MOT Advisories

Chickabiddybex

It originally failed on the ballpoint but they fixed it

Joe_Horner

Chickabiddybex wrote: »

It originally failed on the ballpoint

I hope they gave you a written quote first

Chickabiddybex

Haha sorry I'm using a tablet with autocorrect - it changed ball joint to ballpoint!

I was right about the fog light by the way. The previous owner took the switch out and moved it. They replaced it with a weird one. I always assumed it did something to the stereo!

Prothet_of_Doom

I once bodged the operation of the electric wash wipe on a mini 850, by replacing is with a pre-electric wash wipe 'plunger' and fitting an aluminium bracket to the underside of the dash. It failed, I got a failure certificate, and then I pointed out the working version and I had a pass certificate, and a slightly cross MOT tester. He also put an advisory saying the wipers didn't self park. Well, yes, when the self park switch failed, Rover had deleted the switch that was part of the wiper motor, and wanted £85 for the wiper motor, so I'd rewired it to bypass the self park. (In my defence I was very skint, and it was pre-ebay)

A few Years later I had an XR3i which passed somewhere with no advisories, and on the same day, a rear suspension arm snapped, and the rear wheel, tucked into the rear arch and got stuck as I went around a roundabout. (No crash luckily). On Closer inspection it was clear that 90% of the crack was rusty, and 10% clean metal, so I wasn't impressed. (I think possibly it would have required a more thorough visual than the MOT provides to actually spot it, but apparently it was a common weakness)

colino

Back to the point OP, if your car has a functioning switch, albeit not factory fitted and in a "different" place, and a proper rear fog light working in the proper place, that is NOT an advisory. Take the rest of those advisories with a pinch of salt, the tester has no place being an NT.

AdrianC

colino wrote: »

Back to the point OP, if your car has a functioning switch, albeit not factory fitted and in a "different" place, and a proper rear fog light working in the proper place, that is NOT an advisory.

An advisory is just something the tester feels the need to bring to the vehicle owner's attention. No more, no less. It has no formal impact on whether the car passed or failed the test. It's just something that isn't covered by a Reason for Rejection, but which caused him to raise his eyebrows.

If he hadn't found the switch, it didn't work, or the warning light didn't illuminate, the tester would have failed it - not given an advisory. I suspect that the tester would have been perfectly justified in failing, if the original switch was missing/broken - but, no, he's gone so far as to hunt for the actual and seemingly unlabelled switch. Bonus points to him, imho.

Since the OP now knows where the real fog light switch is, and didn't before, I'd have said that the advisory was perfectly justified - and that it did the job.