Mot Failed :(

[PembsPanther]

Morning All

 

Well D-Day arrived today and the old Gal was in for it's MOT this morning, sadly (as expected) it failed, I will list all of the fail items for clarity but obviously some of them are 10 pence easy repairs, right here goes:

 

 

1/ Registration plate margin less than minimum requirement front

 

2/ Front position lamp not working nearside

 

3/ Headlamp aim to high offside

 

4/ Rear fog lamp not working offside

 

5/ Battery insecure

 

6/ Direction indicator wrong colour rear (both)

 

7/ Steering rack gaiter split offside

 

8/ 2 Front tyres

 

9/ Anti-roll bar linkage has excessive play in a ball joint nearside front lower.

 

 

All in all not too bad I am reasonably pleased apart from the steering rack gaiter, I hate anything to do with steering rack so am really hoping this can be replaced somehow on the car, going to do some research now and see the best way of fixing it, any wisdom welcome :)

 

Headlamp aim to high, not sure why this is any ideas?

 

Rear fog lamp not working offside are there supposed to be 2? The other side works I thought one of them was a "blank" on some models?

 

As said any advice / wisdom appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance :)

 

 

[sparky Paul]

Steering rack gaiter pretty straightforward. Remove track rod end, taking care to leave adjustment lock nut in place as a marker, replace gaiter and replace TRE.

 

Headlamp aim is a mystery to me too, my man often tweaks them at MOT time, no charge. Sometimes get maladjusted up when left wound down on the electric adjust.

 

Only the one fog lamp. Don't know what the MOT tester was thinking of there, requirement is only for one.

[bigdave982]

Thought if only one fog lamp it was on offside anyway ,

[daddyfixit]

uk laws are that the offside fog light has to work to pass mot test,  but some vehicle manufacturers do have the dummy one on the nearside so car looks ok from rear.

 

I assume the anti-roll bar drop link is worn, don't buy a cheap one as they don't last 5 minutes.

 

rack gaiter; remove track rod end----counting how many turns it comes off, ( depending on size of gaiter you may have to remove lock nut as well )

 

new gaiter will be held on with cable ties, refit track rod end counting it back on same amount of turns it came off.

new front number plate, pair of new tyres and 3 bulbs ???

 

a mornings work as long as the rain hold off

[PembsPanther]

Thanks for the replies everyone :)

 

Sounds a lot easier than I was imagining, I had visions of having to drop the rack t be able to do it, had that experience before! All in all really not a bad MOT for the pittance I paid for the car, quite pleased really, parts ordered but not coming till Tuesday! Will crack on with the other smaller things this weekend, tyres, bulbs, fog lamp mystery?? Ha ha it would not be a Ford without a few oddities :)

[BrianH]

With the bulb aim it can be that the bulb isn't in its holder properly as well - commonly done even by the people you pay to fit them!

 

Doesn't sound too bad really its all minor stuff and fairly cheap, The foglamp is possible to fit one on the other side (you need a holder and bulb, wires were already there on mine - I only fitted it as I had the rear light bar off to replace it due to a hole in it thanks to previous owner and the spare bulb holder from the replacement unit) but you can always show the tester the blanked off one if he says the n/s one has to work

 

The battery clamp may need some playing with to make it fit better if your not on the original size battery - assuming its actually there in the first place that is.

[PembsPanther]

Well has it passed it's MOT? mmmmm nope! Me letting it down again not had time to do anything this week, the whole week went completely pear shaped by 8am last Monday! uhhhhhhhhh crazy day again today so still no time, got all the parts here just need a few hours to get it done, hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday, I have till Friday to get it back in for a re-test.

 

Had a lesson in why it is not a good idea to put things off over the last 2 days, sods law springs to mind! The MOT mentioned needing 2 new front tyres due to wear on the inside edge so left the house Friday morning for the school run, got about 1 mile away from home when I hear a "tsssssssssssssssssssssssss" then the never nice to hear rumbling of a tyre destroying itself, pulled over flat front drivers side tyre, great! Crawled under the car as I knew I had a good spare, I checked it when I picked the car up but now that was flat as well and no jack! Friend came a rescued me took the wheel off went to ATS new tyre fitted away we go, was intending to go back to ATS to get the other side done and the spare but as usual the day went wrong and I had no time, no biggie I thought I will do it Monday.........................

 

Yesterday afternoon left the house taking my eldest to a birthday party, same stretch of road "tssssssssssssssssssssss" OMG you have to be kidding, pulled over this time the passenger side uhhhhhhh after much head holding phoned same friend who very kindly came and rescued me again for the second day running, took the dam wheel off dropped daughter off and then went to get a new wheel, 3pm Saturday afternoon year 2015 of course ATS will be open, this is not 1975 why would they be shut on a Saturday afternoon, well they and every other tyre / garage in Pembrokeshire must all be trapped in a time warp because after touring round 7 places all were shut! Having no choice and needing to move the car from the side of the road I went to Halfords, who were open and bought some of the Holts tyre weld, as a side note they are currently selling off the big cans for a fiver! Anyway not having used this stuff before I was a bit sceptical, got back to the car the tyre that was on was shredded so dropped the spare after thinking where is my spare wheel carrier and why is there to threaded rods and 2 bots holding it on?? Put the spare on and inflated it using the tyre weld, it did a great job I was really impressed to be honest and very thankful! Got me home at least, car now on the drive for today but sadly me still working!

 

Anyway I hope my mishaps over the last 2 days have provided you with a little light laughter :)

 

Moral, well I do not need to say it do I really?Needless to say tomorrow there will be a brand new front tyre, brand new spare in the boot along with at least 2 bottles of tyre weld and tools required to change a dam wheel! ahhhh what a week.

[gregers]

and i would hope a case of liquid gold to your very good m8 for all the help he has given you?

[PembsPanther]

Oh yes there is a big bunch of flowers and a box of chocolates with her name on tomorrow :)

[BrianH]

Well has it passed it's MOT? mmmmm nope! Me letting it down again not had time to do anything this week, the whole week went completely pear shaped by 8am last Monday! uhhhhhhhhh crazy day again today so still no time, got all the parts here just need a few hours to get it done, hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday, I have till Friday to get it back in for a re-test.

 

Had a lesson in why it is not a good idea to put things off over the last 2 days, sods law springs to mind! The MOT mentioned needing 2 new front tyres due to wear on the inside edge so left the house Friday morning for the school run, got about 1 mile away from home when I hear a "tsssssssssssssssssssssssss" then the never nice to hear rumbling of a tyre destroying itself, pulled over flat front drivers side tyre, great! Crawled under the car as I knew I had a good spare, I checked it when I picked the car up but now that was flat as well and no jack! Friend came a rescued me took the wheel off went to ATS new tyre fitted away we go, was intending to go back to ATS to get the other side done and the spare but as usual the day went wrong and I had no time, no biggie I thought I will do it Monday.........................

 

Yesterday afternoon left the house taking my eldest to a birthday party, same stretch of road "tssssssssssssssssssssss" OMG you have to be kidding, pulled over this time the passenger side uhhhhhhh after much head holding phoned same friend who very kindly came and rescued me again for the second day running, took the dam wheel off dropped daughter off and then went to get a new wheel, 3pm Saturday afternoon year 2015 of course ATS will be open, this is not 1975 why would they be shut on a Saturday afternoon, well they and every other tyre / garage in Pembrokeshire must all be trapped in a time warp because after touring round 7 places all were shut! Having no choice and needing to move the car from the side of the road I went to Halfords, who were open and bought some of the Holts tyre weld, as a side note they are currently selling off the big cans for a fiver! Anyway not having used this stuff before I was a bit sceptical, got back to the car the tyre that was on was shredded so dropped the spare after thinking where is my spare wheel carrier and why is there to threaded rods and 2 bots holding it on?? Put the spare on and inflated it using the tyre weld, it did a great job I was really impressed to be honest and very thankful! Got me home at least, car now on the drive for today but sadly me still working!

 

Anyway I hope my mishaps over the last 2 days have provided you with a little light laughter :)

 

Moral, well I do not need to say it do I really?Needless to say tomorrow there will be a brand new front tyre, brand new spare in the boot along with at least 2 bottles of tyre weld and tools required to change a dam wheel! ahhhh what a week.

 

The jack should be behind the righthand door in the rear luggage area near the fuel filler area, providing its been put back of course!

[PembsPanther]

Nope Brian no sign of it anywhere just what seems like a plastic bracket that I am presuming should be holding the jack in place. I bought a new trolley jack as I was not happy with the lift on my old one for this Galaxy, fine for changing wheels but not really for crawling around underneath so I am going to put the old one in the boot along with a tool kit and some other handy things ready for Winter.

[BrianH]

sounds like your looking in the right place, it also holds the wheel brace. Trolley jack generally better anyway especially if its on less than ideal surfaces.

[PembsPanther]

That is what I was thinking, going to have a play next weekend see if I can find a clever way of storing everything, there is loads of room behind those rear trim panels so am hopeful as long as no rattles, pet hate is rattles and at the moment this old girl has plenty of them to track down and sort out.

[xavier]

On the headlamp bulb, I had my gal fail a couple of years ago as the bulb I had used (from a travel bulb kit that cost £4) was faulty. Your issue may be something like that. Also have you considered swapping fog lamp bulb from one side to the other to get you through the test? Then again, bulbs are cheap.

[PembsPanther]

I did have a quick look at the headlight and the drivers side is visibly higher than the passenger I can only think someone has had the headlight unit out at some stage and maybe disrupted the alignment somehow, there is an adjustment bolt according to ETIS so hopefully this will do the trick, I will have a go at adjusting that tonight.

 

Off for tyres this morning :)

[BrianH]

Check the bulb is installed correctly first. It's possible to upset the alignment by not having it in the tabs properly

[PembsPanther]

Hi Brian

 

Had a look at the bulb this morning looks seated perfectly which I was surprised about as I had a nightmare trying to get my fat hands in there, the wife did it for me in the end  :glare:

 

Etis gives instruction to set them back to a default setting so I might take both headlights out and set them back to default hopefully this will cure it if not then it will have to be the manual adjuster.

[BrianH]

Before you do that, check if you have an adjuster next to the light control (even my mk1 aspen has one, so yours must do). If so turn it to the fully adjusted position then back to the other end after a few seconds, it could be that the adjuster has ended up altered to a different point than it thinks its actually set to. Adjusting to both ends of its travel should reset it.

[PembsPanther]

Hi Brian

 

Yep tried that already to no avail unfortunately, still not found time to sort all this out and I am loathed to get the garage to do it, going to try and get someone to cover my day for me tomorrow so I can have a full day on it then rush it back in for re-test on Friday, must be more prepared!

 

There is still loads of other stuff I want to get done on the car before Winter, hopefully things work wise will begin to calm down a bit over the next few weeks then I can get on with what I enjoy and do the bodywork, new brakes all round, renew all fluids, sort the dam air con out and the parking sensors she will then be a minter :)

[PembsPanther]

Well organised as ever, I really should not grumble about being too busy especially being self employed but ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 

Last day for re-test today and here I am 8am still fixing! Still got the power steering rack gaiter to do and the droplinks, done all the other stuff apart from 1 bit of a nightmare the rear fog light does indeed have a fitting in place, never thought nothing of it, assumed it would be the bulb so ordered a new one went to fit it last night nothing, and no reversing light wither on that side, popped off the wiring connector and the white (ish) wire terminal on both connectors is completely rusted, cannot locate a wiring diagram anywhere so hoping this is maybe a live feed and once I find a file small enough to get in there we might be back in business, otherwise uh my favourite auto electrical fault finding:(

 

Any quick tips anyone?

 

Thanks in advance.

[PembsPanther]

Well what a day! Nothing went to plan and now missed MOT re-test grrrrr

 

Main problem was the power steering rack gaiter, nightmare to get the tie rod end off from the hub housing seized solid had no choice but to put the nut back on and bang the heck out of it, got it off in the end, then the boot itself, on axle stands so did not fancy going underneath the car as I am not happy with my current jack and stands, another story so had to go in from the side, no hope of any access to cut the clip at the very back so had to literally pull it out with long reach pliers almost ring by ring, got to the end and the clip just popped off, great!

 

Fitting the new boot was just plain ridiculous, total nightmare to get it to seat back properly and then not a hope in hell of me getting a clip or zip tie on the very back part will get local garage to throw it on their lift and put a zip tie on for me, put the tie rod end back on remembering 14 complete turns, put the threaded end back into the hub housing, was going great until I put the nut back on and tried to tighten it down to secure the tie rod end to the hub housing, not a chance, the threads on the tie rod end are damaged, I must have done it when trying to free it it looks like the whole nut has pushed the threads up so thought I will find a decent star key hold the threaded rod and simply re-cut them with the nut, well that did not end well, at the point of no return I tried to twist it on so much that the star key hole in the bottom of the rod sheared and now the nut is stuck on there!

 

Friday night 5pm, in Pembrokeshire where the heck am I going to get a tie rod end from? Only choice really was Amazon, go tone but not being delivered until Sunday so housebound till then :(

 

On the positive side the drop links were easy and the fog light and reversing light are both now working fine, I mentioned that there was 1 pin in the connector that was rusty, bought a nice small file gave it a good rubbing down, sprayed with some electrical cleaner spray bam all working great so the day was not a total loss.

 

I hope your day was better...........

[xavier]

my gal failed too, rear handbrake ns not effective, and my indicator bulbs were not yellow enough. Will tackle the handbrake tomorrow, garage reckons it's the cable (I have a spare in the garage), and needs a grease of the old slide pins.

 

If it helps synchro motor factors are open to 3:30 tomorrow.

[PembsPanther]

Xavier you star, well found I had forgotten all about them, I will give them a ring in the morning and see if they have stock, going to call my local Ford as well see what price they come up with and if they have stock, if all else fails then Sunday it will be!

[xavier]

No problem, I'll be doing some car stuff myself tomorrow. Pity it's the galaxy though rather than the mgf I've been working on the last couple of weekends.

[PembsPanther]

Well phoned Ford none in the local network so special order from Ford just under £55, phoned Syncro and amazingly they have one on the shelf £11.50!  Probably not the best quality part at that price but it solves my problem for the moment, I will try and track down a Ford one on Ebay cheaper over the next few weeks.

 

Off to Pembroke Dock and the sun us shining as well :)