MOT Failed! Front panel Body or Chassis has excessive corrosion.

M

molveees

Hello All
The box failed its MOT this morning. I was told the front crossmember has bad corrosion & will require welding. The Garage has quoted me £150 to £200 as its a bumber off job. I would like to take a look myself to see how bad the corrosion is & then possibly take it to a local welder who may be able to do it cheaper. Does anyone know of Any good welders in Crawley/Gatwick area who could do it cheaper? If i can take off the bumber myself that may reduce the labour. I have seen a guide somewhere on this forum on how to remove the bumper. Any advice given will be much appreciated.
 
Noddie said:
I'm down Brighton, if you put up some pictures il give you a quote for the work:)
Click to expand...

Thank you all for replies. I just found someone, whoi has all the gear & knows about the issue as he owns a micra himself. He will weld plus underseal for quite a reasonable fee. there are 2 holes in the underside of the cross member. they are not small holes but obviously the size which can be welded, & i have corrosion appearing here & there that will be taken care of too.


Big M
 
not really an MOT fail more of a grey area....they fall outside the prescribed area.

though I do agree ideally it should be in good order Nissan did not put it there for a laugh.

this item lifted from an MOT testers forum

"Good old Micra's - the front x member always causes some debate.

I presume it's rotted through the front x member under the radiator area.

If so it's well away from any prescribed area, so can't be failed for that reason.

However, it can be failed if it....

'adversely affects braking or steering by severely reducing the strength or continuity of a main load bearing structural member'

If it's only holed through one or two sides of the member, but there is continuity of the remaining material I would pass & advise.

If it's gone through all, or most of the member, you could conduct a further check by rocking the steering under load & looking for any 'flex' in the material or surrounding areas of the cross member, if so then I would fail it.

I would guess that in 75% or more of the cases I've seen involving this subject, it's been a pass & advise.

Remember, you have to assess it as seen at the time & not make a prediction as to the future condition. As a rule of thumb, if you've thouroughly assessed it in the correct manner, checked the RFR in the manual & still can't decide then it should be pass & advise.

But ALWAYS issue an advisory."
 
MOT was conducted by Mr Clutch. The previous owner had this car from new, always went to the same local garage for service/MOT which always passed it:wow:. Checking the previous MOT's online i could see the advisory appear on the last 2 MOT's with regards to RUST. The car had hardly done any miles since its last MOT & was kept in a garage before being sold to me. So Yes, i do agree this is discretionary & other garages may have passed it. I already knew about the rust on the x-member & was planning to do something about it next month as i don't want it to spread to other parts as it is generally in good nick & despite being a 99 with 102k on the clock i can see it lasting me good few years. The MOT has only hastened the work which hopefully is being sorted as I type. I am glad though no other advisories are showing up on the list which is always a good sign. (Y)
 
Ok two points to start with; it's not a bumper off job, you only need to take the plastic engine guards off which bolt to the crossmember. If the radiator side needs doing then the little crossbar by the bonnet catch needs to be unbolted so you can lift the radiator up and out of the way (without disconnecting it).
2nd, cross members on k11's are no longer an mot failure, i think they should be. But the vosa people decided a few years back that it's not a failure anymore. I did ask around a fair number of mot stations to check this and they told me it's right, no longer a fail.

Yes definately take it round to see other independant welders, if your car fails an mot, NEVER let the mot station do the repair work, always take it to someone else. Because you will also get a 2nd oppinion when you ask for a quote. i.e. if the mot tester is telling you something needs fixing, aut it's actually pefectly fine, the 3rd party welder/garage would tell you it was fine.
MOT stations just want easy money and if they think you're a sucker they'll try it on with you.

I had the crossmember welded on both sides on one of my k11 face-lifts, the bumper stayed on, that radiator was moved as i mentioned above and it cost me £50. It even got some free underseal on there.
So it's where you go that makes all the difference, shop around for mot stations and dig out the yellow pages or thompson local, and find where all the usefull trademen are in your area, like welders, shotblasters, powdercoaters and body panel suppliers.
 
Bad news. Rust looks quite extensive on the cross member. the edges of the lower cross member are eaten with rust with gaping holes allowing free sunlight through. The rust has travelled up the vertical beam of the lower x member so the bumper had to come off which was another **** of a job according to the guy as it had never been taken apart in its previous life (head lamps out job)

Good news. Elsewhere the car looks pretty spotless & rust free underneath.

I have been told 2 options.

1. £120 for a weld-on job to plug those holes with metal plates plus rust treatment & Underseal.
OR
2. £270 to replace lower cross member plus rust treatment & undersea(parts plus labour included)l.

I have decided to go with option 1 as the guy told me the repair should last atleast 4 years which is good enough for me. The bumber is already off & car is on the ramps. Besides i cant justify spending around £300 on a car especially if the repairs would last me that long. what do you folks suggest?

I have some pictures but don't have the upload option on this page. Using my work pc so all photo upload sites are blocked, sorry. will send some pics later on from home pc.
 
:eek: £270 you live in an exspencive part of the country ......if i was you i would get another quote from some where else mate
 
Hey you are from crawley?!!? wonder if i have seen you floating around? :p
Looks like the next brighton meet will be getting bigger...
 
r69bp said:
Hi well I am around Crawley a fair bit currently living in Godstone but only missed the Brighton meet cause my car needs some work and no money to fix it up to look nice but trying to get there maybe catch up at the next meet.Do you any wheels you are selling that look ok on the micra?
Click to expand...
The only wheels i have now are the steels that are on there and the alloys i am refurbing :) have a hunt around eBay is normally a good bet for cheap alloys
 
£270 is expensive. A new crossmember is about £30 and i removed the front end for the garage who cut out the old one and welded the new one on for £30 so £60 all in. New crossmember wasnt a spot weld job either
 

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