Car MOT?

[Gray]

Last year i bought a Ford Focus Titanium from a car dealership, and about 6 months ago one of the headlights popped. So i bought a pair of Xenon headlights as a replacement and fitted them myself. Had no issues for the next 6 months.

My car came with free MOT and Servicing for the next 3 years. Firstly i didn't receive any reminder notice from the dealership to say my MOT was due, so i had to dig out the paperwork and found the MOT expired yesterday. So i made an appointment and got the car booked in today luckily.

I dropped the car off this morning, and double checked my warranty was okay - They said though the warranty doesn't cover tyres, wipers and headlights. Ominous.

I got a call earlier to say the MOT had failed because the headlights "Had no pattern" - and to fix it, they were going to charge me £60+ to fix the headlights alone. I utterly disagreed with that assessment and said do not proceed on fixing the work. I used a council run garage for years and i trust them entirely with what they say, because they're honest and not extortionate on work.

So my intention will be to refuse this MOT and book it in there - and see if they say the same thing. If they don't, i intend to send the bill to the car dealership Managing Director and taking up the complaint with them.

The only issue i have now with this is that i'm now going to be without a car until i can get this fully looked at. Over something as stupid as headlight alignment/patterns??

 

[Nate]

"They said though the warranty doesn't cover tyres, wipers and headlights"

tyres not included standard tbh, wear and tear and all that jazz.

Is the bulb upside down? Often mistake people do when they put their own bulbs in. You become that guy with the headlights on full beam all the time. Noticed people flashing you a lot lately and not having full beams on?

 

[Gray]

Yeah i was understanding of the tyres, i've done a lot of motorway miles in the past 6 months so it would have been understandable.

I just phoned up the council-run garage, and i told them about the pattern. They said it's a common issue when people fit their own bulbs - If it's the case they only charge £10. £10. This place wants £60 the thieving bunch of rats. I told the council-run garage the price and they were disgusted about the pricing. I have booked in an MOT with them for Wednesday (My only day off).

They charge about £40 + £10 for the bulb issue if i can't fix it tonight. I'm going to ask for a pricelist of how they got £60+ and i intend to challenge the Managing Director on it because it's just scandalous.

 

[old.user4556]

If you retro-fit Xenon headlights, do you not need to fit the auto leveling sensor as well for them to get through an MOT? In addition, if you fitted them yourself, did you buy OEM headlamps or cheap imported ones from Shenzhen on ebay?

Edit: or have you fitted a discharge kit to a halogen based reflector system?

 

[Gumbo]

Do you mean you just replaced the headlight bulbs or the headlight units as a whole?

 

[Moriath]

Did you inform you insurance of the change from standard spec. They will do anything to avoid paying out if you have made a customisation without telling them

 

[soze]

£60 is not a omg! number. If it is £10 of ports and its not hard to think that they charge £50 an hour labor (everyone charges for the whole hour if they don't know you).

 

[gohan]

My cars MoT cost £430.... I didn't even wince at it.... £60 is a let off