need them for future tracking problems.
I won’t comment on the cost of the MOT. A lot of people will think this is high, because they’re comparing it to large out let brands like Kwikfit and Halfords. They can afford to charge for cheap MOT because they get lots of business, so can most likely upsell the work. My local garage are an independant family run Business that have been in the area for many years, so they have to keep the bills paid. I’d much rather support them than national brands. You get the personal feel with local independant shops, and my local garage are one of the few I trust. Which is why I keep going there. They know I prefer fixing my own car, and they don’t bullshit me when it comes to what is wrong with the car. I’ll continue supporting them for as long as they’re in Business. Highly recommended if you live in the North East area.
What problems did I have when fixing my Audi for the MOT?
As a general note, if anyone is doing these. Here are my thoughts
- Rear shock absorbers. These weren’t an issue, basically just jack up the car, you undo the lower trailing arm bolt (18mm I believe), Let the arm swing down, undo the shock absorber bolt (21mm), then remove the arch liner (T10 torx I think), and the suspension mount (16mm nuts) and swap it over. I personally didn’t have any problems here but some may. I’d recommended having a suspension socket set for locking off the struts before replacement. If you don’t, you can pinch them off with locking pliers at the very top of the tube in order to lock it off. Lastly you MUST remember to prime the shock absorbers. This is the part I failed to do on my previous set which is why I suspect they failed so early.
- Front shocks, springs, etc. THIS was definately the most problematic, pinch bolts, broken tools, nuts turning around and around. My personal opinion on this is chop off the old parts and replace the new ones. It’s far less hassle, only try and save the old parts if you can (or shops are closed). Some notes below
- The pinch bolt the retains the suspension strut, uses an M14 Multspline, it strips threads for fun this is going to be one of the most difficult I suspect. The threads on the pinch bolt don’t actually turn in the housing of the strut, they’re loose. Personally if it’s stuck the best approach is heat it up with a torch, or whack nut hard with a hammer. Once you free the rust up, it should come loose
- Drop links. I ended up snapping my bits holding the counter lock to undo the nuts. If you’ve got an hacksaw, chop it off and replace. It’s far less time + hassle (about £10-15 per side)
- Suspension struts / mounts. They’re held in by 13mm nuts under the cowl top. As a note the proper corrrect way to remove the cowl top, is removing the nuts on the windscreen wipers, then remove the windscreen wipers. The plastic should then undo away from things. Mine was already broken from the garage I bought it from so I wasn’t bothered. A couple of the nuts were spinning too under the car, so I locked them off using some good vice grips to stop them spinning
- Drive shaft. This is a 24mm multipoint on my car (sometimes a large M18 multispine, and sometimes a 24mm hex). You’d have to check. They’re tight so impact gun is helpful. If not you’ll need a long ass breaker bar to crack it on the floor. If the drive shaft doesn’t fully come out, screw in the bolt with a small number of threads and lightly tap with a hammer. It will help loosen it
- Ball Joints. This shouldn’t be a problem, 16mm nuts, take the 3 off and they pop out. You’ll need to undo this to fully disconnect the drive shaft
- Tie rods. It’s best to disconnect the bottom bolt whilst it’s still fixed. As it’s meant to lock off. If you need to replace this (or choose to), then undo the bolt holding it onto the tie rod / steering rack before you loosen the bolt on the hub. It will help remove it. As they’re a ballache to get off otherwise.
That’s the main parts, after this it was just a case of putting the new springs on the stuts (again I broke one of my damn bits) trying to swap over the old strut with the new one, so ended up just gunning off the nut holding it and using vice grips since I didn’t need the strut anyway for my front suspension. You will also need a spring compressor in order to put them on as they’re very tight and require a few hundred KG of force to compress them.
After this, it was just a case of reassembling the parts and fitting everything back on the car
Important note – Suspension Hub Size
If you end up replacing the factory suspension hubs, make a good note to measure them. The Audi has two size variants, and they’re incompatible without adapters to fit. They are available in 50mm and 55mm hub diameters. The easiest way is to measure across the hub using a tape measure / vernier calipers. If you don’t have a set of calipers, you can use a fabric tape measure (or tape measure) and measure the circumference of the hub itself, and apply some basic math using PI since PI is a constant ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter
For simplicity, there are two sizes you’re looking for
- 3.14159 (PI to 5 digits) * 50mm (for 50mm hub) – Gives a circumference of approx 157.07mm
- 3.14159 (PI to 5 digits) * 55mm (for 55mmb hub) – Gives a circumference of approx 172.78mm
So wrap a tape measure around (or string, whatever is available), and then simply measure it. You will then know the size of the hub required for your car by determining the length on the tape measure
Why did I replace my suspension rather than keep it?
The suspension strut on my car had to be removed anyway to fit the spring, and generally it’s faster just to fit new parts as you don’t know when the next one will fail. My suspension on my Audi was the factory suspension with the car, it still have the original OEM sticker on it showing part numbers AU350V600 and 824904000569 which correspond to OEM part number 1T0413031DB. Which after googling hub width came up as 55mm and confirmed my measurements, but it’s always good to double check with the measuring method. As you never know when there’s any design changes on cars or after market parts in use. The reason I opted for suspension is that I didn’t want to use new springs and old dampers, as they’d eventually fail and I’d have to do the work again. Replacement shocks are cheap (around £30 each) and they replace my OEM shocks which had 173,000 miles on them. It’s 1 potential job to ignore for work as wear & tear for another 2-3 years worth of problem free driving.
Did my car pass the MOT retest?
Obviously. I was still nervous like I always am with MOT testing, but once I saw the date change I was happy
What else is there to do on the car?
Following the retest, I’ll need to get the alignment done on my car again (sooner rather than later) in order to make sure it’s still corrrect as I’ve played with the geometry of the parts.
Other than that just the usual tidy up, and sorting out the rear cabling on the calipers for the hoses, and replacement of the hoses for the front of the car
What tools did I use for repairing my car for MOT on my Audi A3?
- Low profile car jack
- Axle stand
- Milwaukee Impact Gun 1/2″
- Milwaukee Angle Grinder 115mm
- 1/2″ Ratchet
- 1/2″ Sockets (13mm, 14mm, 16mm, 18mm, 19mm, 21mm, 14mm Multipoint, 24mm Multipoint)
- 18mm / 19mm Spanners
- 1/2″ Bits (7mm Allen, T30 Torx, T10 Torx)
- Assorted extensions and adapters
- Suspension Socket Set
- Candle Wax (for getting into threads)
- Superfire Blow Torch
- Spring Compressor
What next?
Now that my car has finally done with the MOT, there’s a few odd jobs I’ve been wanting to sort out there’s quite a large list, so I’ll write future articles on this site. One of the main things I want to do however is the Glow plugs, they’ve started failing, so it will be nice to get these done before the cold weather sets in and kills my battery when it’s struggling to start. I may also order a new Exide battery as a backup in the meantime
And any other things that I find on scans. The real project though is I now can concentrate on making the boot storage moulds using my car as a template so I can start selling products. Keep an eye on this blog for the future updates I make.
