Car in for Mot and service

changed droplink on nearside as was clunking, fine and happy with that. Advised “red” issue the nearside is also the same and needs sorting. WTF did they not suggest doing it there and then?/

Next “red” advisory for rear tyre as 0.04mm of legal tread left, again why not sort it and tell me ffs!!

then you might rant about them doing things which weren’t necessary and charging you for it

0.04mm of legal tread left

Jesus that’s some accurate machine they have there 😯

Re the droplink…. change it yourself – it’s proper easy.

droplink? easy? is it? not got time tbh.

It’s more the fact that they rang to check about one tyre and one droplink and neglected to mention the other tyre and other droplink!!

nearside as was clunking, fine and happy with that. Advised “red” issue the nearside is also the same

I’d be miffed if they changed a droplink and then called to tell me it needed sorting! 😆

I assume you mean 0.4mm?

Letting a tyre get that low is disgraceful and there is no excuse for any car owner to allow their tyres to get in that shape. I have left notes on car windows when have seen tyres with the reinforcing fibres showing. If I can spot it walking past I don’t see how someone who owns it can’t.

clearly says 0.04mm BUT the tyre looks fine and i can feel tread depth on the wear indicator

You took your car to Halfords for a service 😯

They can’t even put a bike together….

Sorry, meant I assume they meant 0.4mm.

Maybe they have measured 0.4mm on top of the wear marker? Which is obviously incorrect and either a mistake or their way of getting extra work out of people. I’m in no way excusing this as it’s wrong but then people should know the limits and check their own tyres to stop them trying it on.

Don’t just go on the wear marker location, check the tread across the tyre as tracking or incorrect pressures can make it wear oddly. Should be 1.6mm across the central 3 quarters and all the way round.

Does 0.4 mm of legal tread left not mean the amount over 1.6mm?

nairnster – Member

Does 0.4 mm of legal tread left not mean the amount over 1.6mm?

This is what I assumed; so 2mm of total tread left.

40µm would be a very accurate measurement!

OP says it’s over the legal limit so can’t be .4mm tread. Pitchforks away.

Basically, they’ve done the work needed to get it through the MOT, which presumably is what you’ve asked? Advisories of MOT-criticals are “this will need done”, if it needed done right now it wouldn’t be an advisory, it’d be a fail.

Does 0.4 mm of legal tread left not mean the amount over 1.6mm?

ahh yes. Pitchfork away but everyone should check tyres regularly so they don’t get any nasty surprises.

I guess they could have meant 0.04mm in that case but yes 40 micron is not the kind of measurement you would expect to be accurate on a car tyre or constant and reliable as an indication all the way round.

OPs the best one to judge as he has the car and it sounds like it’s 0.4mm.

Personally I would rather get a call to ask if I wanted something sorting, tyre prices vary a lot. they may not be able to get the ones fitted, you want to make sure they don’t fit cheap rubbish and I would normally change an axle set unless it’s something like an unfixable puncture early in a tyres life.

my point is that when they were on the phone telling me about the mot fail stuff if they had mentioned the other stuff i would have been like **** it, get it done. They didn’t so i have the inconvenience of going to another garage to get it done!!

my point is that when they were on the phone telling me about the mot fail stuff if they had mentioned the other stuff i would have been like **** it, get it done. They didn’t so i have the inconvenience of going to another garage to get it done!!

yes that does seem silly. I missed your second post that they already had to change one tyre so maybe it is 0.04mm despite how implausible the measurement seems but basically that is on the legal limit.

But you do deserve a prod with a pitchfork for letting tyres get that low :p

make sure you get the same tyre to match and get them put on the back if the wheel sizes are the same.

One was a pass (the one they didn’t change) and the other wasnt (the one they did).

Take it back in and get over it…

OP.

The 0.04mm measurement will be a typo. To quote Paddy Ashdown, I’ll eat my hat if a MOT inspector in Halfords can measure 0.04mm accurately over a whole tyre tread. If they really quote 0.04mm then they are as dumb as a bag of hammers. That would be an easy fail on tyre depth, new tyre.

Tread wear indicators are normally at 2mm, although I’ve seen some at 2.5mm. The legal limit is 1.6mm over the central 3/4 of the tyre. This can then be “interpreted” by the measurer into legal / illegal. The fact that two tyres the same size will have two different tread patterns and will be different real world sizes. Much the same as bike tyres.

Ex tyre fitter, so I know the score.

Minor Rant of My Own:

MOT advisories. It has either passed or failed. You can’t have a tyre, brakes, lights, etc. be “ermm, well it’s close, but I’ll let it go”. Pass or fail. Simple.

There’s nothing wrong with a garage or mechanic telling you during or after work has been carried out that “your tyres are getting close to the limit” or “depending on how many miles you drive, you might want to check the brakes on the front in 6 months or 5000 miles”

MOT, it’s passed or failed. Printed on the MOT certificate is pointless bullshit. (/RANT)

Tiger6791 – Member
You took your car to Halfords for a service

They can’t even put a bike together….

^^^This^^^

I have to deal with these muppets all the time – I wouldn’t trust them to change a tyre, let alone anything complicated.

I expect it was 0.05mm

depends on time of day – they won’t carry any stock, if passed point when can order for delivery and fit that day they think you will answer “but i need the car back, no you can’t keep it another day” so they advise you so can book in at a convenient time

They did the other tyreand droplink that arvo

In Halfords’ defence, the closest MOT station to me is a Halfords, I’ve used them for MOTs on all of my cars over the eight years we’ve lived here and they’ve always been great. We normally have at least three cars in the household so that’s a reasonable sample size. The few times they’ve failed a car it’s been for a perfectly fair reason. The only decision of theirs that I disagreed with was when they gave me an advisory for THIS. A clear fail I would have thought, but due to the arrangement of the suspension you can’t move that joint by hand to check for play. No play = no fail apparently. I replaced the bush anyway, of course, and it was a git of a job.

Are the Halfords Autocentres franchises ?

MOT advisories. It has either passed or failed. You can’t have a tyre, brakes, lights, etc. be “ermm, well it’s close, but I’ll let it go”. Pass or fail. Simple.

I’ve always taken the advisories as a heads-up i.e. ‘if you don’t do anything about this don’t be surprised if it fails next time’.
Seems like a helpful feature to me.

sharkbait – Member

MOT advisories. It has either passed or failed. You can’t have a tyre, brakes, lights, etc. be “ermm, well it’s close, but I’ll let it go”. Pass or fail. Simple.

I’ve always taken the advisories as a heads-up i.e. ‘if you don’t do anything about this don’t be surprised if it fails next time’.
Seems like a helpful feature to me.[/quote]

But a MOT test is a test not a condition report. It doesn’t ask for the tyre tread depth or the brake pad or disc thickness. It asks PASS or FAIL.

Like I said, nothing wrong with a heads up during or after the test or other work done. But a MOT is a test.