vtnz really piss me off.

[snwtoy]

I'm a bit pissed off. One of our cars just failed a wof, and one of the reasons was "fix play in left front lower outer ball joint - very loose - not safe to drive far"

Fair enough you might say. BUT.

(a) It was loose because the mechanic who fit our CV's a couple of months ago seems to have left out the cotter pin in the nut. Bad enough, but..

(b) Loose was an understatement! I could see thread below the nut, and turn it with my fingers. Why couldn't the WOF people have swung a spanner on it an tightened it enough so it was safe to drive home? Pretty piss poor of vtnz if you ask me, it was a 10 second job.


AND, who ever heard of failing a wof because a door retention clip was broken? bah. Stupid stupid vtnz.

[flygt4]

and yet my mrs has never failed a wof at vtnz on her shitbox 88 civic

when we took it my usual mechanic for a wof one time they found the rear bushes to be non-existent , having flown through the previous half dozen wofs at vtnz.

must be the boobs

[matt dunn]

Why couldn't the WOF people have swung a spanner on it an tightened it enough so it was safe to drive home? Pretty piss poor of vtnz if you ask me, it was a 10 second job.

Stupid stupid vtnz.

Because VTNZ dont do repairs, it says so in there add's.

and they have as many tools as they do knowledge,
next to none.

[snwtoy]

Because VTNZ dont do repairs, it says so in there add's.

I realize this, however they sent my wife to drive home in a death trap. A danger to herself and others on the road. Poor poor form.

If I had known the problem I would have excused myself from work and driven there, taken the spanner out of the factory toolkit, tightened the nut, taken the pliers out of the factory toolkit, fitted the pin and everyone would have been happy.

[RTALI8]

Thats a good call.

[79rolla]

i hate vtnz...
our one alwase fails cars for stupid stuff and they seem to have there pick of the month if what they fail cars on.... oh and its almost imposibail to make them happy about breaks...
oh well just means more work for micanics
but "not safe to drive far" is an under statment and they should have told her how bad and dangorous it was atleast!!

[Ae92typeX]

I was under the understanding they were not allowed to do anything work wise on vehicles.
In this case however, they should have insisted she not drive it at all and park it up.
I failed several years ago at onroad for badly imbalanced brakes (long story) and the guy was very clear how risky it was driving it and explained it with concern.

[Bling]

I think they did their job TBH. They told ya the car isn't safe to drive (albeit "drive far")

Maybe the inspector didn't realise how bad it was, maybe you should check your mechanics work too

My local WOF place has a big sign up saying no work can be carried out on their property. Maybe they have to have extra insurance or crap to do more than a WOF check.

[GX61 Mark II]

I forgot to tighten the wheelnuts on one wheel once and they tightened them for me. It is probably like most cases, it really depends on the person you get.

[Jdawg]

I would say the question of liability comes into it. What if they tightened it up, wife drives home, on the way they wheel bearing collapses hurtling the car in the path of a very big truck! They were the last ones to do work on it.

[Adamal]

Write a letter, use your angry pen.

[sergei]

Well technically they should of told her that the car is not drivable. There are other means of getting car to mechanics than driving - Tow truck.
If they are not allowed to do any work they could insisted that it is extremely unsafe to drive not a note saying that it is unsafe to drive for long distances.

[snwtoy]

I would say the question of liability comes into it. What if they tightened it up, wife drives home, on the way they wheel bearing collapses hurtling the car in the path of a very big truck! They were the last ones to do work on it.

I would say it's worse in the other direction. They did nothing and let her drive home. What if there was an accident as a result of them not doing anything when they could have?

[astrae]

They failed my levin on my airbag. The light on the dash doesnt come on when you start the car....

Thats because there is no light...

Had to go to toyota to get them to write something up...

I've been going to toyota for warrents the last two times. Has been cheaper then VTNZ...

[Adydas]

I failed a wof due to no water in the windscreen water resivouir.. If you cant clean your windows from muck you fail.

SO rather than add a cup of water, he proceeded to write a 5 line explanation to why i failed..


Wouldnt it have been easyer to just poor his coffee into my container?

[Mr Revhead]

interesting, i though checking for the split pins/lock nuts was part of the check.....

[d1 mule]

if he said its not safe to drive "far" whose definition of far is it yours or his? his far could be 1km yours could be 400km. poor form i recon, but in saying that i got a WOF with no speedo, the door dings stopper thing broken off etc, good old pug dailys lol

[Lloyd]

interesting, i though checking for the split pins/lock nuts was part of the check.....

Depends if you class it as "insecure" going by the VIRM.

I can see it from both sides. VTNZ is there to inspect and nothing else. They told you it wasn't safe so its down to you if you want to operate it. They could have tightened it up by hand but in all honesty thats probably not going to make a huge amount of difference to a ball joint.

And having said that, if the balljoint was still stuck in the arm then a short drive its probably not going to go far. Especially if its been this way for a couple of months.

[rollaholic]

what you guys have to keep in mind is that these inspectors are employed to inspect, not fix. its an impartial service, your wife was told it was dangerous, and under the law it is up to the driver to make sure their vehicle is safe to drive. if they had broken out the power bar to tighten it up and stripped the thread, you would have been after them for the repair costs.

if you want a WOF where that kind of thing gets taken care of, take it to a mechanic.

[Simon K]

Don't go to VTNZ.

The end.