You killed the MOT testers dog/wife etc

[Guest Hooli]

I get on well with the place I use, I chat to them & if there is a fail then it's genuine. They'll often tell me the easiest and/or best (often different) ways to sort it if a ask, but they know by now that I can do most stuff without issue. I use them for tyres as they are decent prices & don't damage the wheels too.

[Bobthebeard]

My local friendly garage doesn't do MOT's but always uses an 'MOT only' place a couple of miles away. They have a good relationship and trust each other to do the right thing. My cars sometimes fail when presented, but equally sometimes 'pass' when work is required. The MOT place trusts the garage to do the work before returning the car to me. It's worked for me for 15 years with no disasters. Just a matter of trust.

[cpjitservices]

The garage I use does do MOT's and is very strict with it. However, I get a bit of discount due to me looking after his IT and have sorted him out with a few emergency jobs. Most of my cars have 'passed'. but if its a pass its a pass and no winks or nods of the head, same with a fail - he's strict so if ANYTHING is a fail.. its a fail regardless. 

 

Plus, he likes my cars, it's not every day he has someone bring him A Rover 620 in the year of 2017, and but not limited to an S reg Honda Civic and S reg Mondeo. 

 

9 times out of 10 I dont get to know a cars failed, if it fails he does the work! I pay him as and when I can - not the first time I've paid in dribs and drabs either. So he's not just doing the work for the money. 

 

There was another garage I use to use nearby before I became acquainted with the one I use now, Unbeknown to me my Ford Galaxy had had all of its rear airbags removed, the airbag light on the instrument cluster also didn't come on. So I thought. It had actually been taped over. THis other place I used to use passed it in that condition which concerned me. I only realized about the air bags when I was messing around with the headlining for whatever reason and you could see where the airbags had literally been ripped out - the bags/detonators live in the roof on the Galaxy just behind the tailgate. They were missing.

 

I don't go there anymore!

[xtriple]

Down 'ere in Debon, life used to be very relaxed... there was a genuine postal service MOT based out at Buckfastliegh and another place were you could buy blanks and fill them in yourself - it was cheaper that way! I still know a guy/garage where for the select few, an MOT is really NOT a worry. He does insist on the actual car being there nowadays, which is tedious....

 

To be honest, I'm not a fan of dodgy MOTs as if a car can't pass the low standard set by the gubermint then it really is of more use for storing the garden tools in.

 

On the other side of the coin, there used to be a garage where if a particular tester was doing your car, it was 'prepare to start crying!' because he was an utter twat and would fail anything - MOTable or not! He got the bullet eventually when they realised the number of people coming in and then turning round and leaving when they saw it was him was... unacceptable! He condemned a car of mine because he could 'smell fuel' but couldn't find a leak. He always used to take covers off if a car was presented with them (standard stuff) and then fail them for being insecure. He did pass my XJ-S once when the ecu was playing up and I couldn't get the CO right because he wanted to go home and I wanted an MOT and wasn't leaving until I got it right and it passed.

 

I never did get it right...

 

But, I do know an awful lot of decent geezers who do a good job, are fair but not easy, which, in my view is correct.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

A neighbour managed to get a hooky MOT for his ten year old Transit a while back. Looking at the MOT history website, he must have gone legit this year, as it appears to have had a fuckton of welding done. I was amazed that hooky MOTs are even a thing any more.

[MikeR]

this car I bought was with a fresh mot , I know the guy who did it knew every rule in the book , so I knew the car was ok , as opposed to the last car which I was certain passed by the 3 unwise grease monkeys in some far away land , see no problem , hear no problem , speak no problem ......  conversely  I have had electrical failures , single filament bulb in a stop/side position , brake lights and side lights all on at same time !!!  , and the garage shook at its "knees" over this electrical problem !!!    ,

 

And now we have LED bulbs , some of which I have used  in place of the 501 size side light bulbs which can be seen on some headlights but not others !  . 

[D Spares & Tyres]

 

So what am I doing wrong here?

You bought an old Range Rover....

[DodgeRover]

Biggest chuckle was a relation taking a tatty old Volvo down for a test and arriving at the same time as the man from the ministry, testers first words were why did you have to bring that down today of all days? Obviously went through with an exceptionally fine tooth comb....took absolutely all the alloted time resulting in a clean pass

[Guest Hooli]

I'm going to miss taking my old Bonnie down to get told 'don't start it, then I can't fail it on noise'.

[alf892]

Just a thought but isn't it a bit daft to post on a public forum about a lenient or sympathetic tester ......even more so when at some point they may have posted an image of their reg number that can now be matched to a test station?

 

I'm not suggesting vosa would bother checking but some public spirited person ( or non friend) might just dob the test station in

[sierraman]

Unless you can find an idiot who is prepared to put a curtailment to his livelihood, you'd struggle to find someone prepared to get you a bent test. VOSA would sanction them without a moments thought if it was proven they'd put a bent test on a car.

 

That's not to say there's testers that aren't very competent but like I say if it fails it fails, if you aren't happy seek a second opinion.

[txe4]

In my experience "friendly" MOT examiners are still around everywhere. If you're known to them, pass the attitude test and seem "responsible", you get lattitude - eg "this is rotten - I've passed it but I don't ever want to see it again". 

 

The increasing computerisation of the test is slowly removing this - eg on emissions - but it still happens.

[Stroller133]

Vehicle has to be tested as presented......tester is not allowed to break off test for repairs.

 

So strictly speaking if bulb changed it should fail then pass.....or PRS if HGV (not sure if still relevant because I'm over 50 and therefore old apparently!)

Fair enough. Though earlier this year I booked via Black Circles to have a pair of tyres changed on my wife's car. I called the same garage (near work)and asked them to do the MOT after changing the tyres. Dropped it off, picked it up, told me about a couple of advisories but it had passed- job jobbed. However several weeks later looked online at MOT history and found they failed it first on tyres (the replaced ones) that were worn down to the cords! They were not that worn I'm confident they were around 2mm. Now any buyer would think I don't take care of the car.

Same garage failed my car on 2 front wheel bearings. Booked in to my normal garage for them to be replaced and they rang me up and asked why I wanted them changed as they said they were fine- asked them to MOT it as that was cheaper than the wheel bearings I didn't need.

I've decided to bin off the garage near work in future, shame as they are SAAB specialists and o was really pleased with the work they did when I had my 9-3.

[dave j]

I have used the same garage for 15 years, they know I do all the work on the cars and often chat to me about the car as it's often something unusual or in really good nick. Always present a clean car with no known faults and when chatting i say what i have done since last year. Another garage i took my vw camper to the tester said he bloody hated old vw's- I pointed out that if it failed he would see it again within 2 weeks, if it passed he wouldn't see it for another year... It passed!

[busmansholiday]

£40 for an MoT test, £60 if you want it to pass, so my Landy driving mate tells me when I complain that where I take all the fleet has just failed one of them.

 

I like the place I use, if it's a fail, it is, and as I've worked up a friendship with them they will allow me down the pit and show me the problems. They know I can fix 90% of them at home but also know that I'll get them to do some of the jobs as well as I don't have a pit / lift.

 

I'd rather got to a place like mine than my mates.

[Bren]

Unless you can find an idiot who is prepared to put a curtailment to his livelihood, you'd struggle to find someone prepared to get you a bent test. VOSA would sanction them without a moments thought if it was proven they'd put a bent test on a car.

That's not to say there's testers that aren't very competent but like I say if it fails it fails, if you aren't happy seek a second opinion.

Agreed - if MOT repairs are your core business why risk everything? I have never had a problem with an MOT test apart from the SD1 which despite having a current MOT was a rotten as a six month old naan bread and about as strong.

[vaughant]

Fail is fail, pass is pass, in this case, it really "is what it is".

 

Knew nobody apart from the guy on reception with my last MOT (and that was by pure chance) and it failed fairly on everything he put down.

 

All work got done apart from rear pads as I ran out of time (rear brake fault was handbrake cables not pads, time they arrived etc no time to complete the rest as wrong pads sent initially) and the boy came out and told me of as he'd had to advise on them!!! So no complaints from me, he tried to give me a clean retest incase the car was to be sold in the future.

 

Efficient and fairly priced, no complaints.

 

MOT is minimum standard remember, if you're car can't meet that then do you really want to drive it?

[strangeangel]

I guess I've just been lucky - the garage we used to take the cars to in Leeds were always straight, and we've managed to find one two villages away that is not only fair in administering MOTs, but are also prepared to work on my BX when I'm too lazy to do it myself.

 

My bikes I still take back to the same shop in Leeds that I've been to for the last 10 years or so; I trust the proprietor to work on and test my machines. When there are so many bellends in the trade, what's a 40 mile round trip to put them in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing and actually gives a shit?

[vaughant]

Agreed though that some testers are better than others, when I had my business there was a guy two doors down doing Mots, he seemed an okish fellow so I had a quick chat with him one day about a mutual agreement. He refused point blank to offer me a free retest despite being 30yds away, offered no discount and told me every car that he Mots, he prints out the advisories from the previous year to check the work was done and if not he specifically targets those areas.

 

 

Needless to say I used to drive am extra 10 mins to am MOT only place that offered free retests and we're really fair with faults, always pointing you in the right direction etc with emissions and so on. Still use them to this day, always spot on.

[paulplom]

There's a qwickfit near me that I know for a fact does dodgy m.o.t.s

[New POD]

This is the worst thread, that one could read 30 mins before taking a 185K omega to the same MOT place, one has taken, every car in the fleet, for at least 6 years. An MOT station that only takes cash and cheques.

 

That said, it has more reason to pass this year, given that I bought it a year ago with a fresh MOT off another shitter, and it's front wishbones were so bad that it would turn right if you braked too hard. Mind you, they don't take it for a test drive on the MOT, so if they didn't spot the movement, they wouldn't know how bad it was.

[Guest Hooli]

This thread has reminded me the Saab must be due soon, so I checked - 25th Oct.

Do I still need the old paper MOT to take it in early? if so I'll have to dig through that box 'over there' as I know that's where the history is.

[Guest Hooli]

Great cheers. I'll be able to drop in on my next 'late' shift then. They start at 9:30am not 8am so easier to do it first thing.

[adw1977]

I've been using the same garage for the last 8 years and my girlfriend was using them for another 8 years before that.

 

On a couple of occasions they have given me an MOT pass with advisories but verbally said "that advisory should really be a fail, make sure you get it fixed". Saves hassle and extra paperwork and I invariably book it straight back in with them to do the work anyway.

[sierraman]

At the end of the day the tester isn't there to do anyone favours, if it's not roadworthy it's a fail.

[plasticvandan]

An interesting upside to this development is that for those searching for their (surviving) long lost car,with a bit of detective work,aided by where it was tested,it could be possible to locate your old car again as it will pin it down to a certain area.

[scaryoldcortina]

Vehicle has to be tested as presented......tester is not allowed to break off test for repairs.

 

So strictly speaking if bulb changed it should fail then pass.....or PRS if HGV (not sure if still relevant because I'm over 50 and therefore old apparently!)

 

You can PRS car tests too, complete the test, do the repairs, system will produce a pass and a fail with the same date and time.

 

Incidentally, headlamp aim is the only thing that you are allowed to adjust during a test, it's in the manual. Reasoning is that the car is already in front of the beam setter.

[Talbot]

Incidentally, headlamp aim is the only thing that you are allowed to adjust during a test, it's in the manual. Reasoning is that the car is already in front of the beam setter.

This was why I was using this exact point above... I've had a car fail on headlamp aim alone. Very irritating.

[scaryoldcortina]

Yeah, the only way I'd fail for headlamp aim is if it proved to be unadjustable - siezed or bent for example.

[Ghosty]

The 'as presented' thing is true. I presented the 216 to a local garage for welding and a test, told them it needed welding and showed them exactly where. MOT history comes up as a fail on 2 of the 3 rot spots and 'battery insecure', then clean pass a day later. Got it back, fillered the other hole and sold it.