Warning lights on? Your car will fail its MOT test

atrixblue.-MFR-.

i going to touch on the 2 year MOT.

youll find many companies are signing a online petition, these companies are motor club members, part producers,motor factors and large national chains of MOT stations and garages and small independant garages not because ot draws revenue away from them but from safety aspects.
many part producers will not put a 2 year garentee on their products not even exhaust manufacturers do this appart from a very limited number like walker who offer 3 years.

with the two year MOT new cars get MOT's quicker a plus but older vehicles go longer without being checked.

people are not sitting back and waiting for this directive to hit they want to prevent the government implementing this with extremely good reasons.

not just this the government seem to be back tracking on having cars tested for CO2 reguarly to help our carbon foot print this will increase our carbon footprint if cars are allowed to be on the road for 2 years with faulty cats and exhausts and fueling problems not to mention all other safety aspects.

TBH scrap basic 12 month MOT's have SVA type tests instead but thats my opnion.

colino

The 422 MOT will come in just for us to fall in line with Europe. That means that the first MOT will be when a car is 4 years old (just think of all the post lease 3 year olds that fail their first MOT now, badly) and then be tested formally every 2 years after that. There will be an increase in roadside tests to fine owners who will fail emission tests, but in balance I think it will actually stimulate the secondhand car trade.
Just think of all the people you know now who "service" their cars, but in effect, just repair the faults the annual MOT throws up. Those motorists will not change their habits but will get the fright of their lives when their cars limp into the MOT lane after 2 years neglect and get hit with the estimate to legalise their cars then.
I think a lot of those will become no-value trade ins and people will find the money to finance replacements instead of repairing worn out rubbish.

Lum

Well mine just passed first time, though the MOT tester had no idea whether it needed a cat test or a non-cat test so (correctly, as it happens) tested it as non-cat. Also they couldn't figure out how to take the handbrake off after putting it on since the release lever is located a few feet away from the handbrake pedal.

All good fun, and no more worries now until 2013, at which point the car will be 20 years old.

Nearly_Old

One of ours was in for the MoT today - passed :j

Did have a chat with the owner & MoT tester re: the new rules. They can see the point of the ABS, airbags, pre-tensioner and other safety related items but are not happy about things like towbar electrics and TC (as on most cars this can be turned off).

They were speculating whether anyone would "re-wire" some items to get a pass and said that all they have to check for is that the lights go out in accordance with the manufacturers details - some cars have a defined sequence. One point raised was if a car that has been "re-wired" was then involved in a very serious accident the police vehicle examiner is almost certain to find the "re-wiring". This would effectively be an undeclared modification and it is likely that the insurance policy would be voided. OK the insurer would pay any 3rd parties but would then recover (or try to) the costs from the driver.

Lum

A little bit miffed about my MOT actually. Ignoring the fact that the new-new-style certificate looks like something I could knock up in MS Publisher and produce a convincing replica on my LaserJet 4, they have recorded my odometer as 60000 miles when it's actually 60000 kilometers, a fairly significant difference and something I advised them about when I booked the car in. Any idea how I go about getting this fixed?

The tester claims it can't be done and doesn't make any difference anyway. It makes a lot of difference to me when I have one of the few Japanese imports in the UK with a genuine odometer reading that hasn't been screwed up by changing the speedo to miles.

Joe_Horner

Wig wrote: »

There will be also the ones already tested eg ABS,
there's a comprehensive post further up of the new ones, it would be nice to have a full list of testable warning lamps, and which ones are not to be tested.

Better (??) than a list of the lights, they now have the entire manual available online at

doubleU doubleU doubleU dot motinfo dot gov dot uk/htdocs/m4i00000101 dot htm

Apologies for odd formatting there but can't post links as a new member

The bits with vertical bars beside them in the contents and the text itself are changes / additions to the regs. Note that warning lamps are generally included under the stsyem they relate to (eg: ABS warning comes under Brakes (Section 3). The contents page continues on a second page - use the "next page" icon at the top of the page (not the most intuitive set-up but there ya go!)

Wig wrote: »

"During decelerometer test if the vehicle deviates from a straight line when parking brake applied"

A) How are they going to test that?
I bet there are vehicles out there which from new would not be able to pass such a (useless) test.and no amount of repairs will make it pass.

That applied to cars that can't be put on the brake test rollers so need to be road tested for brake efficiency. They test it by driving along, pulling the handbrake on, and making sure the car doesn't pull to one side or the other when they do so.

If it does pull to one side it means that there's a problem with the balance of the rear brakes (one is coming on harder than the other) which can be anything from poor adjustment to contamination of the linings by a hydraulic leak or failed wheel bearing seal. It's certainly NOT a useless test, bearing in mind that the bits that do the braking are usually shared between the hand- and foot brakes

As for the new warning light fails, the problem here is that most of the lights can be activated by any number of problems and the MOT test is NOT designed to diagnose faults.

If, say, a TC light is on that could be caused by a faulty wheel sensor which will probably be shared by the ABS system, or may be an ECU fault. It's all very well saying that "I can turn the TC off" but what happens when that faulty ECU decides to interfere when it's not needed and applies braking to one wheel for no reason while you're happily doing 70 down the M1?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Lum wrote: »

A little bit miffed about my MOT actually. Ignoring the fact that the new-new-style certificate looks like something I could knock up in MS Publisher and produce a convincing replica on my LaserJet 4, they have recorded my odometer as 60000 miles when it's actually 60000 kilometers, a fairly significant difference and something I advised them about when I booked the car in. Any idea how I go about getting this fixed?

The tester claims it can't be done and doesn't make any difference anyway. It makes a lot of difference to me when I have one of the few Japanese imports in the UK with a genuine odometer reading that hasn't been screwed up by changing the speedo to miles.

OH NO!!!!

it can be adjusted lum but the discrepancy will be on all HPI and MOT check services such as directr gov.

this cant be adjusted because the examiner has entered an official reading into the system.

he can go back onto the sytem, he can alter the reading and printout a new MOT cert with the correct reading. but the damage has been done.

adouglasmhor

I was worried for a bit there, My screenwash low warning light is always on. But it's not on the list, it's a coroded sensor.

Stephen_Leak

Why don't we just give in to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and have an "MOT Fail" light, which comes on when the car is 10 years old.

Honeydog

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

Why don't we just give in to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and have an "MOT Fail" light, which comes on when the car is 10 years old.

You're so right!