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MOT Woes


Rik398
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Hey Folks.


Had some bad news when I took the bandit for MOT yesterday. The Bill? £700-£1000 depending on certain things.


Ok so the problems:

- Steering bearings are gone. 'Notchy' Steering. - He said that is about a £200 job

- Front brakes are binding (I am aware of this, and know that its because the actual pistons have rust spots on them. I rebuilt as a temporary solution, and they were better, but obviously not good enough. So will probs be new valipers, they say they have some for £80 each

- Nail in rear tyre - Fell like an idiot for not noticing that one lol

- Not enough reserve travel in rear brake pedal - Had a new caliper so may be master cylinder. Though looks like on the bandit you can adjust pedal position.

- Front brake rotors he said were slightly warped. Did not come up in mot but if new brakes are going in then it makes sense to me to do them to prevet problems up the line. Hence the 'depending' in the quite


Basically, I was considering buying a new bike when I heard the news. Then I had some more worries.


1) I can find rotors on ebay for 140 quid, but do the garage have to go with OEM? In which case that could get very pricey indeed

2) The rear tyre has already been plugged once. Is there a limit on how many plugs you can have in a tyre?

3) He said head bearings is £200 quid job. I am assuming there is a ton of work invovled becuase I can find steering bearings for £20??!!


So yeah, considered a new bike but I am going to get it fixed. Obviously I will let them do some of the work (too busy at the moment) but its trying to find what I should do myself to keep costs down. If the steering bearings is not to big a job, and they can only use OEM disks, then doing those two would surely save a bunch of cash.

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you can use whatever discs YOU want after all its your bike and your paying for the parts!!


if they are warped a bit but not a fail I wouldnt bother with them at the min


head bearings are pretty easy to be honest the hardest part is getting the bearing off the bottom of the stem! they can be a right pain personally I think £200 is a lot of money for head bearings!

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Old saying, never turn down work, just quote high..

Sounds like he's trying to mug you because he doesn't really want to do the work.

Ask him about other garages in the area, and the ones he says are cowboys, get a second opinion from them. The ones he says are good are probably his mates and will also try to mug you.

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Mate there's maybe a coupla hundred quid in bits they're asking silly money. get some help and do it yourself.


discs, leave as if if they dont fail mot, they fail for a very minor warp, so if he hasnt even advised, they are probably perfect. MOT stations have EXTREMELY sensitive brake testers, and it is very common for bikes that ride fine to fail on disc warp.


Don't need calipers, if the pistons are that bad you can buy replacement pistons. When you serviced calipers did you completely push the pistons out or just push them out to try and clean them. Binding is more often than not the dust seal falling apart and binding. New seals cures most issues and is very easy to do.


Head stock bearings are pretty simple and can be had for about £30 a set, fit taper roller bearings. Yes there is a technique to it, but it not too hard, its the kind of job where if you watch some youtube vids, you would know how to do it.


Get on wemoto.com and price up the bits you nedd, it will bring up everything for your bike on one page.


Loads of advice available on here, if you were clloser I would happily show you what to do, but I am sure there is someone helpful close to you!

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Thanks for the advice guys. I do most my own work for most things anyway so will probably try and give it a go myself by the sounds of it.


When he said 200 quid for steering bearings I was a little suspicious. Hence why I searched for the part.


I took calipers apart and put new seals in. Problem is the garage (same place) noticed they were binding when they changes a front tyre, and removed the dust seals and I had been running without the dust seals. Obviously planned on getting it sorted, then came the rain. So yeah pistons came all the way out and calipers pulled apart, I got them out without marking them but as I say, rust spots on the pistons.


But yeah if he is quoting £200 for front bearings then there is obviously an issue. Probably reasonably easy, most things tend to be after some you-tubing

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When you put the calipers back together did you put a smear of Red Rubber Grease on the seals before putting the pistons back in?.....could be that the pistons are sticking on the seals a bit causing them to bind..... :wink: I had some marks and crud on the pistons on a previous bike.....I used an extra fine Garryflex block to clean and polish the pistons before reassembly.....worked a treat.... 8-)

I agree with the others.....sounds like this guy is trying to fleece you.....head bearings are normally pretty easy to replace.....and, as Matty said, put some taper bearings in.....they are better than the standard bearings IMHO..... 8-)

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I got an advisory for a screw in my tyre and 200 quid for head bearings is outrageous. You can do it yourself for less than 50 quid. Also, I doubt very much you need new calipers for sticky pistons, clean them up with some very fine wet and dry.


Without looking at the bike its hard to tell but it sounds like he's trying it on, IMO.

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What a kerfuffle! My Scooter failed it's MOT on head bearings aswell and i was quoted around the £200 mark also, so it appears thats the going rate. Rip off merchants!

The guy i spoke to said it's an easy job but time consuming as they have to dismantle alot of the front of the bike and it's a bit fiddly and takes around 2 hours minimum. To be honest i got the impression he didn't want to do the work and was pricing me out. Maybe it's a pain in the arse job that mechanics hate doing or something.


If you got the tools already you can do the job for just £20, it can't be that hard.

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Well, I have it booked in at the garage, mainly because it needs to go there for the tire anyway, and I do not know what is up with the back brake. Also, guy I spoke to to book it in was a different guy and said it was about £100 for bearings to be done, so maybe not so bad as I thought.


I am fairly sure it will all come out at the right price, guy I spoke to originally was obviously trying to sell me a new machine.

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