The ask an MOT tester thread

[Taita]

Little Pete said:

Taita said:

Just curious as to what the best course of action for this is.

Rear brake pipes are a bit corroded so I wirebrushed / sandpapered them until they were much smoother, seems no pipe integrity issues. I've put kurust on, left it a few hours then thinly greased them to provide a bit of a shield against further rust.

This be OK for an MOT or do I need to hammerite them? There doesn't seem to be much 'pitting' after the scrub / sandpaper so be OK?

Dust cover on a front ARB link is split - assume that is a fail so I've got one on order.

Don't put too much grease or hammerite on them, you will just make the tester think you are trying to hide something! You may still get an advisory saying the pipes have grease on them though.
Yes, the split dust cover is a fail.

OK, thank you. The grease is a tiny layer well rubbed in and smoothed. ARB hopefully here soon

[cedrichn]

Hi,

Thanks again guys for your support

I have few questions.....
- Regarding front fog lights: my car, from 2006, has front fog light. I track it, and want to remove them. Any issue with MOT? I bought the blank plastic part and a new stalk from a car without them. Also wondering what happen if I don't change the stalk (so you can select them from the stalk, but they would not turn on)?
- Regarding headlights: one of my rear headlight is broken "like a smartphone" i.e. 20% of the lens is like a spider web... What can happen at MOT?
- Car cleanliness: I always wash them kind of before the MOT. More by courtesy and to be polite, as I think you should not put others'nose in your st How much does it impact your judgment, a clean car VS a dirty car?

Cheers!

[Athlon]

cedrichn said:

Hi,

Thanks again guys for your support

I have few questions.....
- Regarding front fog lights: my car, from 2006, has front fog light. I track it, and want to remove them. Any issue with MOT? I bought the blank plastic part and a new stalk from a car without them. Also wondering what happen if I don't change the stalk (so you can select them from the stalk, but they would not turn on)?

Not of interest to us

- Regarding headlights: one of my rear headlight is broken "like a smartphone" i.e. 20% of the lens is like a spider web... What can happen at MOT?

Rear light must not show white light, otherwise if it is cracked it will generate an advise

- Car cleanliness: I always wash them kind of before the MOT. More by courtesy and to be polite, as I think you should not put others'nose in your st How much does it impact your judgment, a clean car VS a dirty car?

No one likes to work on dirty cars!

Cheers!

[MG CHRIS]

How are other testers looking work wise. We not quite at 100% but we doing about 7 Mots a day now up from barely 1 back in April and may. Service work has picked back up however our biggest issue now is parts. My god the back order for parts is huge we main dealer have 20 vehicles on site waiting for parts alone.

[stevemcs]

No issue with parts, we are flat out with AC work, the sun always brings them out, the trouble is when sun goes in they don't turn up. Mot's, we are between 3 and 4 a day but its picking up, we have gone from just under 4-5 days before we can get stuff into the workshop to 10 days.

[cedrichn]

Athlon said:

cedrichn said:

Hi,

Thanks again guys for your support

I have few questions.....
- Regarding front fog lights: my car, from 2006, has front fog light. I track it, and want to remove them. Any issue with MOT? I bought the blank plastic part and a new stalk from a car without them. Also wondering what happen if I don't change the stalk (so you can select them from the stalk, but they would not turn on)?

Not of interest to us

- Regarding headlights: one of my rear headlight is broken "like a smartphone" i.e. 20% of the lens is like a spider web... What can happen at MOT?

Rear light must not show white light, otherwise if it is cracked it will generate an advise

- Car cleanliness: I always wash them kind of before the MOT. More by courtesy and to be polite, as I think you should not put others'nose in your st How much does it impact your judgment, a clean car VS a dirty car?

No one likes to work on dirty cars!

Cheers!

Great, thanks!
(rear light is "broken" since "some time", no advise so far... :P Just checking that the water is not getting to much into it and making things worse...)

[Retro_Jim]

I'm almost at the point of getting the first MOT on my Cortina after being off the road for a full restoration, I have a few concerns and wanted to know what's the best way to approach them:

Brakes - all new pads, discs/ drums and shoes but not run in - I'm in a catch 22 as I can't really run them in and not have the MOT despite the law saying I'm legal to use (1966 vehicle)

Headlights - They work but will fail on adjustment, is it beneficial to ask the tester to adjust them before the test knowing that they'll be a fail?

It's been a few years since I sent a car to get a MOT test so I'm out of touch!

[Chris32345]

cedrichn said:

Hi,

Thanks again guys for your support

I have few questions.....
- Regarding front fog lights: my car, from 2006, has front fog light. I track it, and want to remove them. Any issue with MOT? I bought the blank plastic part and a new stalk from a car without them. Also wondering what happen if I don't change the stalk (so you can select them from the stalk, but they would not turn on)?
- Regarding headlights: one of my rear headlight is broken "like a smartphone" i.e. 20% of the lens is like a spider web... What can happen at MOT?
- Car cleanliness: I always wash them kind of before the MOT. More by courtesy and to be polite, as I think you should not put others'nose in your st How much does it impact your judgment, a clean car VS a dirty car?

Cheers!

Front dogs only testable on post 2018 cars


As for the lens if the light output is not significantly effected by the lens damage or showing white light to the rear it's advisory only

Edited by Chris32345 on Thursday 10th June 09:51

[Athlon]

Retro_Jim said:

I'm almost at the point of getting the first MOT on my Cortina after being off the road for a full restoration, I have a few concerns and wanted to know what's the best way to approach them:

Brakes - all new pads, discs/ drums and shoes but not run in - I'm in a catch 22 as I can't really run them in and not have the MOT despite the law saying I'm legal to use (1966 vehicle)

Headlights - They work but will fail on adjustment, is it beneficial to ask the tester to adjust them before the test knowing that they'll be a fail?

It's been a few years since I sent a car to get a MOT test so I'm out of touch!

The brakes will pass if they are new, the rollers don't know that and Cortina brakes will easily lock up so no worries there I think.

Take the car ready for the lights to be adjusted, I cant remember if the grille needs to be off? if it does, do it, take a good screwdriver that fits the adjusters and make sure they are free, do that and I would happily adjust them for you.

[Little Pete]

Athlon said:

Retro_Jim said:

I'm almost at the point of getting the first MOT on my Cortina after being off the road for a full restoration, I have a few concerns and wanted to know what's the best way to approach them:

Brakes - all new pads, discs/ drums and shoes but not run in - I'm in a catch 22 as I can't really run them in and not have the MOT despite the law saying I'm legal to use (1966 vehicle)

Headlights - They work but will fail on adjustment, is it beneficial to ask the tester to adjust them before the test knowing that they'll be a fail?

It's been a few years since I sent a car to get a MOT test so I'm out of touch!

The brakes will pass if they are new, the rollers don't know that and Cortina brakes will easily lock up so no worries there I think.

Take the car ready for the lights to be adjusted, I cant remember if the grille needs to be off? if it does, do it, take a good screwdriver that fits the adjusters and make sure they are free, do that and I would happily adjust them for you.

Agreed on the brakes.
The point on the adjusters being free is a good one too, make it easy for the tester and I’m sure they will adjust them for you.

[OllieJolly]

I expect this'll be a quick answer.

My 2006 Citroen C5 has factory HID dipped beams (projectors) and therefore headlight washers, however they're not working, one is missing completely and the other looks broken.

The fuse for the headlight washer pump had been removed, and the bumper caps had also been glued in place by the previous owner and it looks like they've been that way for a long time. A couple of years, at least.

Surely if they're not working, it's an MOT failure? However I can't see anything on the history to suggest they've been tested.
Most recent test was a couple of months ago (before I bought it) so I'd suspect dodgy MOT, but it has changed owners at least once in the last couple of years so they can't all have been dodgy?

[gobuddygo]

OllieJolly said:

I expect this'll be a quick answer.

My 2006 Citroen C5 has factory HID dipped beams (projectors) and therefore headlight washers, however they're not working, one is missing completely and the other looks broken.

The fuse for the headlight washer pump had been removed, and the bumper caps had also been glued in place by the previous owner and it looks like they've been that way for a long time. A couple of years, at least.

Surely if they're not working, it's an MOT failure? However I can't see anything on the history to suggest they've been tested.
Most recent test was a couple of months ago (before I bought it) so I'd suspect dodgy MOT, but it has changed owners at least once in the last couple of years so they can't all have been dodgy?

I looked this up a while ago as i have a similar issue this is from the regs -

Some new items are tested during the MOT.

They include checking:

headlight washers on vehicles first used from 1 September 2009 (if they have them)

So you will be fine as was i.

[Gilhooligan]

Checked the reg on a car I recently saw that’s been heavily crashed and abandoned in a local supermarket and noticed this as it’s only advisory.

[stevemcs]

That hasn't been tested, its an automatic extension applied when a car had its 3rd birthday between April 2020 and July 31st 2020

[Gilhooligan]

stevemcs said:

That hasn't been tested, its an automatic extension applied when a car had its 3rd birthday between April 2020 and July 31st 2020

Yeah I get that. I’m just trying to understand how there is a test entry with this as an advisory as haven’t seen that before and lots of cars have had an extension. Did this person take their car in for a test when they didn’t need to? Wouldn’t they just do an MOT test on it if it had been brought in?

[Athlon]

Gilhooligan said:

stevemcs said:

That hasn't been tested, its an automatic extension applied when a car had its 3rd birthday between April 2020 and July 31st 2020

Yeah I get that. I’m just trying to understand how there is a test entry with this as an advisory as haven’t seen that before and lots of cars have had an extension. Did this person take their car in for a test when they didn’t need to? Wouldn’t they just do an MOT test on it if it had been brought in?

Every car ready for it's first MOT that took the extension had it applied to the history automatically not by a station.

[OllieJolly]

gobuddygo said:

OllieJolly said:

I expect this'll be a quick answer.

My 2006 Citroen C5 has factory HID dipped beams (projectors) and therefore headlight washers, however they're not working, one is missing completely and the other looks broken.

The fuse for the headlight washer pump had been removed, and the bumper caps had also been glued in place by the previous owner and it looks like they've been that way for a long time. A couple of years, at least.

Surely if they're not working, it's an MOT failure? However I can't see anything on the history to suggest they've been tested.
Most recent test was a couple of months ago (before I bought it) so I'd suspect dodgy MOT, but it has changed owners at least once in the last couple of years so they can't all have been dodgy?

I looked this up a while ago as i have a similar issue this is from the regs -

Some new items are tested during the MOT.

They include checking:

headlight washers on vehicles first used from 1 September 2009 (if they have them)

So you will be fine as was i.

Interesting, thank you.

[stevemcs]

Gilhooligan said:

Yeah I get that. I’m just trying to understand how there is a test entry with this as an advisory as haven’t seen that before and lots of cars have had an extension. Did this person take their car in for a test when they didn’t need to? Wouldn’t they just do an MOT test on it if it had been brought in?

No that advisory only appears on cars that were due their first mot, so if you had a 4 year old car it was just extended, if it was a 3 year old car then it had the advisory "covid extension" but it never went anywhere near a test station.

[Gilhooligan]

stevemcs said:

No that advisory only appears on cars that were due their first mot, so if you had a 4 year old car it was just extended, if it was a 3 year old car then it had the advisory "covid extension" but it never went anywhere near a test station.

Got you. Makes sense now, ta!

[Slow]

Two things.

First ever mot tomorrow so no numberplate fitted. Do I need to bring anything special for it to be entered into the system?

Fitted a rear fog to the drivers side… forgetting it’s LHD so that’s the wrong side. Would this count as being central? Or do I need to shift it to the same place but on the right?