How would an mot tester convince VOSA that a problem of this nature was not present when tested.
You check the operation of the park brake lever, side movement, none, inadvertently releasing, not present, security to the mounting points ok, operation of the ratchet mechanism ok, working travel ok, condition of the hand lever ok. Performance roller test significanly over the minimum spec 16%.
Customer parks the car on the gradient of a hill just after testing, (with 03 hours), not left in gear, car rolls off into another parked car?
Customer says its the garages fault because a defect is present in the park brake lever which was not discovered at time of test.
Examination of the park brake lever clearly shows NO defect with the ratchet or pawl mechanism, the push button and spring return functions perfectly, no intermittent sticking. The only defect seem after dismantling was a very thin “paper clip” size spring which had broken inside the lever, which is the function to maintain the pawl engauged into the ratchet teeth.
How did we get the parts. We asked the customer to allow us to examine it, which he aggreed. We accepted no liability and even if VOSA had been called we were still in the right. Just goes to show how your livelihood could be a risk quite innocently if you could not examine the “real evidence”
