MOT Advice
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AdamSKISKI
Posts: 1 Newbie
in Motoring
I was wondering if somebody would be able to give me a bit of advice?
My car just passes MOT with the following faults as advisories:
*Brake pads wearing thin front
*Brake pads wearing thin rear
*Tyre close legal limit
*Road will slightly distorted nearside front
*Road wheel slightly distorted offside front
*Oil leak not excessive
I can't afford to get it all fixed in one month and was curious what was the most important order to get these remedied? Is it the way that I stated above, brake pads, tyre, wheels sorted out and then the oil leak? Will the slightly distorted wheels cause any major issues other than deflating my tyres, will they damage the tread?
Also the clutch has got really high over the past couple of months and the mechanic said is probably about 10,000 miles left before that need replacing as well. He also said there was probably a couple of months left on the brake pads before damage will be done to car itself.
Regards
Adam
My car just passes MOT with the following faults as advisories:
*Brake pads wearing thin front
*Brake pads wearing thin rear
*Tyre close legal limit
*Road will slightly distorted nearside front
*Road wheel slightly distorted offside front
*Oil leak not excessive
I can't afford to get it all fixed in one month and was curious what was the most important order to get these remedied? Is it the way that I stated above, brake pads, tyre, wheels sorted out and then the oil leak? Will the slightly distorted wheels cause any major issues other than deflating my tyres, will they damage the tread?
Also the clutch has got really high over the past couple of months and the mechanic said is probably about 10,000 miles left before that need replacing as well. He also said there was probably a couple of months left on the brake pads before damage will be done to car itself.
Regards
Adam
0
Comments
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You have a pair of nearly-illegal tyres, just about worn out brake pads, two bent wheels... and you're only thinking in an MOT context?
Never mind the damage done to the discs (themselves a consumable) when the pads wear out - you won't have brakes with the name.
It's all basic routine maintenance... If you can't afford to replace illegal tyres and worn brakes, then you can't afford to run a car.
The bent wheels will be impossible to balance, and will wear the tyres unevenly and quickly. If you're really skint, then the simplest and cheapest solution for those plus tyres (are they the same corners?) would be to buy a pair of used wheels with good tyres.
A set of brake pads is unlikely to be more than about £20, and is trivially easy to DIY change.
The oil leak - how long's a piece of string? It may be trivially simple, it may be an engine-out job. How much oil are you losing? The MOT fail standard is a 75mm diameter pool in 5 minutes with the engine running.0 -
You need to be a bit active on this.AdamSKISKI wrote: »I was wondering if somebody would be able to give me a bit of advice?
My car just passes MOT with the following faults as advisories:
*Brake pads wearing thin front
*Brake pads wearing thin rear
*Tyre close legal limit
*Road will slightly distorted nearside front
*Road wheel slightly distorted offside front
*Oil leak not excessive
I can't afford to get it all fixed in one month and was curious what was the most important order to get these remedied? Is it the way that I stated above, brake pads, tyre, wheels sorted out and then the oil leak? Will the slightly distorted wheels cause any major issues other than deflating my tyres, will they damage the tread?
Also the clutch has got really high over the past couple of months and the mechanic said is probably about 10,000 miles left before that need replacing as well. He also said there was probably a couple of months left on the brake pads before damage will be done to car itself.
Regards
Adam
Tyre close to legal limit. How close? How many miles do you do? Work out at what point it needs to be replaced. Tyres are very binary, they are legal or they aren't. Therefore it doesn't need to be replaced until....it does.
Brakes, pretty much the same. How worn? How much left on them? How much use do they get? All on you.
2 road wheels distorted. Well that's British road for you. They arent going to get progressively worse. But do you drive down rough tracks at speed, a super special rally stage flat out etc? Potentially these could be left. Or possibly not. It depends.;)
Oil leak. How much is it leaking? Are you checking/topping up regular? Again on you. Again, could be left, possibly not.0 -
You sound like you dont carry out routine maintenance or you wait until MOT time to check if your car is dangerous or not. I wouldn't of sent my car into the MOT station without at least checking first.
Also, having these advisories on your MOT record wont help you in the future when you come to sell it. If your car is worth a few hundred or a couple of thousand then it wont matter so much, but if its only a few years old then thats the sort of thing that will put people off.0 -
Personally would get the tyres and wheels done this month, then the brake pads next.
The oil leak as already eluded to could be pennies or hundreds, a leaking oil pipe on my turbo cost £450 to fix at a local independent garage, no time to do it myself.
As for a general comment, maybe you need to educate yourself on how to run a car legally and safely, putting a car in for an MOT with that list of defects even if just advisories is abysmal, and if the front wheels are badly distorted how are you not feeling that through the steering?every time I manage to get one more breath into this body, I will sing a song of thanks to you my brothers, my sisters, my friends, may your sleep be peaceful, and angels sing sweetly in your ears.0 -
Top three very important and the bottom three not so much. I would not worry about the oil leak but do check your engine oil every fortnight or so just to make sure it isnt dropping to a level which could damage the engine. Unless you see pools of water under the car its not an immediate job. I have had an oil leak appear as an advisory only to vanish the next year.0
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Everything is still perfectly legal for you to still drive the cars, depending on how many miles you cover, just get it sorted before the next MOT.
If you cover less than 5,000 miles those advisories may be ok, for quite some time.
In winter its good to have deep treads, check the depth and make a judgement when to replace.0 -
Start with the oil leak, get someone to have a look at how serious it is as soon as.
If it's an expensive job that you can't afford anyway, do you really want to pay out on brakes and tyres first before finding out it's not worth repairing?
It it's nothing much to worry about, leave it for now (but top the oil up) and sort your brakes, tyres and wheels.
I can spit on from here around half a dozen back street garages that would do the brakes for me cheaply for a bit of cash if I bought the parts myself, ask around friends and neighbours.
You can buy all the brake parts from eurocarparts.com cheaply enough, there's usually discount codes on their site that'll scrape off upto 50%, weekday codes usually work out better than weekends ones.
Buying used tyres and wheels can be a bit hit and miss, you really need to see them up close first, but you could buy wheels and tyre together, new from Mytyres.co.uk.
They sell steel wheels with whatever tyre you choose for most cars.
They courier them to your door in a few days and you could just fit them yourself as them come ready fitted and balanced.0 -
foxy-stoat wrote: »You sound like you dont carry out routine maintenance or you wait until MOT time to check if your car is dangerous or not. I wouldn't of sent my car into the MOT station without at least checking first.
Also, having these advisories on your MOT record wont help you in the future when you come to sell it. If your car is worth a few hundred or a couple of thousand then it wont matter so much, but if its only a few years old then thats the sort of thing that will put people off.
MOT advisories are pretty meaningless. If you won't buy a used car that has ever had advisories, then you won't be buying a used car at all.
On its first MOT at 3 years old, my Fiat got an advisory that the suspension springs were rusty. It's now 10 years old, and still on its original springs.
It has never passed without a few advisories, even though it's been main dealer serviced since new. Parts that get an advisory one year can mysteriously fix themselves before the next MOT.If it sticks, force it.
If it breaks, well it wasn't working right anyway.0 -
Advisories are simply the tester saying "It's passed - but I think you might want to be aware of..."It has never passed without a few advisories, even though it's been main dealer serviced since new. Parts that get an advisory one year can mysteriously fix themselves before the next MOT.0 -
I service my own cars so it is incredibly rare for me to get an advisory. It's one of the reasons people love to buy cars from me. Year after year of passing MOT with no advisory. You can really tell how well a car has been looked after from it's MOT history.0
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