Front Crossmember and M.O.T

Hi all,
Does anyone know how much a garage will roughly charge to weld in a new Front Cross Member as mine is knackered grr and Does anyone know where i can get one for cheap ?
Thanks
 
Welcome to the club

Depends where you go. Just give your local a ring. Also depends what you want them to do. The hard bit is getting the old one of and the new one on to begin with so that would be your main cost although you can do that yourself to save some cash then get the garage to weld it.

Good luck(Y)
 
Blimey they're certainly a great price i think,

From what i've been told its actually not hard to do yourself, i would hope labour for the garage isn't over the top, but some places can be pricey!

Good luck on whatever you do!
 
how bad is the crossmember?If it's not totally rotten you can cut the worst out,grind it up clean & get patches welded on.Whatever you decide don't forgot to seal the holes in the top that cause the problem after spraying some oil etc inside..
 
The M.O.T guy told me that when he was cleaning the cross member to weld the plate in, it just started to crumble so i assume it's quite bad
 
Here's an idea, how about buying yourself a mig welder with some of the money you would give to a garage to get the x-member welded.

It sounds as though you are mechanically minded if you are considering removing the old rusty part yourself, welding isn't that difficult on clean metal.
 
Here's an idea, how about buying yourself a mig welder with some of the money you would give to a garage to get the x-member welded.

It sounds as though you are mechanically minded if you are considering removing the old rusty part yourself, welding isn't that difficult on clean metal.

thats an exelent idea as it would cost far less to buy one than pay the garage--a lovely learning curve(and you could earn nice money)
 
Finally found a new Cross Member for £25 :grinning: over the £130 my local Nissan garage was charging. and Yea i thought about doing that but I've been told that the garage are only going to charge me around £80 to replace the Cross Member so i think i will just get them to do it.
 
Due to the new MOT guidelines the front cross member is not a failure item now. (I have been told this from an MOT inspector)
 
There can be some dodgey MOT inspectors k6, if hes saying the front crossmember is not a failure item i believe this is innacurate, the crossmember supports the whole car and i think some things like engine mountings run from it as well (When talking about front crossmember i mean the whole upper and lower section.)
 
I need the Front Lower Cross Member replacing so sorry if i confused anyone :wasntme: and yea it's £80 for the Front Lower Cross Member
 
Due to the new MOT guidelines the front cross member is not a failure item now. (I have been told this from an MOT inspector)

This is true as it does not have any suspension components on it and it is not within 30cms of any suspension itema. Unless of course your micra has power steering. This was told to me by a guy in the nissan dealersip by me
 
It says on the M.O.T fail sheet that there is excessive rust (or something like that) within 30cms of a suspension component so they failed it
 
i'm starting a 20 week welding course at nightschool in 3 weeks. if you can wait 'til March, I'll help you out!

Can't wait actually :grinning:.
 
We have had this discussion with VOSA too (and we have 2 MOT stations!)

As Lucasmax pointed out it is only directly a failure if the car has power steering as the mountings for the cooler pipe are within 30 cms of the corroded section.

If the section is holed but not excessively its a pass and advise but...

If it is fractured or missing sections it can fail on...

The bonnet catch will not effectively latch the bonnet closed. (The centre catch support mounts in the middle of the crossmember)

The headlamp aim/security and possible sharp edges/projections can be used as reasons for rejection in extreme cases too.

The reasons for rejection in the inspection manual have not changed, they have been reworded to make them easier to relate to more modern cars.

MOTs aside if your crossmember is rotten your radiator might be damaged or you might catch the gearbox support on something, not good!

We charge £150(inc. VAT) to supply and fit K11 crossmembers but we do about 1 a week so we're good at it, LOL! £200 is probably about the average.

Or you could become a member of this site and look at my 'How to' guide...
http://www.micra.org.uk/threads/39325-How-to-replace-your-front-crossmember!
:blush:
 
Before anyone books a big welding course to do their front crossmember....

You only need to make a handful of plug welds, you don't need to seam weld the entire thing. As long as you make enough plug welds to make the panel as secure as the original it should pass an MOT. You only need to seam weld stuff where you are repairing it with a patch rather than replacing the full panel (a patch on the sill for example)

Plug welds are made by drilling a hole in one panel then welding a blob in the hole to join the 2 parts together. 5 minutes messing around with scrap metal and you will be able to do them perfectly!
 
Whatever you do, don't be tempted by those 'No gas' mig welders. When you compare like for like you realise how bad they are.

I'd suggest buying a cheap second hand MIG to begin with. My first welder was a Clarke one I bought at a car boot sale for £5 (to weld up an old Mini someone had given me for free!). It was underpowered, cheap and broke down all the time (The welder and the car! :laugh:).
But by the time I finished welding my Mini I could get fairly decent results with it, so when I had a go with a larger, newer machine my welds looked fantastic! (Y)

Pay a bit more for proper gas for welding mild sheet steel. If you get a decent Mig many people are tempted to get a gas bottle regulator that lets them use carbon dioxide (as used in pubs and supplied by corruptable landlords!) but its harder to use than argon mix as the welder will be more vicious and messy.
Air products supply bottles of 'Ferromax' which is different class to anything else I've used. They will give you a quick release adaptor so you don't need to unscrew the whole regulator too if you ask nicely!
 
Cheers for that, I was looking at the No Gas MIG Welders, i think i will pass on them welders then :laugh:, At the moment we are looking for a cheapish welder to practise with like you say it's better to practise with a older one with and then eventually buy a better one to use (Y)
 
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