Quick Tour of the MOT-Service Centre

Overview of the Facilities

The key to the MOT-Service facility is the latest and most modern Class IV MOT bay from Sun/Snap-on. The bay comprises a brake-tester, an electronic inspection ramp, a light beam tester, and a computerised diesel smoke and exhaust gas emission analyser.

The regulations required to be fulfilled when installing an MOT bay are quite strict and precise. It took us two attempts to get the floor of the MOT bay correctly recessed.

Along-side the MOT bay are two other new ramps on which we service the vehicles, and carry out any necessary repairs. We now have a second engine analyser to operate alongside our diagnostics equipment that allow us to carry out advanced diagnostics on electronic management units and to measure vehicle emissions for correct tuning.

We also have new facilities to fit tyres and balance wheels, and a special tool for aligning wheels. This ensures your vehicle is on correctly configured wheels and suspension, and therefore handles properly as well as improves tyre wear and economy of the vehicle.

We can perform a number of advanced engine diagnostic and repair tasks, and have a whole load of specialist tools to inspect engines and other parts of the car. For example, we have a small periscope to inspect the inside of a combustion chamber to see if the valves are damaged or if there is any debris or damage on the pistons or cylinder walls.

Having tools like these saves time and having to charge for doing any unnecessary dismantling of the vehicle to diagnose problems, thus saving our customers time and money.

Supporting the workshops and shop is the stores. Here we arrange and stock a huge variety of spares and accessories, which are carefully sorted out.

Over the last 18 months we have been embarking on the first stage of implementing a massive computerisation programme to put all the information into a computer system. This has been a far greater exercise than we could've imagined owing to the complexity of vehicle part management, and the need to set up a system linked to on-line shopping and to other parts of the business for job management and rolling road performance measurement.

We make extensive use of main dealer parts CDs, the Internet, and have recently linked in to other e-commerce systems run by our suppliers such as Unipart to ensure smooth and efficient ordering of parts in an effort to reduce mistakes, and speed up delivery. With the pressure on all companies to reduce stock levels, we are increasingly prone to our parts suppliers not having the parts we need in stock. By investing in such systems we can do out utmost to minimise the impact and so can get our customer vehicles back on the road as soon as possible.