Warning lights on? Your car will fail its MOT test

roddydogs

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Just taking the bulbs out is unlikely to work. Most warning lamps come on when you turn the ignition on and extinguish after a period of time or some other input. The MoT tester will be looking for this. Apparently they have a list of what to expect for each car.

Do they still use "Bulbs"? arnt they LEDS? and removing the Dashboard to get at them can be a hell of a job, cant it?

avantra

Well, in time all cars with lots of sensors will have this problem, if you think of a new car you can get a new Lada Niva or buy something really basic.

I think most used cars will have a ton of sensors in them so a used buy unless it's at list 15 years old will be a much more problematic purchase in that respect.

mealmond

I could be having fun later in the year with these changes.

My other half has a Honda Civic and a couple of years ago hit a pothole in the dark and it caused the airbag on the side of the drivers seat to go off, other than shock she was fine, but it could have been much worse.

We got a shock however to be told to replace the airbag it would cost about £1200, so we decided we could not afford it and it was not the main steering wheel airbag.

The warning light has been on ever since, no problems with the MOT so far and even Honda said to leave as it is, it's an 03 Diesel and in good condition for year.

If the airbag needs putting back in and we cannot work round it by removing the bulb, we will have to look for somewhere cheaper to sort the airbag, as you cannot scrap such a good car just for the sake of an airbag but I doubt it would be worth paying over a £1000 on an airbag, if we could afford it.

Not due yet, but I will not have to start seeing what if anything can be done.


Martin

Road_Hog

Gloomendoom wrote: »

I disagree, if more people wrote to their MP's, they would do something. Otherwise they just think we are all happy with all the daft legislation. No news is good news.

But this legislation is an EU directive, which is why it is being complied with. Our government hardly produces any legislation, it just implements EU legislation.

Lots of people have written to their MP and campaigned against HS2. Did it make a jot of difference? Nope, because it's an EU directive of TEN-T European transport plan.

The EU directive to harmonise motorway speed limits to 80 MPH, where all the anti-speed pressure groups, why are they all so quiet about this - where is all the 'speed kills' mantra? Nope, all these Lefty pressure groups keep quiet, because it is an EU directive and is therefore okay.

The two year MOT will happen, despite concerns about cars going two whole years without being checked. Because it's an EU directive.

Remember Cameron saying that he felt it was a good idea to do something about drug driving two weeks ago? It wasn't his idea, he's just pretending that it is his policy.

It is part of this.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2003:0311:FIN:EN:PDF

They recently completed their EU funded study on it.

http://www.druid-project.eu/cln_031/sid_D7DDB8A25869669757AE756721546804/Druid/EN/home/homepage__node.html?__nnn=true

Towards the right of that link you will see the conference on it was 27th September.

Now, Cyprus is also introducing drug driving tests (as will all EU member states) but they're a little more honest about the reason why.

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/crime/narcotest-could-come-early-easter/20120119

"The narcotest is one of 103 suggestions passed by the EU Parliament on September 27, 2010 as part of their 2011-2020 road safety strategy to reduce the number of road deaths in Europe."

nicka99

cruger wrote: »

When I went for my MOT the other day I had a Traction Control indicator light permanently on, which has been like that for 2 years it was an add on feature which if working properly I could turn on or off anyway as it does not effect ABS system. I was advised that if this light is on at next year's MOT it will fail even though the traction control is not needed. The cost...£1,800 to fix and I can only get the part from main dealer.

hi cruger,
I had the same problem. my tractional control/abs light came on about 6 months ago. a bit of 'testing' confirmed that the ABS still worked but the traction control didnt. During a repair of something unrelated I aksed about it and he said it was diagnosed as a faulty ABS pump which as you indicate is ~£1500 to fix. on that basis I decided that I could live without traction control as a) its possible to turn it off and b) many cars dont have it anyway. however the mechanic then advised that as of april 2012 it would fail its mot for this fault so I had to get it sorted one way or another.

I dont know what car you have but if its a VW/Seat/Audi/Skoda (and some BMWs I beleive) then its probably a well known fault with the "Teves Mk60" abs unit. just type 'Teves Mk60' fault into google and you'll see. If the car is less than 5 years old and has a full dealer service history then its quite possible that they will make a good will gesture towards fixing it - some even for free. Its worth approaching the dealer once the fault code is known.

My Seat Leon TDI unfortunately didnt meet this criteria but now a 'repair kit' is available rather than replacing the whole unit for a lot less. for VW/audi etc the part number is 1k0698517b. I got mine brand new for £150 from ebay then another £150 for fitting and now the light is out and TC works again.

This may be irrelevant for you but thought Id post it in case some others have a similar issue and want to save several hundred pounds on repairs to get through the MOT.

cruger

nicka99 wrote: »

hi cruger,
I had the same problem. my tractional control/abs light came on about 6 months ago. a bit of 'testing' confirmed that the ABS still worked but the traction control didnt. During a repair of something unrelated I aksed about it and he said it was diagnosed as a faulty ABS pump which as you indicate is ~£1500 to fix. on that basis I decided that I could live without traction control as a) its possible to turn it off and b) many cars dont have it anyway. however the mechanic then advised that as of april 2012 it would fail its mot for this fault so I had to get it sorted one way or another.

I dont know what car you have but if its a VW/Seat/Audi/Skoda (and some BMWs I beleive) then its probably a well known fault with the "Teves Mk60" abs unit. just type 'Teves Mk60' fault into google and you'll see. If the car is less than 5 years old and has a full dealer service history then its quite possible that they will make a good will gesture towards fixing it - some even for free. Its worth approaching the dealer once the fault code is known.

My Seat Leon TDI unfortunately didnt meet this criteria but now a 'repair kit' is available rather than replacing the whole unit for a lot less. for VW/audi etc the part number is 1k0698517b. I got mine brand new for £150 from ebay then another £150 for fitting and now the light is out and TC works again.

This may be irrelevant for you but thought Id post it in case some others have a similar issue and want to save several hundred pounds on repairs to get through the MOT.

Thanks Nicka,

I have had a little bit of joy with the traction control.

My car is a 05 Honda Accord Diesel. If my car had been under 62,000 miles I would have got it done for nothing as Honda is replacing the TC under warranty as it is a faulty part. Being a diesel mine has done 85,000 miles so no freebie.

Phoned Honda UK Customer Centre 0800 466 466 explained to them my problem and because I have a main dealer service record I got the TC part at a discount £400+vat instead of £1600.

Personally I think they should have done it for nothing as it is a known fault on a 05 Diesel Honda Accord (it left the factory with this fault) but what can you do if you argue they might not be so obliging next time.

Horizon81

If you've got one of these light on then it might be worth getting an MOT done towards the end of March to buy yourself some time!

Gloomendoom

Road_Hog wrote: »

But this legislation is an EU directive, which is why it is being complied with. Our government hardly produces any legislation, it just implements EU legislation.

Lots of people have written to their MP and campaigned against HS2. Did it make a jot of difference? Nope, because it's an EU directive of TEN-T European transport plan.

So it's best just to shrug your shoulders and do nothing? Like I said before how on earth are MP's supposed to know the population is not happy with EU directives if nobody can be arsed to tell them so.

I think politicians in general are completely unaware as to the level of resentment over EU interference.

BTW I think the drug testing is a good idea.

harz99

Horizon81 wrote: »

If you've got one of these light on then it might be worth getting an MOT done towards the end of March to buy yourself some time!

Best suggestion yet!!

Horizon81

The more I think about this the more I think 'where there's a will there's a way'. Plenty of cars have specific problems with these lights coming on but at the end of the day it's something that can be hidden with technology, unlike say a bald tyre. There are already products out there that can switch these lights off at certain times, and I'm sure they could be rewired to give a false result - not saying it would be easy but where there's a will! These lights can be a menace, and it's unrealistic to just chuck parts at old cars hoping that it'll stop the light from coming on.