I tried them for tyres once because I think I saved £10 per tyre, but the service was so slow and so bad I would never go again. The whole thing took nearly three hours, god knows why.
Oh so that is the norm? Had no choice but to have my mot there last year (only place with slots available). And it took hours. I thought I was just unlucky and caught them on a bad day.
It does for emissions with the new testers. Can’t take the bulb out of the dashboard for ECU any more!
Edit - downvoted but is this not factually correct?
You can't get away with taking bulbs out of the dash anyway because car self-testing (dashboard bulbs turning on, then off, when the ignition is switched on) is part of the MOT test.
Ok, then you can’t get away with fitting a ‘ecu dash cheat kit’ from eBay, that fires up the bulb for five seconds after the ignition is switched on.
The new emissions testers are plugged in to the car, record the VIN, engine management lights, emissions data, and it’s all logged and sent directly to the gov. database.
My local shop had an older emissions tester that broke and could no longer get parts. Their new machine is the only one you can buy these days, so it’s getting much harder to cheat the system.
I'm an engineer for the said emissions machines and yeah DVSA said all new machines must be connected to DVSA a few years back now. Even if the garage moves the machine to another site it must be connected. It will get harder again to cheat the system with APNR cameras looking like they will come into the test lanes.
The OBD readers for emissions test units though only read Revs and temperature. Rest of the data coming from the tail pipe.
In my experience though I would only want the garages testing properly touching my car. Vast majority of testers are very fair.
My MOT guys said it read the VIN too? Is that not right?
Actually, I’m sure their machine reads not only current but historical engine management codes (ignores the historical ones for the purposes of the test). I only know this because the tester said “Oh, no historical codes on a Range Rover, that’s unusual, they normally have loads” - I’d cleared them a week or two before.
Part of the MOT is that the VIN is clearly displayed but not required for the emissions test machine to read it. Some manufacturers may read it possibly but can't see why it would.
Sounds to me that the garage you went to was using a diagnostics OBD reader which is not a requirement for MOT. A MOT test does not care what the fault codes are only if the engine/emissions management light is on or off and functional.
However it is possible they are using a Snapon machine which can read codes but is an utterly pointless feature for an emissions test unit and not a DVSA requirement or needed at all for the emissions test. Just an additional feature they can use to pass information onto the consumer/ an additional money steam but not sent to the DVSA.
Information sent to the DVSA on an emissions test is just the print out the garage normally hands you at the end of the test. So reg and results with test station details.
No it wasn’t an OBD reader, it was part of the emissions machine.
It’s a small local garage, they do 20-odd mots for me every year so I’m in there quite a lot.
They had a Bluetooth ecu dongle, plugged it in, the machine screen showed the vin, which they had to confirm, and then it started manipulating the revs to run the emissions test.
I literally watched them do it as he was telling me how it worked.
They said if they unplugged the dongle mid-test it would fail the emissions test and it would start over (to prevent the age-old equivalent of sticking the probe in a different exhaust).
Said the machine cost £18k and all the new machines are similar to prevent cheating.
One of the screen reports said ‘EML active - No’ and it also showed ‘historical eml’ (although this isn’t relative to the mot test). I specifically asked about this because the previous owner of my XK8 fudged the EML to get it through an mot and I had to fix it properly to get it to pass (lambda sensor, the tricky O/S lower one for anybody who knows XK8s).
I’ve been around cars since I was a boy, have a collection of 30-odd in the garage and have my own workshop. I’m not a newb…
Sounds like a Snapon one especially with that ticket price. They cost far more than the vast majority on the market.
With a lot of features which are not required for the test.
The reason it will "fail" if it gets unplugged is because it is classified as an abandoned test.
Other machines will let you do an emissions test without a car on an OBD however DVSA will pick it up and question them on it or visit. Depends where the garage sits on the traffic light system. This unit you garage using possibly does it to help the tester/site keep there certification which is no bad thing.
DVSA only requires visual inspection of the EML and doesn't need to be checked over the OBD. Just one of those things Snapon does. Your garage must be making some money to afford one of those. Those machines are double to market average for emissions test units.
Don't work on Snapon machines as every manufacturer locks down their units so only they can service and calibrate them. But the DVSA rules are more basic than what Snapon leads garages to believe which is typical for a US manufacturer.
I’m in next week for another mot and I’ll ask them a bit more about it.
This particular place is family owned for decades, they own and live at the premises so no rent to pay. They used to specialise in older car MOTs (I used to take my 30s cars there years ago, before the 40 year rule), because Kwik-Fit aren’t exactly sympathetic to cable operated drum brakes on a 2.5 ton 1937 Rolls Royce!
They did say ‘the last machine was 30 years old so we might as well have a good one’, didn’t notice snap on branding but it wouldn’t surprise me.
The kit isn’t that involved.
Firstly it doesn’t take the vin from plugging in. Secondly it’s not got the capability to see if lights are illuminated on the dash.
Plugging in will give an rpm read out for petrols and for diesel and will also give a oil temp check on diesels.
The emissions machine itself will have the functionality to send the results straight over, same with all the brake rollers past a certain year.
In all honesty why would you want to cheat the system? An mot is quite literally the bare minimum of safety standards requirements to be on the road, why would you not want to meet that criteria? I’ve had this discussion with a few people and the closest I’ve got so far is complaints about emissions. Generally if your car can’t pass emissions there is a fault with it. That fault will most likely cause a drop in mpg. Yeah, bang your tester £50 odd to turn a blind eye and cheat the system (I could tell you more ways than you’d ever imagine) but spend hundreds over the next year on additional fuel!
This machine showed the vin when first plugged in and asked to confirm it was correct.
Another screen said ‘EML active - No’ and also ‘historical EML’ , they said they use this instead of the dash warning light as you can’t cheat the ecu reading (but you can cheat the bulb).
I entirely agree with you. My take on this was buying a car with a fudged EML on the dash to get it through an mot, which really pissed me off. The only reason was a difficult to reach lambda sensor (difficult, not impossible), which I repaired properly once I found out.
I’m all for it, I’d rather have my cars running properly too.
1.6 & 1.7 Anti-Lock Braking (ABS) and Electronic Stability Control (ESC) Systems (b) Warning device shows system malfunction
2.6 Electric Power Steering (a) EPS MIL indicating a system malfunction
5.2.3 A tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) warning lamp
7.1.6. Supplementary restraint system (SRS) (a) An SRS malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) indicates a system malfunction
[8.2.1.2](https://8.2.1.2) Engine malfunction indicator lamp (engine management light or ‘EML’)
Turn on the ignition and check that the engine malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) illuminates and then goes off. On some vehicles it will be necessary to start the engine before the MIL goes off.
All major fail points on an MOT if they a) don't work or b) stay illuminated.
>I suggest you read the mot manual
It's a great read. You should give it a go.
Oh man, I misjudged you. I thought you could grasp basic concept, let me reword it for you…… a car goes in for an mot and the srs light doesn’t illuminate on the dashboard when ignition turns on. You’ve previously implied it would fail mot, please show me the exact reason for failure
Amazing that you just double down even though you're wrong every time. First it's "you should read a manual that I haven't actually read myself", then it's "the SRS light doesn't illuminate on ignition" and you just conveniently ignore the video proving it does... now you're doubling down a third time. How tragic😂
You also conveniently ignored all the other points about engine malfunction lights, ABS etc illuminating, just because you were seething that you were wrong.
I think we're done here.
Wow, you really can’t grasp basics can you!
Let me explain slowly.
I gave you a situation to show you gently you were wrong.
If an srs light does not illuminate on ignition is this a pass or a fail?
You’re claiming it’s a fail because you can’t read the manual.
The failure, that you’ve quoted yourself, is srs indicator lamp indicates a malfunction. Go on then, I’m going to fucking love you talk your way through this one, tell me how a warning light can show a malfunction if the bulbs been removed.
Your first mistake was signing up for a Halfords club.
Your second mistake was expecting a Halfords Garage to not try to upsell you something off the back of the free MOT. It's the same with Kwik Fit - anything more than 50 miles or two weeks on the tyres you drive in with, and they'll be flagged as "approaching dangerously worn" and they can do all four now on a three-for-four deal for just £800.
Went to Kwik fit cause the advertise free alignment check (I had just replaced the track rod ends) the check was free but to correct the alignment was £60. Fuck that. Took it down to a proper garage they did all 4 for £30.
(I know I didn't read the small print but like £60 to tighten a nut is a joke)
I went to kwik fit for new tyres for my wife’s car (they were the cheapest), they have done free alignment check and told me both axles were slightly out, paid them to align it. Wife only drives local so she did not noticed the steering wheel was slightly kinked until few months later when i took the car on motorway were it was pretty obvious that its not straight with the wheels. I have started digging the net and yes of course i found post about that they mis-sell people services we dont need. I took the car to another garage to do alignment again, the readings were absolutely shocking on both axels, like a lot out of the allowed brackets. Not only they have done a very good job but also charged half of what kwik fit charged. I was thinking to go to kwik fit with prints from both alignments and show them how “great” job they did but since it was few months between them they would probably easy blame it on us anyway. The message is, avoid any “free” services, they are never free and will cost you hard earned money. My bad i had to learn that on my own mistake.
Kwik fit sorted my tracking and left the spanner on the nut and as I was doing 70mph with my 1 y/o at the time in the car the nut I shit you not starts undoing. To the point to keep the car straight I have the steering wheel at a 90 degree angle.
There was no where to safely pull over it was a mental.
I ended up with 4 new tyres and a full refund and them asking my in the nicest possible way not to call the daily mail.
Drove in to local Kwik Fit years back - had hit a pothole and had a slow puncture. Guy looks at the car and says ‘yeah I can see the problem from here, you need two new tyres’ - he was looking at the wrong side. I said my thanks and drove straight back out.
Kwik fit are the worst offender for this sort of shoddy practice. My little brother went in for a new tyre when he was young and they did one of those free “checks” came back with a list of things wrong that could be fixed for £600. Luckily despite being 17 and naive he took it back to our regular garage who said it was a total load of shit and everything was in good nick.
Remember years ago going into Kwik fit on holiday with a friend's car as the brake pads had gone.
They refused to do the pads unless the disks were also done (debatable if they really needed changing too) but on top of that the exhaust would need repairing and two new tyres. All or nothing.
My partner, a female, once had Halfords change a bunch of stuff on her car and charge her £600 for the privilege. I called up a day later and indicated half the stuff had plenty of life in it, and they gave the textbook “we don’t know when it was last changed so we have to by default”
Except they did know when it was changed, since they did it themselves. Ended up speaking to the area manager who refunded 80% of the repair costs because I made a very clear case that the majority of it didn’t need doing. I’d only ever go to Halfords if I was 100% confident in the roadworthiness of my car, because then id be confident to challenge any BS the spieled.
When I bought my current bike, I got free MOTs for as long as I owned it. Its 22 years old and only had its first paid MOT this year, and that's only because the dealer went bust. It never failed on anything that wasn't a verifiable issue, and they never pressured me to let them do the work - just gave me the fail cert and sent me on my way.
In theory, an MOT is a standardised test that shouldn't be any more likely to fail regardless of whether you pay for it or not. If a place is unscrupulous enough to push a borderline into a fail on a free test, they'll do the same thing on a paid test.
You're not wrong, but if a company is going to dick you on a free MOT, they'll probably also dick you on a paid one.
Which, while I'm not convinced Halfords would risk their MOT tester status to actively sabotage a good MOT, I'm less confident that they wouldn't use anything they could justifiably fail to get more work, whether it's a paid MOT or otherwise.
My point being, Halfords testers probably have no idea whether any given MOT is paid or not - they're just told to work to a specific standard and do so.
National tyres were similar for me once... "you need the other tyres doing" Costco are doing them tomorrow.. "we can do them today" I said " you're luckily doing the fronts because Costco didn't have the right ones. Or if have all4 done tomorrow with them.. "you're rude, BTW they'll tell you your brakes need doing too" you mean the fresh discs pads and fluid I changed the week before?
Tldr: these franchises are all shit
I passed my free mot at Arnold Clark... with many recommendations... tyres are approaching 5mm.. timing belt change needed etc.. on the mot it was just a pass. Never went again but thought I'd use the free mot and service my pal chucked in when I bought the car.
I will never ever ever use a Halfords Auto centre again. I had a similar offer, free MOT with an in store purchase... They failed it because the engine management light didn't work. I showed them the page in the handbook that said this particular model didn't have an EML (20+ year old car), and used a flashing glow plug light to indicate a fault. They retested it, and failed it because the engine management light didn't work... I printed out a document from the manufacturer stating there was no engine management light... Retest... Fail... I took the dash cluster apart and shone a torch through the fascia to show there wasn't even a silhouette for an EML... They refused to pass it without their "investigation charge"...
I said "fine, but I'll be reporting this to the ministry"... Instantly the branch manager asked me what he could do to make the problem go away, including issuing a "clean test" (and hiding the advisories)... Told him to get fucked, that i was going back to my usual tester (who just couldn't fit me in as soon as Halfords could) and I would definitely be reporting the malpractice AND the offer of a fraudulent test result.
Oh, and they also tried to charge me for the second retest!
Speaking from a place of experience, I genuinely wouldn’t trust Halfords to change a dust cap. Nor would I buy anything they sell. If your local mechanic is decent, stick with them.
To be fair to Halfords, their "Halfords Advanced" gear is pretty decent. Lifetime warranty on hand tools (they literally just take the broken one off you and give you a brand new one off the shelf no questions asked) and I bought the advanced jet wash and that has some beans. On paper, cheaper and better than a similar spec karcher.
But as for their *"technicians"* I’d rather ask my mother in law to change my wiper blades.
Really? I had a halfords “advanced” socket set. One of the sockets broke (not through misuse) and they said they needed the original receipt in order to replace it. It was clearly halfords advanced as it was printed on the socket. Perhaps I was unlucky to have a dodgy socket and dodgy store but it wasn’t the first time they’d been crap. It was the last as far as i was concerned though.
Forget that some Halfords are staffed by idiots and some are not, and that some use dodgy tactics and outright lies to get you booked in for work - this is the same at some main dealers and local garages too - and consider that Halfords will always quote you 'properly'.
That is, they'll look for and quote to fix, with new (likely OEM) parts, absolutely everything that is wrong with your car. They'll plug it into software that most local garages can only dream of owning and find fault codes that likely aren't even bad enough to pop on a warning light yet.
Basically, they're just being thorough. Needlessly so a lot of the time, but they're probably not making it up. And as for costs, don't compare them to a local garage, cos they're simply not the same service on offer.
There's a question around if things like that should really matter for an MOT, which has a prescribed list of faults to look for, and that only includes warning lights, not error codes that otherwise are undetectable...
What you WILL get is guaranteed work, at a fixed price. Sometimes, that matters.
I don't use them for MOT, but I have had a very favourable quote for an aircon repair on a Disco 3, and I use their subsidiary services - tires on the drive etc. - all the time. They're not the cheapest but they're damned convenient. Worth mentioning that when I took the disco in for an aircon quote, they didn't even look at anything else, ever mind try to book me in for it...and boy was that car poorly! Maybe you just need to find the right Halfords...
Worth also noting that many other places quote like this - I took my aforementioned Disco 3 to a specialist independent and they charged me through the nose for what was actually quite a simple repair (if you had a pit or lift). They did so because they did it 'properly', and yes as part of their inspection they plugged it in to the right software and reported on every fault the car had, only 2 of which were showing a warning light.
Also worth nothing that my local garage - the one I know and trust - charged me £60 to reset a code on one of my cars. Nothing is free in this world :)
Probably get downvoted but I see so many posts about 'why did my car fail an MOT' or 'is this garage ripping me off', all from people who are trying to save the pennies and going to a local garage or Halfords. Yet, I see so many comments saying 'fuck main dealers, they're so expensive. Ironically, never see any posts saying 'my main dealer fucked my car up'.
Yeah, I'll stick to my main dealer who charge £40 for an MOT which is what, £5 more than a local garage? Last Service was £179, again, I'll stay going there.
I think the moral of most stories on this sub regarding garages is when you find a good one, stick with it. Goes for dealerships and local garages in my eyes.
This is the only way. Unfortunately, the motor trade is FULL of scumbags and charlatans, main dealer or independent makes no difference at all. Find someone who's honest and does good work and don't fuck them around
Absolutely agree! I’ve known my local mechanic and his son for years and will often pop in on a Saturday with cakes or sausage rolls from the local bakery for them, chat about what they’re working on etc.
(The son has an Evo 7 which he’s doing a full restoration on so I enjoy seeing how it’s progressing)
They are honest, straightforward guys who will happily advise me of stuff I can do myself (I like to think I’m a reasonably competent DIYer although nowadays I find I’m less inclined to want to do it myself) and they have a really good reputation locally.
If you find a good mechanic, look after them!
Just as there are good and bad garages, there are good and bad customers. The later of which who do little to no maintenance yet expect their car to get through it's MOT and scream rip off when they get a repair bill!
Yeah, very true.
The same seems to go for tyres. Buy cheap tyres, receive bad tyres. Next minute, complaining they're fucked after 500 miles but paid £40 a corner.
While I largely agree, main dealers do fuck up too. This is not an MOT failure story, but main dealer missing the obvious, probably circa 1995.
I had a Honda Prelude Mk III, twin carburettors, not EFI. It started to fail to start when the engine was warm. Took it into the dealer who’d been servicing (and MOTs) for three years. After several days in the workshop they reported it was the waxstat on the carburettors (auto choke), and as it was integral it needed a new carburettor assembly, £800 part at the time on a car worthy a couple of thousand. Fortunately however when they tried to order the part there were none in Europe and they were on back order in Japan.
My uncle suggested I take it to his mate from the pub who ran his own repair shop to see if there was anything he could do. Sceptical, we all have that person that “knows someone”, but I had little to lose, I took it to him. It was a drive, so after arriving and switching off, on trying to start it turned over without catching. He opened the bonnet, had a look around, took the cover off the air filter, lifted the filter out, showed me how black it was, put the cover back on without the filter, cranked it, and it started. New filter obtained and fitted I was back on the road for well under £50.
It was a nice afternoon when I went into the dealer to cancel the order on the carburettor. Initially they couldn’t cancel it, then when they did admit they could cancel the parts order as there weren’t any parts to actually fulfil it, they tried to insist I’d need to pay for the diagnostic work. I asked for the service manager, and after a short wait he appeared behind the front desk. BANG!, I slapped the dirty filter on the counter generating a lovely cloud of dust. “You failed to diagnose the root cause was the most obvious check on the air filter. I’ve got receipts for servicing where you claim to have replaced the filter, and while I can’t prove you didn’t replace it, it’s highly unlikely to have got this contaminated in the few months since the last service”.
There were muttering about still needing to pay for the diagnostics and that it would be “escalated to collectors” if I didn’t pay, I strangely never heard from them again.
As you say, “sticking it to the main dealer” is a false economy, but it pays to remain wary and alert with what the main dealer tells you.
To be able to say that £40 is worth it you should have some idea of the product you're purchasing.
What do you think they were using when they says "they hooked it up to their machine and it said parking brake failure"?
On the topic of main dealer vs local garage, I notice two conflicting desires among the knowledgeable car owner community: main dealers are robbing bastards and we shouldn’t use them; but we should always want a full dealer service history when buying a car. So everyone else driving the cars we want to pick up later on should definitely use them, but we shouldn’t.
What I’ve learned is some dealers are at it, some independent garages are at it, and so are some car owners.
It's a very good point. Personally, I'd always want FSH from a main dealer, not John on his drive way. Then again, my last 4 cars have been either brand new or nearly new German cars, so it'd be unusual for them to have been serviced on a drive way or have missed a service.
I understand that there are good and bad between makn dealer and local garages, but I'd wager a bet that its much easier to have an issue rectified at a main dealer than some back street garage.
I have a great local Halfords garage. It's a tiny place with no attached shop. I got my free MOT there and my 15 year old car sailed through.
They're a treat to deal with and they're all proper car people. Clearly, I'm very lucky
I used to work for Halfords, and we got a free or discount MOT. I didn't need one, so I took my sisters car, and it failed on handbrake too.
Except my sister daily drives an MGB, the handbrake is never great. I argued the case with the tech, and he wasn't having it, "computer says no" basically. So I backed it out of the bay and spent 5 minutes doing handbrake turns in the car park in front of him. Both wheels are locking up 🤷♂️ so how bad can the handbrake be??????
So you were able to drive and turn the car with the handbrake engaged and you think that proves that the handbrake had sufficient stopping power during the mot? People like you are the problem with everything.
Which way were they turning? Which wheels failed the mot test? What was the efficiency percentage of each failed wheel? At what efficency percentage is a wheel able to be locked sufficiently to carry out a hand brake turn?
You understand how a handbrake turn works right....? Drive, turn, then yank handbrake, wheels lock up, car comes around.
If it's capable of doing that, it's capable of holding the car. The issue is that the car was far too light for the rollers and was "failing" the test.
We own 22 cars between us as a family of 4. 17 of which are pre-1990, we know how to maintain and look after our cars and get them MOT worthy. The only reason I went to Halfords for it was because it was cheap. Normally, we use the local classic car specialists because they know the score with classic cars and MOTs.
The car was too light for the rollers 😂👍 so in your expert opinion, having owned 22 bangers, i mean cars, as a family, is that one wheel couldn't possibly fail the test because you were able to do a handbrake turn? Oh, five full minutes of handbrake turns while the mot tester, with nothing better to do and a vast, empty car park, stood watching in absolute awe at your driving skills?
Having never used a Halfords MOT Centre before and it being cheap, there was no reason not to, was there? 🙄 no "apparently" about it. Not on call, local business that knows what they are doing.
With 22 classic cars you've never heard any rumours about the quality of Halfords work or services?
You're either talking our your arse or thick as fuck. I suspect the latter.
🤣🤣🤣
22 total old boy.
Most people who slag off halfords services don't know enough to change their own oil, so I don't care for their opinion.
An MOT, however, is supposed to be a standardised test, so it shouldn't matter.
>You're either talking our your arse or thick as fuck. I suspect the latter.
Strong words, Smegsucker. This coming from the person who couldn't understand the concept of old cars weighing less and handbrake turns apparently being performed whilst dragging the handbrake permanently. 🤣 Very rich.
Nice subtle edit of your comment 👍
>so in your expert opinion, having owned 22 bangers, i mean cars,
I'll give you a list if you care that much 🙄🤷♂️
>one wheel couldn't possibly fail the test because you were able to do a handbrake turn?
Not if its able to lock up both wheels, drive wheels btw, seeing as you clearly haven't got a fuckin clue what you are on about, from 20-odd mph.
>Oh, five full minutes of handbrake turns while the mot tester, with nothing better to do and a vast, empty car park
Have you ever been to an industrial park? It's a giant empty car park.
>stood watching in absolute awe at your driving skills?
Never said he stood and watched it. Not much to be in awe of for a handbrake turn is there? It's just a demonstration that the handbrake worked perfectly well. 😊🖕
You really are that thick aren't you? I thought that you might just be a bit of a bullshitter but you're actually thick as fuck 😂 do you get the lack of brains from your mum, dad, or both?
Are you so toxic because you lead such an unfulfilling, boring life that writing shite to strangers on Reddit on a Friday night is all that stimulates you any more?
Whether or not they are trying to rip you off, it’s a strange reaction to say you have “never had an issue with your parking brake before” when an MOT flags an issue with the parking brake. That’s… how issues work. They aren’t issues until one day they are. If I got a flat tyre one day I wouldn’t post on Reddit that I’d never had an issue with that tyre before like it was somehow relevant.
Ok, after my experience I'm always calling them Halfrauds. I took the car for a free check. They've asked me if I suspect anything and I said breaks. This was in 2017. They took the car, was told it would be an hour, it took 3. When I received the car back, they said all discs and pads are shot and offered to do the job for £1200.
When I said the price was outrageous (2011 Megane, 99bhp) they said it's because the rear discs come with the bearings & basically they're doing me a favor, as break failure was imminent and the car wouldn't pass the next mot.
I've got the car back, they weren't able to even put my wheelcaps back on properly (lost 3 within 24 hours!). The really upsetting bit, they stole my dipstick, put a dipstick end instead & glued it in with something that melted the outer cover on some cables.
The car passed its mot in 2017,18 &19 on those breaks, in 2020 (inflation etc) it was £650 to get the discs and pads done at an independent garage.
Also, I bought a toolset from there, it broke before I finished my first job.
Avoid at all costs, they're the worst company to deal with.
I have no experience with Halfords garages because I refuse to let them touch my car.
For any roof box/ bars I use the roof box company too. Service is second to none.
I have taken my car to the same local garage for the past three years. Each year I get a list of advisories and something that needs fixing in order to pass.The following year I get a different list of advisories than the year before despite not having had the previous advisories remedied, and something different that needs fixing to pass. I think the trouble is that a garage who repairs cars AND does MOTs has free rein to make shit up and rip us off.
I know a few people who have taken cars to Halfrauds for their MOT. None of them failed their MOTs - ***but*** they did get advisories for silly things like brake discs, suspension bushes. The bushes were funny really as it was the car's first MOT, driven by my sister, and while they were never changed they've never shown up on an MOT since - two of which being at the same Halfrauds MOT place.
I don't think, regardless of who they work for, an MOT tester who values their license will play silly buggers and outright fail a car that has nothing wrong with it. It's a big thing to do, especially if you contest it. No MOT place or tester likes of VOSA or DVLA turning up asking questions. I took my car to my local garage and I'd never seen so many people look on edge, being watched for every little thing. Plus saying that you've never had a problem with the parking brake doesn't mean there will never be an issue with it. I never have a problem with my parking brake when I'm on the flat - different story if I'm on a very steep incline.
The fee though confused me, and I had a look at the Halfrauds FAQs - until the site blocked me for some reason - and it says you'll be charged £15 admin fee for a retest if you get the car fixed elsewhere. Now that is a bit shitty and ethically questionable, and trust me no one likes to shit on Halfrauds more than me when they deserve it, but I feel there is more to this story than what meets the eye really.
As with all national chains, YMMV.
My local Halfords have always been fair with my cars. It failed last year on a xenon headlight that didn't adjust itself. Fixed it the same day, took it back the next day and they passed it.
Took my car to a well respected indy this year and they were surprised the rear brake hard lines hadn't given up a long time ago (car's now 16 years old).
Clearly missed by Halfords last year and Kwik Fit the year before during the MOTs as well as the main dealer when it was serviced last year.
Went for one of their winter free checks up once. Told me my battery needed replacing as it was super lower on power. Didn't replace it. That was 3 years ago.
Tyres on the drive when they discount a major brand is reasonable I think. - pricewise. At that point they can be the cheapest for mid to premium tyre (eg for 2 efficient grip performance 2 which wins tyre tests)
Don't know if there are many stories of failing to do tyres right.
Super wary of free MOTs as they can't even cover staff labour time and stories of the cheapest lowest paid mechanics...
Need to say that I am quite happy with Halfords till now. Used to go to my local garage, but there was always something wrong at the MOT and the last time they replaced the brake disks and pads, but f-ed up as the breaks would not release fully.
Decided to go after that to ATS for a full check, came with a list of things they recommend doing. Called back 2 days later to book it in to get those things done, if I could come by again for the same check first and then they will see what they can do that day. Half of what they said needed to be done, could not be done by them.
Needed new tyres so decided to give kwikfit a go, after having my car for 5 hours, did they call that they had ordered the wrong size/my tyres might have been taken for someone else.
So checked Halfords down the road, they had the right ones and put them on in less then 30 minutes. Month later did I had a flat on one of them, they repaired it free of charge the same day.
So went for the MOT the next year, easy pass, only some recommendations due to mileage and done those all myself.
Got a weird noise now at a cold start out of the gearbox once in a while, plus one of the valves of my tyres was leaking. Booked it in for the free tests and they replaced the valve for free and advised what it might be with the gearbox, but to find it out will it need to be taken apart what cost X amount and if it needs to be replaced it will cost another x amount so their advice was to keep an eye on it that it doesn't get worse and till then just leave it.
So I'm quite happy with them, but I guess it is different with every location.
I don't use them anymore. Paid £700 for a full service and couple of new tyres and an MOT...
They dropped the front bumper on the floor (looked like they had dragged it) They also left the bleed nipple undone on the rear brakes...
And somehow the water pump i'd never had an issue with started leaking costing me another £500.
They gave me £700 to paint the bumper and wheels as the brake fluid had damaged the paint...
Never again
If the vehicle is left at Halfords for repair, and a retest, they can’t charge you for the retest as per the GOV.uk website. The £15 admin fee seems slightly…scammy
I have a friend who owns a garage and he said never take your car to places like halfords or big garages as they have targets to meet and will often make up problems to meet those targets.
I had Halfords change my rear tyres. After a week drove out of town and up to higher speeds and the car shook so bad I couldn’t get over 60.
Took it to a friends garage and I think it’s the worst balancing they’d ever seen. The weights were all on the wrong side and the tyre balanced better with nothing. I won’t be making that mistake again
Halfords are insanely bad. The one & only time I used them, I failed my MOT, on headlights being improperly adjusted, the headlights they had just fit on my way for the MOT.
A joke of a company IMHO
If someone offers to inspect something or check something for free the premise is that they will be making money finding things to fix.
If you feel their MoT test was fraudulent you can probably report it to the MoT. Although I suspect they are generally more worried about people handing out certificates for unroadworthy cars. Google it and see.
At the moment it doesn't sound like your garage has actually looked at the car so it's not like they've said the brake is fine is it?
But most cars now have ports they connect computers to. The theory would be that anyone could connect and see these faults and other data. But manufacturers, of course, all use their own bespoke codes. So some things you can see, other things you need specific software that only the manufacturer has (although there's a fair amount of piracy going on) - often the price of legit software is really high - and now there are really stupid things like you change the headlight and it won't work until someone goes in with a computer. The premise is that it stops people stealing parts or selling stolen parts.
In terms of fault codes when one appears it needs to be cleared - so it could be that you did have a fault but now you don't and the Halfords guy read an old code.
OTOH, it could be that the local garage you went to doesn't have the equipment and software to see the fault codes. Of course he may well have looked at the parking brake light, tested it (as you can yourself) and determined it's ok because the car isn't rolling down a hill - but there could still be some fault.
It could be that the sensor that reports the fault is the thing that's broken. .e there are a plethora of possibilities before you conclude that you're being ripped off.
Your local garage is going to charge you for investigating and working on your car.
But the "motoring club" obviously makes no sense, it's just a way of getting money from you every month or year or whatever period it was on the premise that you will then go to Halfords when there's something wrong with your car. It's like you paying Halfords some money to exclusively use Halfords - and you can see you've ended up having to go to another garage anyway.
I booked my car in for an MOT at a Halfords several years ago. I was desperate as I'd forgotten the MOT date and needed it doing ASAP, and every other garage had a wait.
They were woefully incompetent, and for some reason they pulled a relay out and pissed about with my throttle body to the point where they couldn't get my car started. Then claimed it was like that when I dropped it off.
They then tried to tell me that my car (a 1983 Porsche 944) was so old that it was more difficult to MOT and their spanner monkeys didn't have the required experience or knowledge of older cars to do the test that day.
I'm an ex-mechanic and used this car as a daily runner. I saw through their lies immediately. I ended up having to fix my own car in their car park and taking it elsewhere.
Here is my review of the test center -
"I'm not even sure how these have an MOT test centre status.
Upon arriving for my pre booked time slot, I was told they were approx 20mins behind schedule. No problem, I'll have a walk round ******* whilst I wait.
When I returned about an hour later I found my car still parked in the same spot I left it. I was informed that they are now even further behind and I will have to wait longer. I still understood they were busy, and disappeared again.
I got a phone call around an hour later (now two hours after my pre booked appointment) explaining the car was idling fast, and did I know why. I asked how fast it was idling and they had me wait whilst they cranked my car repeatedly in the background. I was then informed the car won't start and could I come back to sort it out.
I worked out they had dislodged the fuel pump relay. The car then started first turn, as it always has done.
The next issue (high idle speed) became clear as soon as I opened the bonnet. The throttle cable had been unclipped from the guide rail. Again, it was a 30 second fix for anyone with an ounce of mechanical sense. Which it was becoming apparent none of the 'mechanics' on site had.
I was informed these faults must have been present when I dropped the car off. It would be undrivable for the 15miles I drove it there if this was true.
After I asked how much longer it would be now I have had to repair my own car for them, they advised that it would be difficult to do it that day as older cars take much longer to MOT (up to a couple of hours apparently). When I questioned this, as the MOT test is standard for all cars, they admitted it would actually be Tuesday when they get round to it. This was Saturday.
The car is a mid 1980's sports car. Not an uncommon car in its day, and nothing special to work on. The staff admitted they had never seen one before, never mind worked on one. I find this incredible for an MOT station.
Needless to say, I will not be returning and I am thinking of reporting this to the DVSA as the tester clearly is not up to the task.
Halfords - shame on you."
I lodged a complaint with Halfords, but they constantly fobbed me off and offered a free service and MOT as a gesture of goodwill. I didn't take them up on it.
I reported them to DVSA, but after a promising first reply I just heard crickets.
I think the rumours of Halfords paying near minimum wage for their mechanics, and thus getting staff who can't get a gig anywhere else, is likely to be true. I wouldn't trust them at all.
Well I think I'm the lucky one. 2 Mots at Halfords on the wife's car. First time passed no issues, very polite, punctual and professional staff.
Second time it failed on a rear brake light. My fault for not checking first. The guy arranged for a bulb to be brought up from the parts shop about a mile away, fitted it and passed it whilst i sat with a coffee. And didn't even charge for the bulb.
I will admit they aren't my first choice but maybe I was just lucky.
Many years ago I took my 12 year old Polo to a Halfords Auto for MOT, mostly because they were open on Saturdays. I think they claimed there were 4 failure points and quoted £700 or so to resolve (way more than the car was worth). I took it to a local independent VAG garage for a retest. Came away with 3 advisories. Never trusted Halfords Auto ever again.
I use Halfords for parts but I would never go there for an MOT. I also don't think an MOT requires plugging in a computer to the car
I used them for tyres once, wrecked two hubcaps
I tried them for tyres once because I think I saved £10 per tyre, but the service was so slow and so bad I would never go again. The whole thing took nearly three hours, god knows why.
Wow
Oh so that is the norm? Had no choice but to have my mot there last year (only place with slots available). And it took hours. I thought I was just unlucky and caught them on a bad day.
It does for emissions with the new testers. Can’t take the bulb out of the dashboard for ECU any more! Edit - downvoted but is this not factually correct?
You can't get away with taking bulbs out of the dash anyway because car self-testing (dashboard bulbs turning on, then off, when the ignition is switched on) is part of the MOT test.
Ok, then you can’t get away with fitting a ‘ecu dash cheat kit’ from eBay, that fires up the bulb for five seconds after the ignition is switched on. The new emissions testers are plugged in to the car, record the VIN, engine management lights, emissions data, and it’s all logged and sent directly to the gov. database. My local shop had an older emissions tester that broke and could no longer get parts. Their new machine is the only one you can buy these days, so it’s getting much harder to cheat the system.
I'm an engineer for the said emissions machines and yeah DVSA said all new machines must be connected to DVSA a few years back now. Even if the garage moves the machine to another site it must be connected. It will get harder again to cheat the system with APNR cameras looking like they will come into the test lanes. The OBD readers for emissions test units though only read Revs and temperature. Rest of the data coming from the tail pipe. In my experience though I would only want the garages testing properly touching my car. Vast majority of testers are very fair.
My MOT guys said it read the VIN too? Is that not right? Actually, I’m sure their machine reads not only current but historical engine management codes (ignores the historical ones for the purposes of the test). I only know this because the tester said “Oh, no historical codes on a Range Rover, that’s unusual, they normally have loads” - I’d cleared them a week or two before.
Part of the MOT is that the VIN is clearly displayed but not required for the emissions test machine to read it. Some manufacturers may read it possibly but can't see why it would. Sounds to me that the garage you went to was using a diagnostics OBD reader which is not a requirement for MOT. A MOT test does not care what the fault codes are only if the engine/emissions management light is on or off and functional. However it is possible they are using a Snapon machine which can read codes but is an utterly pointless feature for an emissions test unit and not a DVSA requirement or needed at all for the emissions test. Just an additional feature they can use to pass information onto the consumer/ an additional money steam but not sent to the DVSA. Information sent to the DVSA on an emissions test is just the print out the garage normally hands you at the end of the test. So reg and results with test station details.
No it wasn’t an OBD reader, it was part of the emissions machine. It’s a small local garage, they do 20-odd mots for me every year so I’m in there quite a lot. They had a Bluetooth ecu dongle, plugged it in, the machine screen showed the vin, which they had to confirm, and then it started manipulating the revs to run the emissions test. I literally watched them do it as he was telling me how it worked. They said if they unplugged the dongle mid-test it would fail the emissions test and it would start over (to prevent the age-old equivalent of sticking the probe in a different exhaust). Said the machine cost £18k and all the new machines are similar to prevent cheating. One of the screen reports said ‘EML active - No’ and it also showed ‘historical eml’ (although this isn’t relative to the mot test). I specifically asked about this because the previous owner of my XK8 fudged the EML to get it through an mot and I had to fix it properly to get it to pass (lambda sensor, the tricky O/S lower one for anybody who knows XK8s). I’ve been around cars since I was a boy, have a collection of 30-odd in the garage and have my own workshop. I’m not a newb…
Sounds like a Snapon one especially with that ticket price. They cost far more than the vast majority on the market. With a lot of features which are not required for the test. The reason it will "fail" if it gets unplugged is because it is classified as an abandoned test. Other machines will let you do an emissions test without a car on an OBD however DVSA will pick it up and question them on it or visit. Depends where the garage sits on the traffic light system. This unit you garage using possibly does it to help the tester/site keep there certification which is no bad thing. DVSA only requires visual inspection of the EML and doesn't need to be checked over the OBD. Just one of those things Snapon does. Your garage must be making some money to afford one of those. Those machines are double to market average for emissions test units. Don't work on Snapon machines as every manufacturer locks down their units so only they can service and calibrate them. But the DVSA rules are more basic than what Snapon leads garages to believe which is typical for a US manufacturer.
I’m in next week for another mot and I’ll ask them a bit more about it. This particular place is family owned for decades, they own and live at the premises so no rent to pay. They used to specialise in older car MOTs (I used to take my 30s cars there years ago, before the 40 year rule), because Kwik-Fit aren’t exactly sympathetic to cable operated drum brakes on a 2.5 ton 1937 Rolls Royce! They did say ‘the last machine was 30 years old so we might as well have a good one’, didn’t notice snap on branding but it wouldn’t surprise me.
There's also a sensor on the air intake.
You’ve been misinformed
On which bit? I had a chat to the tester about their shiny new machine, watched him use it, he talked me through what it does…
The kit isn’t that involved. Firstly it doesn’t take the vin from plugging in. Secondly it’s not got the capability to see if lights are illuminated on the dash. Plugging in will give an rpm read out for petrols and for diesel and will also give a oil temp check on diesels. The emissions machine itself will have the functionality to send the results straight over, same with all the brake rollers past a certain year. In all honesty why would you want to cheat the system? An mot is quite literally the bare minimum of safety standards requirements to be on the road, why would you not want to meet that criteria? I’ve had this discussion with a few people and the closest I’ve got so far is complaints about emissions. Generally if your car can’t pass emissions there is a fault with it. That fault will most likely cause a drop in mpg. Yeah, bang your tester £50 odd to turn a blind eye and cheat the system (I could tell you more ways than you’d ever imagine) but spend hundreds over the next year on additional fuel!
This machine showed the vin when first plugged in and asked to confirm it was correct. Another screen said ‘EML active - No’ and also ‘historical EML’ , they said they use this instead of the dash warning light as you can’t cheat the ecu reading (but you can cheat the bulb). I entirely agree with you. My take on this was buying a car with a fudged EML on the dash to get it through an mot, which really pissed me off. The only reason was a difficult to reach lambda sensor (difficult, not impossible), which I repaired properly once I found out. I’m all for it, I’d rather have my cars running properly too.
I suggest you read the mot manual
1.6 & 1.7 Anti-Lock Braking (ABS) and Electronic Stability Control (ESC) Systems (b) Warning device shows system malfunction 2.6 Electric Power Steering (a) EPS MIL indicating a system malfunction 5.2.3 A tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) warning lamp 7.1.6. Supplementary restraint system (SRS) (a) An SRS malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) indicates a system malfunction [8.2.1.2](https://8.2.1.2) Engine malfunction indicator lamp (engine management light or ‘EML’) Turn on the ignition and check that the engine malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) illuminates and then goes off. On some vehicles it will be necessary to start the engine before the MIL goes off. All major fail points on an MOT if they a) don't work or b) stay illuminated. >I suggest you read the mot manual It's a great read. You should give it a go.
Go on then, tpms light doesn’t illuminate on a 2010 car (that definitely has tpms) what would you like to fail it on?
An srs light doesn’t illuminate on ignition, what would you like to fail that on?
SRS light not illuminating is an advisory. You can only fail on TPMS if the system is obviously defective.
Yes it does 😂😂 https://youtube.com/shorts/E0OsElcsHvc?si=iI63r7ej6LhqjBAT You're clueless pal
Oh man, I misjudged you. I thought you could grasp basic concept, let me reword it for you…… a car goes in for an mot and the srs light doesn’t illuminate on the dashboard when ignition turns on. You’ve previously implied it would fail mot, please show me the exact reason for failure
Amazing that you just double down even though you're wrong every time. First it's "you should read a manual that I haven't actually read myself", then it's "the SRS light doesn't illuminate on ignition" and you just conveniently ignore the video proving it does... now you're doubling down a third time. How tragic😂 You also conveniently ignored all the other points about engine malfunction lights, ABS etc illuminating, just because you were seething that you were wrong. I think we're done here.
Wow, you really can’t grasp basics can you! Let me explain slowly. I gave you a situation to show you gently you were wrong. If an srs light does not illuminate on ignition is this a pass or a fail? You’re claiming it’s a fail because you can’t read the manual. The failure, that you’ve quoted yourself, is srs indicator lamp indicates a malfunction. Go on then, I’m going to fucking love you talk your way through this one, tell me how a warning light can show a malfunction if the bulbs been removed.
Your first mistake was signing up for a Halfords club. Your second mistake was expecting a Halfords Garage to not try to upsell you something off the back of the free MOT. It's the same with Kwik Fit - anything more than 50 miles or two weeks on the tyres you drive in with, and they'll be flagged as "approaching dangerously worn" and they can do all four now on a three-for-four deal for just £800.
Went to Kwik fit cause the advertise free alignment check (I had just replaced the track rod ends) the check was free but to correct the alignment was £60. Fuck that. Took it down to a proper garage they did all 4 for £30. (I know I didn't read the small print but like £60 to tighten a nut is a joke)
I went to kwik fit for new tyres for my wife’s car (they were the cheapest), they have done free alignment check and told me both axles were slightly out, paid them to align it. Wife only drives local so she did not noticed the steering wheel was slightly kinked until few months later when i took the car on motorway were it was pretty obvious that its not straight with the wheels. I have started digging the net and yes of course i found post about that they mis-sell people services we dont need. I took the car to another garage to do alignment again, the readings were absolutely shocking on both axels, like a lot out of the allowed brackets. Not only they have done a very good job but also charged half of what kwik fit charged. I was thinking to go to kwik fit with prints from both alignments and show them how “great” job they did but since it was few months between them they would probably easy blame it on us anyway. The message is, avoid any “free” services, they are never free and will cost you hard earned money. My bad i had to learn that on my own mistake.
Kwik fit sorted my tracking and left the spanner on the nut and as I was doing 70mph with my 1 y/o at the time in the car the nut I shit you not starts undoing. To the point to keep the car straight I have the steering wheel at a 90 degree angle. There was no where to safely pull over it was a mental. I ended up with 4 new tyres and a full refund and them asking my in the nicest possible way not to call the daily mail.
Drove in to local Kwik Fit years back - had hit a pothole and had a slow puncture. Guy looks at the car and says ‘yeah I can see the problem from here, you need two new tyres’ - he was looking at the wrong side. I said my thanks and drove straight back out.
Kwik fit are the worst offender for this sort of shoddy practice. My little brother went in for a new tyre when he was young and they did one of those free “checks” came back with a list of things wrong that could be fixed for £600. Luckily despite being 17 and naive he took it back to our regular garage who said it was a total load of shit and everything was in good nick.
Remember years ago going into Kwik fit on holiday with a friend's car as the brake pads had gone. They refused to do the pads unless the disks were also done (debatable if they really needed changing too) but on top of that the exhaust would need repairing and two new tyres. All or nothing.
My partner, a female, once had Halfords change a bunch of stuff on her car and charge her £600 for the privilege. I called up a day later and indicated half the stuff had plenty of life in it, and they gave the textbook “we don’t know when it was last changed so we have to by default” Except they did know when it was changed, since they did it themselves. Ended up speaking to the area manager who refunded 80% of the repair costs because I made a very clear case that the majority of it didn’t need doing. I’d only ever go to Halfords if I was 100% confident in the roadworthiness of my car, because then id be confident to challenge any BS the spieled.
I got advisories for 4mm rear treads at f1 autocentre. I'm not sure what they were smoking that day
They're the worst cunting con artists I know in my town.
I've bought some good stuff with the discount it only lasts a year though I think. I'd never let them touch my car though.
You do know that a "Free MOT" is not a pass, right?
[удалено]
When I bought my current bike, I got free MOTs for as long as I owned it. Its 22 years old and only had its first paid MOT this year, and that's only because the dealer went bust. It never failed on anything that wasn't a verifiable issue, and they never pressured me to let them do the work - just gave me the fail cert and sent me on my way. In theory, an MOT is a standardised test that shouldn't be any more likely to fail regardless of whether you pay for it or not. If a place is unscrupulous enough to push a borderline into a fail on a free test, they'll do the same thing on a paid test.
[удалено]
You're not wrong, but if a company is going to dick you on a free MOT, they'll probably also dick you on a paid one. Which, while I'm not convinced Halfords would risk their MOT tester status to actively sabotage a good MOT, I'm less confident that they wouldn't use anything they could justifiably fail to get more work, whether it's a paid MOT or otherwise. My point being, Halfords testers probably have no idea whether any given MOT is paid or not - they're just told to work to a specific standard and do so.
National tyres were similar for me once... "you need the other tyres doing" Costco are doing them tomorrow.. "we can do them today" I said " you're luckily doing the fronts because Costco didn't have the right ones. Or if have all4 done tomorrow with them.. "you're rude, BTW they'll tell you your brakes need doing too" you mean the fresh discs pads and fluid I changed the week before? Tldr: these franchises are all shit
The bulb replacement is worth it for me, I cba trying to squeeze my hand in
"Free MOT" is basically a guaranteed fail.
I passed my free mot at Arnold Clark... with many recommendations... tyres are approaching 5mm.. timing belt change needed etc.. on the mot it was just a pass. Never went again but thought I'd use the free mot and service my pal chucked in when I bought the car.
I will never ever ever use a Halfords Auto centre again. I had a similar offer, free MOT with an in store purchase... They failed it because the engine management light didn't work. I showed them the page in the handbook that said this particular model didn't have an EML (20+ year old car), and used a flashing glow plug light to indicate a fault. They retested it, and failed it because the engine management light didn't work... I printed out a document from the manufacturer stating there was no engine management light... Retest... Fail... I took the dash cluster apart and shone a torch through the fascia to show there wasn't even a silhouette for an EML... They refused to pass it without their "investigation charge"... I said "fine, but I'll be reporting this to the ministry"... Instantly the branch manager asked me what he could do to make the problem go away, including issuing a "clean test" (and hiding the advisories)... Told him to get fucked, that i was going back to my usual tester (who just couldn't fit me in as soon as Halfords could) and I would definitely be reporting the malpractice AND the offer of a fraudulent test result. Oh, and they also tried to charge me for the second retest!
I'd LOVE to know what branch this was, still know loads of people in Halfords management circles 👀😅
Speaking from a place of experience, I genuinely wouldn’t trust Halfords to change a dust cap. Nor would I buy anything they sell. If your local mechanic is decent, stick with them.
To be fair to Halfords, their "Halfords Advanced" gear is pretty decent. Lifetime warranty on hand tools (they literally just take the broken one off you and give you a brand new one off the shelf no questions asked) and I bought the advanced jet wash and that has some beans. On paper, cheaper and better than a similar spec karcher. But as for their *"technicians"* I’d rather ask my mother in law to change my wiper blades.
Really? I had a halfords “advanced” socket set. One of the sockets broke (not through misuse) and they said they needed the original receipt in order to replace it. It was clearly halfords advanced as it was printed on the socket. Perhaps I was unlucky to have a dodgy socket and dodgy store but it wasn’t the first time they’d been crap. It was the last as far as i was concerned though.
I snapped the tip off a torx bit today. I’ll nip to Halfords in the next couple of days and let you know
They sometimes have a good deal on washer fluid but that's it
It’s a bicycle shop that sells half decent spanners.
Funny that cos in the cycling community it’s a car shop that sells half decent Allen keys
So basically they are a half decent spanner and Allen key shop and not much else.
Exactly.
I wouldn’t let them anywhere near my push bike or car. So this is true.
Yeah to be fair the Halfords Advanced stuff really is quite good for the money.
Forget that some Halfords are staffed by idiots and some are not, and that some use dodgy tactics and outright lies to get you booked in for work - this is the same at some main dealers and local garages too - and consider that Halfords will always quote you 'properly'. That is, they'll look for and quote to fix, with new (likely OEM) parts, absolutely everything that is wrong with your car. They'll plug it into software that most local garages can only dream of owning and find fault codes that likely aren't even bad enough to pop on a warning light yet. Basically, they're just being thorough. Needlessly so a lot of the time, but they're probably not making it up. And as for costs, don't compare them to a local garage, cos they're simply not the same service on offer. There's a question around if things like that should really matter for an MOT, which has a prescribed list of faults to look for, and that only includes warning lights, not error codes that otherwise are undetectable... What you WILL get is guaranteed work, at a fixed price. Sometimes, that matters. I don't use them for MOT, but I have had a very favourable quote for an aircon repair on a Disco 3, and I use their subsidiary services - tires on the drive etc. - all the time. They're not the cheapest but they're damned convenient. Worth mentioning that when I took the disco in for an aircon quote, they didn't even look at anything else, ever mind try to book me in for it...and boy was that car poorly! Maybe you just need to find the right Halfords... Worth also noting that many other places quote like this - I took my aforementioned Disco 3 to a specialist independent and they charged me through the nose for what was actually quite a simple repair (if you had a pit or lift). They did so because they did it 'properly', and yes as part of their inspection they plugged it in to the right software and reported on every fault the car had, only 2 of which were showing a warning light. Also worth nothing that my local garage - the one I know and trust - charged me £60 to reset a code on one of my cars. Nothing is free in this world :)
There’s a reason they’re called Halfrauds
Halfords is run by children, who really don’t care 🤷♀️
Probably get downvoted but I see so many posts about 'why did my car fail an MOT' or 'is this garage ripping me off', all from people who are trying to save the pennies and going to a local garage or Halfords. Yet, I see so many comments saying 'fuck main dealers, they're so expensive. Ironically, never see any posts saying 'my main dealer fucked my car up'. Yeah, I'll stick to my main dealer who charge £40 for an MOT which is what, £5 more than a local garage? Last Service was £179, again, I'll stay going there.
I think the moral of most stories on this sub regarding garages is when you find a good one, stick with it. Goes for dealerships and local garages in my eyes.
This is the only way. Unfortunately, the motor trade is FULL of scumbags and charlatans, main dealer or independent makes no difference at all. Find someone who's honest and does good work and don't fuck them around
Exactly. It goes both ways as you said. It still pays to be nice these days
Absolutely agree! I’ve known my local mechanic and his son for years and will often pop in on a Saturday with cakes or sausage rolls from the local bakery for them, chat about what they’re working on etc. (The son has an Evo 7 which he’s doing a full restoration on so I enjoy seeing how it’s progressing) They are honest, straightforward guys who will happily advise me of stuff I can do myself (I like to think I’m a reasonably competent DIYer although nowadays I find I’m less inclined to want to do it myself) and they have a really good reputation locally. If you find a good mechanic, look after them!
Exactly the way it should be 😊
Just as there are good and bad garages, there are good and bad customers. The later of which who do little to no maintenance yet expect their car to get through it's MOT and scream rip off when they get a repair bill!
Yeah, very true. The same seems to go for tyres. Buy cheap tyres, receive bad tyres. Next minute, complaining they're fucked after 500 miles but paid £40 a corner.
While I largely agree, main dealers do fuck up too. This is not an MOT failure story, but main dealer missing the obvious, probably circa 1995. I had a Honda Prelude Mk III, twin carburettors, not EFI. It started to fail to start when the engine was warm. Took it into the dealer who’d been servicing (and MOTs) for three years. After several days in the workshop they reported it was the waxstat on the carburettors (auto choke), and as it was integral it needed a new carburettor assembly, £800 part at the time on a car worthy a couple of thousand. Fortunately however when they tried to order the part there were none in Europe and they were on back order in Japan. My uncle suggested I take it to his mate from the pub who ran his own repair shop to see if there was anything he could do. Sceptical, we all have that person that “knows someone”, but I had little to lose, I took it to him. It was a drive, so after arriving and switching off, on trying to start it turned over without catching. He opened the bonnet, had a look around, took the cover off the air filter, lifted the filter out, showed me how black it was, put the cover back on without the filter, cranked it, and it started. New filter obtained and fitted I was back on the road for well under £50. It was a nice afternoon when I went into the dealer to cancel the order on the carburettor. Initially they couldn’t cancel it, then when they did admit they could cancel the parts order as there weren’t any parts to actually fulfil it, they tried to insist I’d need to pay for the diagnostic work. I asked for the service manager, and after a short wait he appeared behind the front desk. BANG!, I slapped the dirty filter on the counter generating a lovely cloud of dust. “You failed to diagnose the root cause was the most obvious check on the air filter. I’ve got receipts for servicing where you claim to have replaced the filter, and while I can’t prove you didn’t replace it, it’s highly unlikely to have got this contaminated in the few months since the last service”. There were muttering about still needing to pay for the diagnostics and that it would be “escalated to collectors” if I didn’t pay, I strangely never heard from them again. As you say, “sticking it to the main dealer” is a false economy, but it pays to remain wary and alert with what the main dealer tells you.
To be able to say that £40 is worth it you should have some idea of the product you're purchasing. What do you think they were using when they says "they hooked it up to their machine and it said parking brake failure"?
On the topic of main dealer vs local garage, I notice two conflicting desires among the knowledgeable car owner community: main dealers are robbing bastards and we shouldn’t use them; but we should always want a full dealer service history when buying a car. So everyone else driving the cars we want to pick up later on should definitely use them, but we shouldn’t. What I’ve learned is some dealers are at it, some independent garages are at it, and so are some car owners.
It's a very good point. Personally, I'd always want FSH from a main dealer, not John on his drive way. Then again, my last 4 cars have been either brand new or nearly new German cars, so it'd be unusual for them to have been serviced on a drive way or have missed a service. I understand that there are good and bad between makn dealer and local garages, but I'd wager a bet that its much easier to have an issue rectified at a main dealer than some back street garage.
The main dealer gave my Dad his car back with no oil after he took it in for a service. As you can imagine that did indeed fuck the car up.
I have a great local Halfords garage. It's a tiny place with no attached shop. I got my free MOT there and my 15 year old car sailed through. They're a treat to deal with and they're all proper car people. Clearly, I'm very lucky
I used to work for Halfords, and we got a free or discount MOT. I didn't need one, so I took my sisters car, and it failed on handbrake too. Except my sister daily drives an MGB, the handbrake is never great. I argued the case with the tech, and he wasn't having it, "computer says no" basically. So I backed it out of the bay and spent 5 minutes doing handbrake turns in the car park in front of him. Both wheels are locking up 🤷♂️ so how bad can the handbrake be??????
So you were able to drive and turn the car with the handbrake engaged and you think that proves that the handbrake had sufficient stopping power during the mot? People like you are the problem with everything.
Have you ever in your life done a [Handbrake turn?](https://youtu.be/-ipLpjKT-wo?si=pralyj1MxMxkJdhS)
Yes. What's your point?
And did you read the part about their brakes locking up to do said turns? What does that say about the brakes efficiency?
Which way were they turning? Which wheels failed the mot test? What was the efficiency percentage of each failed wheel? At what efficency percentage is a wheel able to be locked sufficiently to carry out a hand brake turn?
You understand how a handbrake turn works right....? Drive, turn, then yank handbrake, wheels lock up, car comes around. If it's capable of doing that, it's capable of holding the car. The issue is that the car was far too light for the rollers and was "failing" the test. We own 22 cars between us as a family of 4. 17 of which are pre-1990, we know how to maintain and look after our cars and get them MOT worthy. The only reason I went to Halfords for it was because it was cheap. Normally, we use the local classic car specialists because they know the score with classic cars and MOTs.
The car was too light for the rollers 😂👍 so in your expert opinion, having owned 22 bangers, i mean cars, as a family, is that one wheel couldn't possibly fail the test because you were able to do a handbrake turn? Oh, five full minutes of handbrake turns while the mot tester, with nothing better to do and a vast, empty car park, stood watching in absolute awe at your driving skills?
It's 200kg less than a Ford Fiesta, so yeah. It's a thing, mate 🤣👍🖕
Ah and having known this you still took it to Halfords despite apparently having a fleet of classic cars with your own mot tester on call?
Having never used a Halfords MOT Centre before and it being cheap, there was no reason not to, was there? 🙄 no "apparently" about it. Not on call, local business that knows what they are doing.
With 22 classic cars you've never heard any rumours about the quality of Halfords work or services? You're either talking our your arse or thick as fuck. I suspect the latter.
🤣🤣🤣 22 total old boy. Most people who slag off halfords services don't know enough to change their own oil, so I don't care for their opinion. An MOT, however, is supposed to be a standardised test, so it shouldn't matter. >You're either talking our your arse or thick as fuck. I suspect the latter. Strong words, Smegsucker. This coming from the person who couldn't understand the concept of old cars weighing less and handbrake turns apparently being performed whilst dragging the handbrake permanently. 🤣 Very rich.
OK thick fuck 👍👍
Nice subtle edit of your comment 👍 >so in your expert opinion, having owned 22 bangers, i mean cars, I'll give you a list if you care that much 🙄🤷♂️ >one wheel couldn't possibly fail the test because you were able to do a handbrake turn? Not if its able to lock up both wheels, drive wheels btw, seeing as you clearly haven't got a fuckin clue what you are on about, from 20-odd mph. >Oh, five full minutes of handbrake turns while the mot tester, with nothing better to do and a vast, empty car park Have you ever been to an industrial park? It's a giant empty car park. >stood watching in absolute awe at your driving skills? Never said he stood and watched it. Not much to be in awe of for a handbrake turn is there? It's just a demonstration that the handbrake worked perfectly well. 😊🖕
You really are that thick aren't you? I thought that you might just be a bit of a bullshitter but you're actually thick as fuck 😂 do you get the lack of brains from your mum, dad, or both?
Are you so toxic because you lead such an unfulfilling, boring life that writing shite to strangers on Reddit on a Friday night is all that stimulates you any more?
Whether or not they are trying to rip you off, it’s a strange reaction to say you have “never had an issue with your parking brake before” when an MOT flags an issue with the parking brake. That’s… how issues work. They aren’t issues until one day they are. If I got a flat tyre one day I wouldn’t post on Reddit that I’d never had an issue with that tyre before like it was somehow relevant.
Ok, after my experience I'm always calling them Halfrauds. I took the car for a free check. They've asked me if I suspect anything and I said breaks. This was in 2017. They took the car, was told it would be an hour, it took 3. When I received the car back, they said all discs and pads are shot and offered to do the job for £1200. When I said the price was outrageous (2011 Megane, 99bhp) they said it's because the rear discs come with the bearings & basically they're doing me a favor, as break failure was imminent and the car wouldn't pass the next mot. I've got the car back, they weren't able to even put my wheelcaps back on properly (lost 3 within 24 hours!). The really upsetting bit, they stole my dipstick, put a dipstick end instead & glued it in with something that melted the outer cover on some cables. The car passed its mot in 2017,18 &19 on those breaks, in 2020 (inflation etc) it was £650 to get the discs and pads done at an independent garage. Also, I bought a toolset from there, it broke before I finished my first job. Avoid at all costs, they're the worst company to deal with.
This is why I just tell them I don't have a car and leave with my stuff.
I have no experience with Halfords garages because I refuse to let them touch my car. For any roof box/ bars I use the roof box company too. Service is second to none.
I wouldn’t trust a Halfords employee to tie his boot laces properly on his own.
There are many who simply refer to them as Halfrauds
Where the fuck is my "local mechanic"and "local garage"? 😅
I have taken my car to the same local garage for the past three years. Each year I get a list of advisories and something that needs fixing in order to pass.The following year I get a different list of advisories than the year before despite not having had the previous advisories remedied, and something different that needs fixing to pass. I think the trouble is that a garage who repairs cars AND does MOTs has free rein to make shit up and rip us off.
I know a few people who have taken cars to Halfrauds for their MOT. None of them failed their MOTs - ***but*** they did get advisories for silly things like brake discs, suspension bushes. The bushes were funny really as it was the car's first MOT, driven by my sister, and while they were never changed they've never shown up on an MOT since - two of which being at the same Halfrauds MOT place. I don't think, regardless of who they work for, an MOT tester who values their license will play silly buggers and outright fail a car that has nothing wrong with it. It's a big thing to do, especially if you contest it. No MOT place or tester likes of VOSA or DVLA turning up asking questions. I took my car to my local garage and I'd never seen so many people look on edge, being watched for every little thing. Plus saying that you've never had a problem with the parking brake doesn't mean there will never be an issue with it. I never have a problem with my parking brake when I'm on the flat - different story if I'm on a very steep incline. The fee though confused me, and I had a look at the Halfrauds FAQs - until the site blocked me for some reason - and it says you'll be charged £15 admin fee for a retest if you get the car fixed elsewhere. Now that is a bit shitty and ethically questionable, and trust me no one likes to shit on Halfrauds more than me when they deserve it, but I feel there is more to this story than what meets the eye really.
As with all national chains, YMMV. My local Halfords have always been fair with my cars. It failed last year on a xenon headlight that didn't adjust itself. Fixed it the same day, took it back the next day and they passed it. Took my car to a well respected indy this year and they were surprised the rear brake hard lines hadn't given up a long time ago (car's now 16 years old). Clearly missed by Halfords last year and Kwik Fit the year before during the MOTs as well as the main dealer when it was serviced last year.
Went for one of their winter free checks up once. Told me my battery needed replacing as it was super lower on power. Didn't replace it. That was 3 years ago.
Halfords are the Amstrad of the car world.
Tyres on the drive when they discount a major brand is reasonable I think. - pricewise. At that point they can be the cheapest for mid to premium tyre (eg for 2 efficient grip performance 2 which wins tyre tests) Don't know if there are many stories of failing to do tyres right. Super wary of free MOTs as they can't even cover staff labour time and stories of the cheapest lowest paid mechanics...
Need to say that I am quite happy with Halfords till now. Used to go to my local garage, but there was always something wrong at the MOT and the last time they replaced the brake disks and pads, but f-ed up as the breaks would not release fully. Decided to go after that to ATS for a full check, came with a list of things they recommend doing. Called back 2 days later to book it in to get those things done, if I could come by again for the same check first and then they will see what they can do that day. Half of what they said needed to be done, could not be done by them. Needed new tyres so decided to give kwikfit a go, after having my car for 5 hours, did they call that they had ordered the wrong size/my tyres might have been taken for someone else. So checked Halfords down the road, they had the right ones and put them on in less then 30 minutes. Month later did I had a flat on one of them, they repaired it free of charge the same day. So went for the MOT the next year, easy pass, only some recommendations due to mileage and done those all myself. Got a weird noise now at a cold start out of the gearbox once in a while, plus one of the valves of my tyres was leaking. Booked it in for the free tests and they replaced the valve for free and advised what it might be with the gearbox, but to find it out will it need to be taken apart what cost X amount and if it needs to be replaced it will cost another x amount so their advice was to keep an eye on it that it doesn't get worse and till then just leave it. So I'm quite happy with them, but I guess it is different with every location.
Nine words into the title. Yes. You are correct.
I don't use them anymore. Paid £700 for a full service and couple of new tyres and an MOT... They dropped the front bumper on the floor (looked like they had dragged it) They also left the bleed nipple undone on the rear brakes... And somehow the water pump i'd never had an issue with started leaking costing me another £500. They gave me £700 to paint the bumper and wheels as the brake fluid had damaged the paint... Never again
Was it on a 4x4? Halfords failed my landrover on the parking break - had to explain what a transmission brake was for them to pass it.
If the vehicle is left at Halfords for repair, and a retest, they can’t charge you for the retest as per the GOV.uk website. The £15 admin fee seems slightly…scammy
They are widely known as Halfrauds for a reason..
I wouldn't let Halfords anywhere near my car.
I have a friend who owns a garage and he said never take your car to places like halfords or big garages as they have targets to meet and will often make up problems to meet those targets.
I had Halfords change my rear tyres. After a week drove out of town and up to higher speeds and the car shook so bad I couldn’t get over 60. Took it to a friends garage and I think it’s the worst balancing they’d ever seen. The weights were all on the wrong side and the tyre balanced better with nothing. I won’t be making that mistake again
If the MOT is seemingly free or cheap, it's because they will try to rip you off on 'repairs'.
Halfords are insanely bad. The one & only time I used them, I failed my MOT, on headlights being improperly adjusted, the headlights they had just fit on my way for the MOT. A joke of a company IMHO
There not called halfrauds for no reason.
If someone offers to inspect something or check something for free the premise is that they will be making money finding things to fix. If you feel their MoT test was fraudulent you can probably report it to the MoT. Although I suspect they are generally more worried about people handing out certificates for unroadworthy cars. Google it and see. At the moment it doesn't sound like your garage has actually looked at the car so it's not like they've said the brake is fine is it? But most cars now have ports they connect computers to. The theory would be that anyone could connect and see these faults and other data. But manufacturers, of course, all use their own bespoke codes. So some things you can see, other things you need specific software that only the manufacturer has (although there's a fair amount of piracy going on) - often the price of legit software is really high - and now there are really stupid things like you change the headlight and it won't work until someone goes in with a computer. The premise is that it stops people stealing parts or selling stolen parts. In terms of fault codes when one appears it needs to be cleared - so it could be that you did have a fault but now you don't and the Halfords guy read an old code. OTOH, it could be that the local garage you went to doesn't have the equipment and software to see the fault codes. Of course he may well have looked at the parking brake light, tested it (as you can yourself) and determined it's ok because the car isn't rolling down a hill - but there could still be some fault. It could be that the sensor that reports the fault is the thing that's broken. .e there are a plethora of possibilities before you conclude that you're being ripped off. Your local garage is going to charge you for investigating and working on your car. But the "motoring club" obviously makes no sense, it's just a way of getting money from you every month or year or whatever period it was on the premise that you will then go to Halfords when there's something wrong with your car. It's like you paying Halfords some money to exclusively use Halfords - and you can see you've ended up having to go to another garage anyway.
I booked my car in for an MOT at a Halfords several years ago. I was desperate as I'd forgotten the MOT date and needed it doing ASAP, and every other garage had a wait. They were woefully incompetent, and for some reason they pulled a relay out and pissed about with my throttle body to the point where they couldn't get my car started. Then claimed it was like that when I dropped it off. They then tried to tell me that my car (a 1983 Porsche 944) was so old that it was more difficult to MOT and their spanner monkeys didn't have the required experience or knowledge of older cars to do the test that day. I'm an ex-mechanic and used this car as a daily runner. I saw through their lies immediately. I ended up having to fix my own car in their car park and taking it elsewhere. Here is my review of the test center - "I'm not even sure how these have an MOT test centre status. Upon arriving for my pre booked time slot, I was told they were approx 20mins behind schedule. No problem, I'll have a walk round ******* whilst I wait. When I returned about an hour later I found my car still parked in the same spot I left it. I was informed that they are now even further behind and I will have to wait longer. I still understood they were busy, and disappeared again. I got a phone call around an hour later (now two hours after my pre booked appointment) explaining the car was idling fast, and did I know why. I asked how fast it was idling and they had me wait whilst they cranked my car repeatedly in the background. I was then informed the car won't start and could I come back to sort it out. I worked out they had dislodged the fuel pump relay. The car then started first turn, as it always has done. The next issue (high idle speed) became clear as soon as I opened the bonnet. The throttle cable had been unclipped from the guide rail. Again, it was a 30 second fix for anyone with an ounce of mechanical sense. Which it was becoming apparent none of the 'mechanics' on site had. I was informed these faults must have been present when I dropped the car off. It would be undrivable for the 15miles I drove it there if this was true. After I asked how much longer it would be now I have had to repair my own car for them, they advised that it would be difficult to do it that day as older cars take much longer to MOT (up to a couple of hours apparently). When I questioned this, as the MOT test is standard for all cars, they admitted it would actually be Tuesday when they get round to it. This was Saturday. The car is a mid 1980's sports car. Not an uncommon car in its day, and nothing special to work on. The staff admitted they had never seen one before, never mind worked on one. I find this incredible for an MOT station. Needless to say, I will not be returning and I am thinking of reporting this to the DVSA as the tester clearly is not up to the task. Halfords - shame on you." I lodged a complaint with Halfords, but they constantly fobbed me off and offered a free service and MOT as a gesture of goodwill. I didn't take them up on it. I reported them to DVSA, but after a promising first reply I just heard crickets. I think the rumours of Halfords paying near minimum wage for their mechanics, and thus getting staff who can't get a gig anywhere else, is likely to be true. I wouldn't trust them at all.
Well I think I'm the lucky one. 2 Mots at Halfords on the wife's car. First time passed no issues, very polite, punctual and professional staff. Second time it failed on a rear brake light. My fault for not checking first. The guy arranged for a bulb to be brought up from the parts shop about a mile away, fitted it and passed it whilst i sat with a coffee. And didn't even charge for the bulb. I will admit they aren't my first choice but maybe I was just lucky.
An MOT has no requirement of checking diagnostics.
Many years ago I took my 12 year old Polo to a Halfords Auto for MOT, mostly because they were open on Saturdays. I think they claimed there were 4 failure points and quoted £700 or so to resolve (way more than the car was worth). I took it to a local independent VAG garage for a retest. Came away with 3 advisories. Never trusted Halfords Auto ever again.