Alright, just got the results of my M.O.T - it failed on a few a points, i dunno how serious/expensive they are going to be to put right so thought i’d post on here for some advice!
001 - Nearside rear (inner cill) vehicle structure has excessive corrosion, seriously effecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings
002 - Offside front suspension arm has excessive play in a ball joint
003 - Offisde rear Rear parking brake recording little or no effort
004 - Rear break application uneven
005 - Offside rear fog lamp missing (my mate thought this might be exempt due to it being an import)
They didnt give me a quote for the work because they were shutting up shop as I picked the car up… He said replacing the ball joint would be about £80 though and that I would have to go back on monday for them to correct the issues.
Since im still pretty green when it comes to mechanics and automotive maintenance can anyone tell me how much damage my wallet is likely to suffer in all of this? The one im mostly worried about is the inner cill needing re-welding…
In my opinion #1 and #2 are the more serious problems that need seeing to. The others you could fix your self with a bit of help from the archived posts etc on this forum and if you bought Rod Graingers MX-5 Miata manual. It is possible to convert one of your rear reversing lights to a fog light with a switch fitted just to the right of the steering column.
the welding will be the main issue, depends how much they need to cut out and reweld.
sounds like you may have a problem with the rear calipers as there is uneven pressure. New calipers are around £50 each then you need to fit them probably best to discs and pads while your at it.
i would say you are looking at around £3-400 if you let the garage do all the work and let them buy the parts!! as im sure YOU could source the parts cheaper!
You might be able to bodge the parking brake by fitting new pads if the current ones are worn - the new pads will be thicker, and thus will apply with more force - not a solution as such, but depending on how bad it is, it might be enough.
The other thing to note is that the footbrake should be depressed when the handbrake is applied (ie, depress footbrake, apply handbrake, release footbrake) to ensure maximum efficiency - not a lot of people/garages will do that properly.
As you said in your post get a quote not an estimate from the garage on Monday. Plead poverty and tell them that if the repairs will be too expensive you may have to scrap the car. Garages make their profit from labour charges and buying replacement parts at trade prices then selling them onto you at full price. The ball joint they want to replace costs about £27 so they are charging you £53 to fit it. The rear brake calipers are actually £75 from MX5 parts . Genuine Mazda ones are £140. You really need to see what the garage would charge for them. Pads could also be worn so they may want to replace them. The fog light is about £5 from Halfords and the relay about £6 but who knows what this garage would charge to fit it. i would say an hours labour to fit it. don’t know why it passed the last MOT without it. Rough estimate from what this garage seems to charge would be well over £500 by the time all the sundry items are added like VAT and fluids. Apart from the welding the problems are not that bad just the cost to fix them could be an issue.We do seem to pay our garages a very high hourly rate of £48 per hour
Got it all sorted (sorry it took so long for the result)
A “bloke i know” who specialises in welding fixed everything for me for £150… needless to say i was well chuffed, took it in the next day and was given the all clear! turns out the garage would have charged me somewhere in the area of £300… all i can say is its nice to have friends…
Its also fair to point out that the garage arnt rip off merchants… ive took all my cars there and they have always been very fair… but they dont specialise in older cars and I hate to say it but like most people working in garages these days they are “fitters” rather than old school mechanics.