Over the years, many cars Iāve owned, come MOT time, used to undergo a pre MOT to check out the relevant bits for the test (and sort as necessary) before having the test. This practice seems to have diminished as folk (generally) use the test as a sort of list compilation of things that need doing? If it doesnāt fail then donāt carry out any other stuff? I realise as enthusiasts, majority of our cars tend to be well maintained/serviced and come MOT time, donāt have much to do? With the impending changes to regulations, surely the pre MOT would be good practice? Avoiding potential failures and the car being not allowed to be used? We all look at MOT history check as a way of trying to determine the cars āhistoryā I know itās not conclusive but is an assistance. With a pre MOT and no advisories on test, MOT history would be good?
This happened to me only last week? And the reason for posting this. The family Audi Avant was due service/MOT and a factory recall on the heater matrix. Duly booked in and I received a SMS, well, 3 actually! from Sytners advising points for attention. Only MOT related thing was worn rear brake pads, had them replaced and car subsequently sailed through test!Ā Ā Nothing on test sheet regarding fail/advisory but an invoice for brake work carried out? Good practice in my opinion? Other 2 messages were leaking water pump which turned into a cambelt change tooĀ Ā Right on schedule at 5 years old! And damage to the engine undertray? Left that one as not dangerous or loose and Sytners just had it on their wish list of things to charge for?Ā
About three weeks before MOT my daily driver goes in for a service & pre MOT.
I use a time served one-man-band mechanic who does the relevant fluids & filters and generally looks the car over and does whatever he thinks necessary,
pads, brake lines, that sort of thing. Thereās a three-man-band unit on the opposite side on the complex that does MOTās so it goes out for a test run andĀ
calls in for the MOT on the way back. The two businesses obviously have a working relationship so it all works well. Drop the car off the night before andĀ
pick up next afternoon and pay the bill, usually Ā£three hundred and something. I re-set the dash service warnings myself.
Itās an old 3.2 straight 6 TDI Ā E Class worth about a grand, and I only do 5k miles a year in it. One hell of a car for the money.
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Havenāt MOTād MiXi yet but as itās a much simpler car Iāll do the work myself.
Thatās excellent Paul!Ā Ā Old school, proper way to do it. Itās nice when you get a garage you can trust and as you say, they work with the MOT station, ideal situation.
Iāve been using the same garage for almost 2 yrs now, before my last MOT I wanted them to look at the suspension to give it a look over - he took me under the car on the ramp showed me a few small bits that didnāt need any attention but might in a year or two, nothing wrong with shock absorbers, but did point out that one of my rear calipers was leaking a bit - it would be an MOT fail.
Got them to replace the rear callipers then MOTd same day - passed with no advisories, then got them to do an oil change.
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Iāve now got a slight blow in the exhaust & whilst that may not be an MOT fail Iāll get them to have a look at that in the next couple of weeks & have a general look over her - MOT is due on 15th July, so Iāll know beforehand if anything needs doing.
Simply because you have a month before hand to get your test done and if it passes you get a test and it get forward dated so you donāt lose any time ,Ā if not you get 10 working days to fix it, when fixed you get your test again pre dated to the expiry date
Also the pre MOT would require a mechanic (being paid an hourly rate)Ā to go through the car as if carrying out a test so why not just have a test ?
As said above in a previous post Ā if your worried that much about it tie your a service schedule in just before your test date that way the car should be A1 when having had its service
Agreed it is a waste of time. Put the car in as Paul20V advises a month before the due date. Plenty time to do any repairs or get parts delivered before the due date.
If the car fails the test even 30 days before the MOT is due it is no longer road worthy and should not be driven.
Same with the pre MOT. If the local gare points out to the owner that a particular point is an MOT failure and requires to be sorted before the MOT, you as the driver are driving a car that you have been informedis not road worthy, therefore say the part takes 2 days to arrive your car is off the road for two days before or at the MOT date.
You are of course agreeing you would not drive a car in a dangerous condition, I hope.
dangerous markers have been there since the computer tests started
And apart from this if you have a pre mot and find the car is dangerous are you still going to drive it just because it hasnāt been marked on paper and the computer system ?
I have already put info in other posts in the forum linked below ??
I remember the pre-MOT back in the day when garages actually used to charge re-test fees and most of us were not aware that you could MOT a month early.
I use ATS now - Ā£35 booked online with free retest. As a tyre, exhaust and brake specialist, they are not interested in any other work. Book cars as early as possible to allow as much flexibility as possible with any repairs. Nowadays I do the pre-MOT myself to try to prevent any nasty surprises.
I would be very worried if I had to wait for an MOT tester to find anything seriously wrong with any of my cars.Ā Ā
Our RED MX5 passed its MOT this morning. I do the pre-check myself and take it to the local garage where Iāve been going to for years. They are always very helpful and let me look under the car when it is on the ramp. This year on the pre-check I noticed there was a big lip on the front discs, and sure enough they were under 16mm thick. Discs and pads changed before the MOT so no problems.
I suppose that the āpre-MOTā check is entirely up to the individual. I depends upon your mechanical skills and knowledge and if you like grovelling under the car to check all is OK.Ā Personally, it is doing the work on my MX5ās that is one of the enjoyable aspects of owning an MX5 Mk1.
I think you can do the pre MOT check yourself. I usually book the car in for a full service and MOT a full month before it is due. That way they will detect a problem before the MOT. The only thing I worry about is the emissions part of the check. However if you are not having the car serviced putting it in early gives you plenty of time to fix it. Nothing worse than leaving it to the last day.
Not sure why you might even think Iād carry on driving any vehicle which was deemed dangerous, however the problem was discovered. Lifeās dangerous enough as it is.
I tend to be more pedantic about vehicle faults than most, also having built my own cars and motorbikes from scratch, Iām probably more aware about it than many folk are.