Ben

Over here in the UK our yearly car safety and roadworthiness test is called an MOT - I had mine done today after the car being off the road for nearly 2 years.

I have a good understanding of what they test on the car, so I made sure before that everything was in perfect order.

Bad:

I thought i'd try a place that I haven't had it done before, because they have a Hunter alignment machine, and I was going to have them do that as well.
They did the test on the car first, and it failed!

*Both front flexible brake hose fouling the body (they weren't, just close)
*RH Rear flexible brake hose fouling the body (again, it was close, but not touching)
*Headlamp aim too low (I left the light pods off so the tester could tweak it)
*Both rear wheels badly distorted (thats a new one on me!)
*Both licence plates format incorrect (they are CLZ9 928, technically should be CLZ 9928)
*Both rear seatbelts chafed
*Corrosion in LH Rear suspension mount
*Front wheel bearings too much play
*RH front lower ball joint too much play

The emissions test was close to the limit, we are allowed 4.5% CO and 1200PPM Hydrocarbons. My hydrocarbons were OK, but CO was high at 3.5%

I was really P'ed off.... I knew that the licence plates were wrongly spaced, but they've not been mentioned in the past 6 inspections. I also knew about the slight chafe in the rear seat belt.
The rest was all BS though, I thoroughly went through the car and made sure everything mechanical was tip-top. I even had the wheels refurbed due to the finish peeling. There is no corrosion at all underneath... I peeled back any loose undercoat and applied POR-15 to those areas, along with the jacking points etc.
I even have my own exhaust gas tester, and I was showing 1.5% CO before the test.
They must have seen 'Porsche owner' and thought that they'll make some money.

Needless to say, I didn't bother getting the alignment done.

Good:

I called the shop that normally does the inspections for me, and they had a vacant spot the same afternoon.
I didn't do any work on the car in the meantime, since I knew it was all ok.

Can you guess what happened? Car passed the test with flying colours! Not even any cautions or advisories. I asked the guy if he thought there was anything it was marginally weak on, and he said no... all in great order.
Even the exhaust emissions had 'magically' lowered themselves to 1.6% CO and 270PPM HC

Anyway, just thought i'd share this story wih the rest of you guys.... My car is now officially back on the road!

PreacherCain

Congrats on the (eventual) pass; I've always felt that a sympathetic MOT tester is worth hunting down, but it helps if they are at least honest to start with! So many places see a spurious MOT failure as a way to bring in extra work... One top tip if you don't know a sympathetic place nearby is to look up the local authority testing station. Most (all?) local councils operate testing stations which only do MOTs, so have nothing to gain from failing you.

Brett928S2

Hi BEN

As MOTs are computerised , you really should report the original MOT station....the Ministry take a VERY dim view of garages that fail cars to make money on the work...

The fact that it failed at one and passed at another will be enough for them to send "test" cars into that garage, and if they try the same trick they will lose their MOT licence...

All the best Brett

Fogey1

That seems good counsel.

Not only may you succeed in starting an investigation that could result in filing off some bad guys, you might also shortstop a cynic who looks from the other direction and sees a corrupt MOT provider passing cars that should fail. If I were a Ministry investigator, I'd send you to a third, known shop as a first step.

Ben

Well, yes... technically I should have gone back to the original testing station. Although after telling the story to a few of my friends who are into cars, two of which teach automotive engineering at our local college, the ones that are familiar with the original garage all have a tale to tell about them.
If only i'd asked them first, I could have saved the £50 fee.

I did question the second tester about the brake hoses. He said the same as I already knew... they were close to the steering tie rods, but not touching. I need to find those two plastic spirals and stick them back on there.

The guy at place I went to second (the place I normally use) knows that I do all the work myself to my cars, so he knows that he's not going to make any money from failing the car on things that don't need repair.

Ben

Oh, and I forgot to mention.... the first place only provided a hand written failure sheet... so who knows if it was even entered into the computer!

Gtaebr

I used to visit a "dodgy bloke" somewhere in "Sarf London" 20 quid extra and you were good to go. Of course this was 25 years ago!!

Oh for the olden days........

Brett928S2

Hi

Hand written lolllllllllllllll

That TOTALLY illegal, the Mot HAS to be entered on the computer..pass or fail.....the Ministry would pull their MOT license instantly for that.....

Report them....

Safer for ALL of us....

All the best Brett

Tampa 928s

Look out Us this is coming our way!

Brett928S2

Hi

I did not realise you did not have something similar to our MOT tests (Ministry Of Transport)

A few details...

Its a National test that EVERY vehicle in the UK has to pass annually.

Its TOTALLY computerised, so you go in they log you onto the computer (VIN number, registration number etc)

The MOT tester has 40 minutes (no less allowed) to examine every part of your vehicle....so every suspension part and joint, possible corrosion , every seat belt and mounting, every tyre (1.6 mm minimum)...plus just about everything else you can think of....then they put the car in a set of rollers in the floor (not a dyno lol) and test ALL your brakes....front , rear, handbrake etc...number plates, lights etc etc....

IF you fail on any safety important part its an instant fail...they can sometimes pass you but "advise" on non safety parts like oil leaks etc....

The funniest part is that just because you have passed an MOT (even the same day), it does NOT mean legally that your car is safe to drive in English law...


All the best Brett

devilinblack

I wish CA had something like this instead of our asinine smog laws. Would keep a lot of death traps off the roads and probably prevent some accidents on our freeways.

Brett928S2

Hi

Are you saying that apart from emissions testing you have NO annual mechanical test at all ???

All the best Brett

Lizard928

Brett neither Canada nor the US have annual mechanical tests. And I doubt they will ever bring them here. Too many people own cars that would NEVER pass.

blown 87

Georgia had them as late as the 1980's.

devilinblack

In California that is correct, yes. Come drive on our freeways and it becomes pretty obvious that this is the case with some of the rolling wrecks out there.

I do recall when I moved to UT a dozen years ago that my car was mechanically inspected including lights and some sort of brake check showing me a readout of the percentage of braking done by each wheel, but I have no idea if this is still in place.