• Welcome to the Land Rover UK Forums

    You are currently viewing the site as a guest and some content may not be available to you.

    Registration is quick and easy and will give you full access to the site and allow you to ask questions or make comments and join in on the conversation. If you would like to register then please Register Now

Hater mechanics and MOT fails for rusty sill

C

chuyueling

In Second Gear
Hello again,

I got excellent advice here last year when I said I was almost convinced to sell my 56 reg FL2 on the advice of a nice but FL2 hating mechanic, in favour of a Japanese "equivalent". I am female (like it is an excuse :D ) and I dont know very much about cars, although my ability to reverse and parallel park has improved fractionally, since having this car and living rurally.

Anyway, I never sold it of course. And this year, he has failed its MOT and refused to repair on one of the fail points: rust he reckoned was under the sill. I know lots of mechanics are not doing welding but of course i found one who did it.

Mileage is 193000 plus. I love this car because of how rurally I live and just because I love it, basically. I can get hay bales and animal feed in it, logs, sheep and people if i really have to. It hardly bats an eye at inevitable potholes, flood, snow. I am not interested in fancy extras. But the mechanic is adamant it is knackered, about to peg and a money pit, rust, blah blah blah. A local dealer who also dislikes landrover is trying to convince me to get a used 66 SEAT ateca for trillions of pounds.

Is the rust really something to worry about? Has anyone had an older FL2 disintegrate from underneath them, whilst on the road? Could I sell a car with this mileage, in good conscience maybe for a grand? I get told it's scrap. But it has a new battery, brakes, engine strut thingies and a steering rack repaired last year. šŸ¤” Yes the cost has racked up but the thing cost me 3 grand originally.

The mechanic who welded under the sills said "I would not have failed it on that" and will promptly do an MOT for it this week.

Now, was my mechanic being a bit too vigilant in order to eject me from his saturated customer base? He can hardly tell the extent of rust without removing the sill. Obviously I'm not going back to him so he has got what he wanted. But it has cost me an extra MOT fee (I know about retest, etc but it is a matter of pride at this point).

Thanks, quite a few scattered questions here.
 
It looks to me that a few people are trying to empty your pocket for you. Find a mechanic you can trust maybe someone can recommend one.what area are you in that helps. The dealer with the seat will hate anything he is not trying to sell.
 
chuyueling said:
Hello again,

I got excellent advice here last year when I said I was almost convinced to sell my 56 reg FL2 on the advice of a nice but FL2 hating mechanic, in favour of a Japanese "equivalent". I am female (like it is an excuse :D ) and I dont know very much about cars, although my ability to reverse and parallel park has improved fractionally, since having this car and living rurally.

Anyway, I never sold it of course. And this year, he has failed its MOT and refused to repair on one of the fail points: rust he reckoned was under the sill. I know lots of mechanics are not doing welding but of course i found one who did it.

Mileage is 193000 plus. I love this car because of how rurally I live and just because I love it, basically. I can get hay bales and animal feed in it, logs, sheep and people if i really have to. It hardly bats an eye at inevitable potholes, flood, snow. I am not interested in fancy extras. But the mechanic is adamant it is knackered, about to peg and a money pit, rust, blah blah blah. A local dealer who also dislikes landrover is trying to convince me to get a used 66 SEAT ateca for trillions of pounds.

Is the rust really something to worry about? Has anyone had an older FL2 disintegrate from underneath them, whilst on the road? Could I sell a car with this mileage, in good conscience maybe for a grand? I get told it's scrap. But it has a new battery, brakes, engine strut thingies and a steering rack repaired last year. šŸ¤” Yes the cost has racked up but the thing cost me 3 grand originally.

The mechanic who welded under the sills said "I would not have failed it on that" and will promptly do an MOT for it this week.

Now, was my mechanic being a bit too vigilant in order to eject me from his saturated customer base? He can hardly tell the extent of rust without removing the sill. Obviously I'm not going back to him so he has got what he wanted. But it has cost me an extra MOT fee (I know about retest, etc but it is a matter of pride at this point).

Thanks, quite a few scattered questions here.
Click to expand...
The problem with welding that little patch of rust ... is that a 2inch rust patch can turn into a 12inch patch ..and garages seem to turn away welding jobs these days ..gone are the days when a patch to be welded cost about 20 quid .. now it is more like 200 quid .. the good thing is your vehicle is moted for another year and you can worry about rust next year as for should the tester have failed it or not .. interpretation of the rules of testing ... some might fail it and others might not... as for is the vehicle a rust bucket and about to disintergrate on the next big pot hole .. i doubt it .. if it was just the sill area rusted .. no real problem not really a structual problem.. so enjoy driving it for another year
 
How mechanically minded are you?
How about having a go at welding yourself?
I know there night school classes, but I just bought myself a welder (from halfrauds for approx Ā£180) and a book on "how to weld" and went for it.........
The welding bit is easy once you get the knack, it's having the confidence to cut out bits of your beloved-what starts out as a rust speck the size of a 5 pence piece can soon turn into a massive hole.
Once you can weld, you'll be able to keep your motor going for years, all for the price of a welder and some bits of metal.......
Good luck
 
Stu67 said:
The welding bit is easy once you get the knack
Click to expand...
The difficult thing is learning to weld upside down and in cramped positions. šŸ˜

That being said, it's an exceptionally worthwhile skill. Save yourself a fortune, if you are sensible.

To be fair, if you're paying somebody, you can save a lot of money by preparing the area to be welded before your welder starts work on it.
 
We once had a Reliant Regal (ā€˜65) and my Dadā€™s friend had a garage that we had our MOTs done at. The tester had ā€œthingā€ against 3-wheelers, absolutely hated them, so he took a hammer and cold chisel and butchered the chassis repairs (which were well done) bashing away until he found something he said was a failure. Bā€™turd!

Dad reported them to trading standards and we replaced the chassis with a decent used one.

Wish we still had that car.
 
Welcome back @chuyueling ....You've got another year's Freelander driving, enjoy and forget the moaners. If you feel rust is becoming an issue there are some very good products on the market that you could easily apply yourself. LanoGuard is a good example. Basically it's oils from sheep wool but it's real easy to apply and not a lot of prep work required and it doesn't wash off. You could spray it into the sills (and any other areas that have you worried) and it will stop rust progressing any further. It will be important to protect the area where you had the welding done as the metal becomes very venerable when it has been worked on. Let me know if you are interested and I will post you the link and info.
 
Back
Top Bottom