i'm going to sound stupid but..

strawberryfields

my p reg rover knightsbridge is due its mot at the beginning of next month, when do i need to book this? i know it probally needs a new front tyre should i do this before hand? should i take it for a service before the mot? its last service was last july, it had virtually a new exhast in september, its just last year my dad pretty much did everything for me with it being my first car but this year i am going it alone so asking for advice.

Conor_3

Book it any time up to 4 weeks before it's due. If taking it in before the due date, also take the old certificate along and when it passes, they'll issue you a certificate with an expiry date 12 months from the expiry of the last one instead of 12 months from the test date.

Surely you shouldn't be waiting until an MOT to change a worn tyre? It's 3 penalty points and up to £2000 fin PER TYRE if the Police stop you. It's also a stupid thing to be running about on one in winter/spring.

Thunderbird_2

Hi

Take your car to your local council's MOT test centre. They do MOT tests only but no repairs so they don't have incentive for them to find faults that don't exist.

Check here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-mot first to see if your council is listed, if not, give them a call ask if they have an MOT testing station. If they do, brilliant. Give them a call and book it now because most of council MOT garages will offer you a booking that is few weeks from your call.

The earliest you can book an MOT test is 28 days before your current certificate expires and the new certificate will be issued post-dated.

The service should be done once a year ( or at least an oil and filter change every six months if you do few miles a year). The service will improve the performance of your car and it's durability and make it easier to pass the MOT, especially the emission test.

Now, if you suspect the car might fail on something major ( costing too much money to put right) I would say leave the service till the car passes its MOT and do it after that. The reason I said this is, if the car fails for something too expensive to repair, you might choose to scrap the car and buy another one. HOWEVER, if the car is serviced before the MOt and was in a presentable condition ( Washed the exterior and vaccumed the enterior) then the tester might pass the car on things that are border line because the car seems to be looked after. Saying this though, your safety is the most important thing here. I know I am contradicting myself, but, real life is a bit of this and a bit of that.

All in all, service the car and clean it before you take it to the MOT.

Good luck

Inactive

As this is an 11 year old car, I would just replace the tyre ( urgently ) take it for an MOT and see what happens, if it fails, then you can decide if it is worth repairing, or simply replacing the car.;)

Hintza

To follow up on inactive's advice and assuming the tyre is border line just book the MOT and see what needs done and cost involved before spending any money. If possible put the spare wheel on if that is in better shape than the current tyre.

There is no point on wasting money at this stage in case the car has a major problem and it might be better scrapping it.

Keith

Conor wrote: »

Book it any time up to 4 weeks before it's due. If taking it in before the due date, also take the old certificate along and when it passes, they'll issue you a certificate with an expiry date 12 months from the expiry of the last one instead of 12 months from the test date.

There is no need to produce the old certificate now, as the system is computerised it automatically gives up to 13 months.

Miseryschild

Thunderbird wrote: »

Hi

Take your car to your local council's MOT test centre. They do MOT tests only but no repairs so they don't have incentive for them to find faults that don't exist.

Check here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-mot first to see if your council is listed, if not, give them a call ask if they have an MOT testing station. If they do, brilliant. Give them a call and book it now because most of council MOT garages will offer you a booking that is few weeks from your call.

Or do like we do - take it to a garage which you trust. We have a family friend who runs a garage and we know we can take it to him and we wont tell us things that dont need fixing and he wont short-change us. So get to know the guys in a local garage and they will be good to you.

HTH
~MC