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MOT's - What's your record?

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TheTon
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MOT's - What's your record?

Post by TheTon »

Just failed (again), so I decided to work out my pass rate.

Once in 13 years driving (my own car, company car(s) not included). Five different cars.

That's a whopping 7% success rate (if my maths is correct.)

Can anyone do worse than that?

Fed-up.dot.com :cry:

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Brightwater
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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by Brightwater »

After 40+ years of driving I have finally worked out - ignore MOT offers and go to your local council depot. They have no hidden agenda to sell you tyres/brakes/CV boots etc so you will get a fair assessment.

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Zimmerman
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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by Zimmerman »

I think Ive only had (from memory) 2 failures in about 17 years.
Maybe it's more (especially as my first car only cost me £450).

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sted
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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by sted »

We don't have MOTs

It's pretty scary when you are looking for a second hand car.

I've started one up, popped the bonnet and noticed a lovely little arc of fuel going from the carb inlet to the exhaust manifold.

Another one dropped its guts, (most of the sump and contents) 50 yards into a test drive.

And another (from a dealership) decided that brakes were an overated concept and pledged to do without them. I was 100 yards from the dealership when I noticed this little foible.

It's nice not having to go through the rigmarole every year, but you need to remind yourself to get brakes / tyres looked at anyway.

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sted
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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by sted »

As an aside, when I was younger and sillier, I got a car through an MOT with a Kelloggs cornflake box (painted with gunk) as an outrigger. :lol:

(That used to be part of the chassis. A structural part) :shock:

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tommymooney
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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by tommymooney »

I usually get a guy to take it in for me, but to do a pre-MOT check to see if there is anything silly that would fail it, can save hassle.

Pre-computerisation it was even better, i.e. the tester would say 'its going to fail on that' - so I could get it sorted before it formally failed.

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tedbull
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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by tedbull »

Don't have MOTs in Australia though your car does have to be roadworthy. That means you can get pulled over by the police for illegal modifications or an unsafe vehicle.

The only time you need a roadworthy certificate is when you sell the car and it's well known that you get hammered by mechanics at that time.

Mine cost me thousands when I sold my car so I guess I'm 0/1. Need to make friends with a tester for the next one.

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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by Achiles74 »

I have never had a car pass its MOT first time in over 20 years of driving :shock:

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unc.si.
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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by unc.si. »

Just had the old 'can't tax car because MOT runs out before the end of the month' thing.

No problem - book it in for the last week of Feb, get tax. No worries.

Book car in.

Take car for MOT - garage closed 'for refurb' (now know that it went bust a couple of days before through a mate in the trade).

Can't get it booked in anywhere else before the end of the month, but found a garage that could do it in the first few days of March, so should be OK as long as I don't get pinged by an ANPR.

Failed on suspension bushes, worn shockers and sidelights (all of which I told them about) and the horn wasn't working and the drag link ball joint was worn (which I didn't know). No major problem - all pretty common parts.

Get a call - 'we can't get the parts'. 'eh? what parts can't you get?' 'lower arm bushes and the drag link'.

Anyway - bit confused by this but made a couple of calls, got the parts and dropped them off.

Next day get another call - 'your car won't fit on the lift, so we've had to take it to the commercial centre and it won't be done until Friday'

FFS - that's 2 weeks without tax. I'm going to be getting a letter dropping on the mat soon at this rate.

Upshot is, they finally got it done. Didn't charge me for the lights, horn, half the labour and a few other bits and pieces and the tax disc dropped through the post today (backdated to the start of the month), so I'm legal again.

Most bloody stressful MOT I've ever had, but at least next year the MOT doesn't run out until after the tax so I won't have to go though it all again :lol:

Just need to find another garage now.

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unc.si.
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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by unc.si. »

I used to take cars for MOT years ago (My Dad had a garage). If they failed on something non life threatening they used to give me the MOT anyway, on the understanding that we fixed it before we gave the car back :D

To be fair, we always did. Not sure you'd get away with that these days though.

Oddest one was a 1950's Bentley that I took for MOT (carefully - I was only about 19 :lol: ).

get it on the rollers. 'you've got no brakes'. Now I'd driven it there and was pretty sure that it did have brakes, so quick call to my Dad. Turns out it had an early form of power assisted braking but the brakes would only work when the car was moving. They eventually managed to dig out some sort of gyroscopic testing machine so we could take it out for a spin and do an emergency stop to test the brakes.

Passed with flying colours :D

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tommymooney
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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by tommymooney »

Its much tighter now isn't it. On balance probably a good thing for safety. But if it hadn't been for the people issuing completely bent certificates, the process you described above Unc would still be fine - a bit of trust and common sense and all that.

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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by kizkiz »

Only had 1 fail in 17 years. A slack handbrake that they tightened the same day and passed it

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TheTon
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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by TheTon »

Update

1 pass in 14 :cry:

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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by sleuth »

kizkiz wrote:Only had 1 fail in 17 years. A slack handbrake that they tightened the same day and passed it

Is that on a Fork-Lift ?

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Moist von Lipwig
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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by Moist von Lipwig »

4 year old car - full Nissan service history - so its first m.o.t. this morning .

"I'm sorry but the car has failed"

passenger side wiper blade feathering. £10 to replace. Do you think you could include that in your opening sentence next time rather then the dramatic pause and spare me the minor heart attack.

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unc.si.
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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by unc.si. »

Failed today because the ABS sensor light was on (I should have taken the bulb out before I took it!).

Anyway they reset the error code and it stayed off just long enough for them to pass it. It's back on again now. They like my car so I think they may have possibly bent the rules a bit :D

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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by murf »

I had an ABS sensor light come on once. Cost several bob to find out there was a fault with the ABS sensor and a few more to replace it.

Good job the car and garage had such wonderful, modern technology. Helped me find out there wasn't a problem with the ABS.....

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tommymooney
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Re: MOT's - What's your record?

Post by tommymooney »

an interesting one is airbag lights.

If your airbag light stays on - indicating a problem - MOT fail

If your airbag doesn't come on at all (no bulb, or because you unplug it knowing you have a fault) - it means MOT can't test it - so merely an advisory!

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