M.O.T Advice

After 45+ years of caravanning and now on my own I decided to buy a 2017 Auto Sleeper Symbol about 9 months ago and have been extremely grateful for the help and assistance offered by members of this group.  After a few warranty issues, which were sorted, I set out to book it in for it's third ( 6year) service and M.O.T., at a local dealers, and discovered some of the trials and tribulations of owning a campervan.  My Symbol is actually based on the Fiat Ducato chassis as it has a Comfortmatic gearbox.

I have been given a quote for the work which is quite high as Fiat recommend brake fluid replacement and service kit, which contains cam belt and water pump, every 6 years or 120,000 miles which ever comes sooner.  In fact the quote is split into 2 with genuine Fiat parts for the service kit compared with non genuine parts and a significant saving.  Has anybody got any information about using non genuine parts for service kits, good or bad ?

My Symbol has a maximum weight of 3,300kgs and has been booked in for a class 4 M.O.T.  I assumed that class 4 was for vehicles up to 3,000 Kgs and vehicles from 3,000 Kgs to 3,500Kgs were class 7.  Am I missing something ?  Bill

Can't help with the parts issue but our van (3300 kgs) is a class 7 for MOT purposes.

Motor Caravans , as long as that's what's on your V5 is Class 4

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If using none genuine service parts for the cam belt I would advise only to use a Gates manufactured item. They do supply a large proportion of the manufacturing industry but probably still cheaper to buy direct, I would ask the question. If the belt fails the consequences are very expensive.

Are you using a local Fiat dealer or Motorhome dealer for your service as you may find a local vat registered  garage will be cheaper,

When you get the timing belt kit and it has a water pump + belt and other parts the pump fins need to be steel as to the picture on the left and not plastic as the plastic fin breaks on the shaft and then just spins .note the pump is not a fiat pump just a picture to explain .lots of over heating problems I have found from the plastic fin pumps so would not fit a plastic fin pump
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Paulmold wrote:Motor Caravans , as long as that's what's on your V5 is Class 4

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Interesting, I had a bit of a hassle when we had our last mot done at a main Peugeot dealership. They insisted that they couldn't do the test as they had no facilities for a class 7 vehicle   They did the service but sent the van elsewhere for the mot.

When our van was newer and we used a Peugeot dealer for service etc, they had to send the van out for the MOT to another local commercial garage, which handled a lot of Class 7 vehicles, simply because they (the dealer) didn't have a lift ramp capable of taking the height of the Pollensa. It was still always done as a Class 4 MOT though.

Roger 
A lot of class 7 test are done on pits ref to the height problem 
Even when a motorhome is a class 4 needs a test station that has a brake tester able to test the brakes as to the test station used for motorhomes have class 7 test bays

Our commercial Merc garage, if the van is in for a service and MOT, take it to an independent garage a couple of hundred yards away for the test.

Naturally if the Merc garage deals with the MOT then I get charged full price rather than the price I am charged if I take it to the independent garage myself - the few pounds difference is worth it as it saves messing about with two appointments and hanging about. I had considered having the independent garage doing the lot but the service cost at Merc was not much different.