I recently took my 25AE to the local main Mazda dealer for its service and MOT. It passed, but only after the MOT reported a failed headlight bulb. When they went to replace it they found that the connector needed fixed as well.
It is the first time I have had a car of my own MOT’d - they have always previously been company cars that needed their first one around when I was handing them back. I would have expected them to do a quick check as part of the service for any obvious faults prior to doing the MOT so that the fault wasn’t recorded for posterity.
Because I’ve heard it is such a horrible job. The dealer reckoned the best way to do it was to remove the bumper. From looking it up later, I would rather they did that. I got them to replace both bulbs as the bumper was off anyway.
If you have an MOT bay and separate service bays then in the interest of efficiency you would do the MOT first so that any extra work required could then be authorised and added when the car was in the service bay.
At least they did not record a Fail against your car.
They played the game fair by the look of it.
Anyway…now you know.
Car ownership is a love-hate affair.
Oh sorry…I see that now.
Par for course then.
TBH, for the last 22 years of not having successive company cars to ownership, I’ve generally checked as far as I could what could fail it. Clearly exhaust gases are a lotto, but I take both ours out the night before with Forte Fuelly stuff and cane them rigid to clean it all out.
Bar that, and it’s limited, lights etc.
You will see MOT fails on both our cars over the years, stuff outwith my ability to fix, and not obvious until ramped…like say a cracked spring.
Yes because you admit to having a bulb out this is why im glad they didn’t go to MOT’s every 24 months like they wanted too, because prople put off things that need doing for safety reasons.
And we get a new ticket, then something “happens” underneath eg a snapped droplink or a sidewall tyre cut, and some folk bimble about with “that funny noise” for the next 50 weeks…
I bet Testers have few scaries to tell!
They quoted £70 to replace the broken one and then a total of £77 when I suggested doing both as I don’t know how old they are. It seemed sensible and cheaper and easier than having the whole rigmarole again if the other one went next week. I asked about fitting uprated bulbs, but they said they are only allowed to fit standard parts.
I was told by my local friendly MOT tester told me that VOSA don’t like it if a testing station allows too high a percentage first time passes. This might have been a factor in this case.
Is it as bad as the nearside headlight on a normal NC2? That’s in the “I deserve a medal now” category. It is possible via the wheel arch but it’s a truly awful job.
As mentioned above, it’s because having a 100% pass rate will flag them up with VOSA. If you don’t want a fail or advisories, have a pre-MOT check done.
Also, if you were buying secondhand and a cars history was smudged in this way, you’d likely be a bit upset. Maybe some cars are always blowing bulbs* but if it didn’t show on the MOT, you’d never know, even though there maybe and underlying issue.
*way bigger issues would also not show if you didn’t record fails/advisories because a garage did the work within the test to guarantee a first time pass.
They did this on my daily (2018 mazda 2) was in for service and MOT and it got failed for a passenger wiper blade. While it was being done they came through and said it needed a wiper so i approved it thinking that would be it but no it got failed. They said they had to report all points when they see it. So guessing its rule or regulation?
If you’re paying for the car to be tested, then that’s the service you get. If you pay to have the car inspected, any faults corrected and then tested, that’s a different service. But it really is not any kind of a big deal to have an MOT failure on a service item like a light bulb so long as you get it fixed and get a subsequent pass (other than the faint embarrassment that you should have noticed the light was out).
If it really bothers you that the car won’t have a perfect unblemished record of passes, then honestly that’s not the MOT testing station’s fault. Give your car a once-over for obvious little problems before you have it tested.
