MOT time

[Guest]

Wipers
Front indicator, rear number plate light cover
Wheel arch rust
exaust blowing and corroded
Cb boot needs replacing
New wheel bearing needed

[Guest]

Ouch! Sounds like your vehicle has been in the wars!

[Guest]

On further inspection, these seem like easy things to fix, but I don't know what your mechanical skills are like. How can we help?

[Guest]

The problem is the rover dealer quoted me a grand, my skills are well non-existannt basically, hence the problem

[E_T_V]

A basic rule of thum is take a nought off of the end of the price quoted by a rover dealer to do the work and that is what you can do it for.

Wipers - new set of blades a fiver probably, maybe a tenner. Takes five mins to fit, no skills needed.

Front indicator, Bulb gone, 2 miniute fix for 50p. If the lens is cracked then there are plenty available in lots of places.

rear number plate light cover. Yes they doo seem to fall off. Buy a new one or get one from a scrap yard. Shouldn't be expensive and will take 30 seconds to fit. (they just push in)

Wheel arch rust - unlikely to fail an mot unless it has sharp edges. There are a number of options depending on how bad the rust is. The worst case is to have to weld two new arches in and spray them back up to match.. If you post us a pic we'll compare with all our rusty arches!

exaust blowing and corroded - get a new one fitted probably about 100 quid for a full new one, but you can probably get away with less.

Cb boot needs replacing. I assume you mean CV joint. Shouldn't be too expensive. if you do it yourself it'll cost you about a tenner, a garage will probably charge an hour of labour on top.

New wheel bearing needed. Ahhh get a garage to do this one unless you are feeling brave (or it is a rear one). Depending on your car they are either difficult or very difficult to get out. The dismantling bit is easy, just getting the bearing out that is the hard part. Bearings are about 40 quid I think. Add a couple of hours labour to get a garage to fit it.

In short rover are having you on and would they be trying to get you to part ex it for a new one by any chance?

I'd suggest starting with the simple things like the wipers, indicators and boot light and see how you go. Maestros are easy cars to work on (wheel bearings excepted of course unless you have access to a hydraulic press).

If you need help and advice we'll try to help as best we can

Cheers

Dan

[Guest]

Ludicrous quote! That's £150 worth tops! You can do the wipers and CV boot yourself (get a sticky type that requires no dismantling and it will take about 45 mins). You can probably coax the rear plate light and the indicator back to life yourself as well, depending on the problem. The exhaust is a bit more technical - it depends where it is blowing. A wire brush and some fire putty will fix a blowing joint or you can fix a silencer with some exhaust bandage. Or, go to a Quik Fit and have it replaced - a Monty exhaust should set you back no more than £100. If the arch rust is bad enough to fail the MoT and you need a quick solution to get it to pass then hammer the sharp bits flat (or off!) and cover the edge with gaffer tape and this will pass - it is the sharp edges that can fail the MoT. Wheel bearing is probably a mechanic job if you have limited skills - to be honest, I think most people would get a mechanic to do it.

[Guest]

E_T_V beat me to it, and managed to write three times as much! I forgot to ask where you are based: you may find a friendly Monty/Maestro owner nearby to come and help you out on a couple of issues.

[tony]

had a garage do my wheel bearings got my own bearing at £25 each then they charged me £30 per side to fit. c,v, boot was a £5 from the car shop,get the garage to fit it while they do the wheel bearing and your laughing all the way from the mot station

[Guest]

Thank you all so so much, day one of the plan has gone well .
Rear number plate light cover £1,
Front indicator £10 (with free bulb )
wipers replaced for £15.

A quote for the exhaust of £65 for the whole lot from kwik-fit

All set for attempting the rust tomorrow.
Matt, I'm in South east London.

tony, tell me more about this garage.

Thank you all

craig.

PS, i forgot to mention the main beam selector is broken, it won't keep main beam showing without the stalk being held back

[tony]

not much to say ,its in darfield near barnsley south yourkshire a bit far away me thinks

[John S]

[QUOTE]

PS, i forgot to mention the main beam selector is broken, it won't keep main beam showing without the stalk being held back


I had this problem a while back. You need to prise off the centre cap of the steering wheel (carefully). Then you remove the black cap of the steering wheel bolt. Undo this and remove the steering wheel. You will then need to unscrew the plastic casing. This will reveal both indicator stalks. Remove faulty indicator arm then find a scrap car with a good one and fit it to your car.

PS: A wire must have broken off inside the indicator arm unit. If you are familiar with soldering wires you could alternatively solder the broken wire back on to the indicator arm mechanism from the place it came loose.

[bandycat]

Re: MOT time

Originally posted by Quality
Wipers
Front indicator, rear number plate light cover
Wheel arch rust
exaust blowing and corroded
Cb boot needs replacing
New wheel bearing needed

can u scan in the fail sheet??????

[Guest]

Thank you, as I said earlier you are all so helpful, wonderful people.

[philippope]

You don't need to take the steering wheel off to remove one of the stalks. Take off the plastic cowling (4 screws) pull the multi plug out of the back of the stalk, and then pinch together the 2 lugs, top and bottom of the stalk base. HTH
Phil

[Guest]

Originally posted by philippope
You don't need to take the steering wheel off to remove one of the stalks. Take off the plastic cowling (4 screws) pull the multi plug out of the back of the stalk, and then pinch together the 2 lugs, top and bottom of the stalk base. HTH
Phil

Thanks philippope. I did take the wheel off, but the scrap stalks caused the windscreen washer jets to continually fire, so luckily we were able to pull the 2 lugs and use the old windscreen control stalk. The new stalk fixed the lights which was great. The rust is all filled now and will be filed and primed tomorrow, ready for spraying.

Thanks everyone.