Ask a Shiter

[Father Ted]

MOT dates - is the earliest I can present a car for its MOT a month before the date of expiration in order to preserve the current expiry date anniversary (ie it runs out on 20th Oct,2011, so to keep its anniversary as Oct 20th 2012, I cant present it before Sept 20th (ish)?)

It'll need to go in - its got a funny clonking noise coming from the rear on hard left hand cornering - thought it was the exhaust, but I can find nothing with any play

[Volksy]

Yes, you can take the car in a month before ( make sure you take the old cert with you) and you will essentially get 13 months MOT.

[Albert Ross]

NO. It's not by the numerical date. It's by the calendar month. So if you have the expiry date of the 20th of one month, generally take it in AFTER the 21st of the previous month. There are odd exceptions though. October/November spring to mind (31 days) and also leap years. I always suggest 4 weeks to be safe (i.e. 28 days) I do this for a living, and have to advise customers they will lose their extra time if presented too early. Anyway, your current certificate tells you the earliest date you can present for test to apply the time credit. Go on, take a look!

[Father Ted]

your current certificate tells you the earliest date you can present for test to apply the time credit. Go on, take a look!

Ummm, cant find it

[CreepingJesus]

If I present the V70 for test early, and it fails; do I still have the last month of MOT, or do I forfeit that?

[Negative Creep]

Even if a car fails the current certificate is still valid

[myglaren]

your current certificate tells you the earliest date you can present for test to apply the time credit. Go on, take a look!

Ummm, cant find it

 

You should be able to find it online at the DVLA

[Albert Ross]

your current certificate tells you the earliest date you can present for test to apply the time credit. Go on, take a look!

Ummm, cant find it

 

You should be able to find it online at the DVLA

 

WRONG! motinfo.gov.uk is the place, but you need a reference number off the original certificate, or off the V5C.

[myglaren]

Oops! Sorry.

remember looking mine up and thought I had just entered the registration number on the DVLA site.

[warren t claim]

I've never ever driven a Ford Focus. Am I missing out? They're supposed to be very good and turn up in the classifieds and affordable prices these days so I think I might invest in a cheap one.

 

Good idea or bad?

[Albert Ross]

GR9 idea. I had a lovely 2001 1.8 Petrol Ghia Estate, (pre-facelift) and wish I still had it. I now have a 2006 1.6 Petrol Ghia with leather, it just DOES everything it's asked to do. Go for a nice 4 door Ghia......... They seem to go for about £500 these days. Buy one or forever wonder.

[dollywobbler]

Yup. The Mk1 Focus is a fine ol' tool really. The rear arches rust I've noticed, so it does get some shite points. I've driven 1.4 petrol (not quite as wheezy as you'd expect), 1.8 petrol (very nice), 2.0 petrol (fuggin' awful) and 1.8TD (not my favourite diesel, but pretty good). Saloon gets shite points too - I've only driven the estate and hatch.

[ashmicro]

Even if a car fails the current certificate is still valid

 

Gestapo man at Larne MOT centre told me the exact opposite of this. Having said that, he's a civil servant so most likely talking out of his arse.

[CreepingJesus]

Even if a car fails the current certificate is still valid

 

Gestapo man at Larne MOT centre told me the exact opposite of this. Having said that, he's a civil servant so most likely talking out of his arse.

 

Cheers, both. I'll have to let my tame MOT bloke have the casting vote then!

 

Mind you, in thinking about it; I don't even have the V70's V5 back from Swansea yet. Being as I'm unaccustomed to buying cars from dealers, I'm feeling a little uneasy that the green slip on the existing V5's still there. The dealer sent the red slip away, at the time. Should that be ok, or do I need to send the green slip? I've read it over, and it doesn't seem to be the case, but it'll need taxed soon, and that'll be an issue. Is it Swansea's fuck-up or mine?

[Cavcraft]

I've never ever driven a Ford Focus. ? Am I missing outThey're supposed to be very good and turn up in the classifieds and affordable prices these days so I think I might invest in a cheap one.

 

Good idea or bad?

 

No. Nothing special, no better than anything else in the same class that I can think of. I can only assume they were so highly rated because the car it replaced was so abjectly awful anything at all would have been better.

You can (probably) buy my neighbour's 1.6 petrol though. It uses more oil than most refineries and has had the head off twice in the space of a couple of months.

They're not especially bad per se, they're just nothing special at all and God help you if you ever want to use the boot space for a bit of luggage.

[Cavcraft]

Been reading on another forum (forgotten where now sorry) that you can lob two stroke oil into diesel fuel tanks at a ratio of something like 1 in 500 and it does them the world of good.

Can this be true or is it just rubbish?

[outlaw118]

Fatha Outlaw has a 53 plate 2.0 Ghia Estate, 140k on it, no bother at all, just a bit, well, meh.

Performance is ok, economy, ok, doesn't rattle, and body has a small amount of grot round rear window - it's had a new glass in it, so I'm guessing that Gavin whatever from Autoglass was a clumsy twat.

He had a 1.6 pez Escort Finesse Estate previously and reckons the Fuckus is 397.78% better.

 

As long as you don't expect fireworks, decent enough motor.

6.8/10

[scaryoldcortina]

Even if a car fails the current certificate is still valid

 

Gestapo man at Larne MOT centre told me the exact opposite of this. Having said that, he's a civil servant so most likely talking out of his arse.

 

It's a bit of a catch-22 actually - the old certificate is still valid until its expiry date but the fact that the car failed a test means it is unroadworthy and it is the responsibility of the driver to ensure roadworthiness..... I suppose it depends mostly what it failed on.

[Lord Sterling]

Driven a few Focuses myself at my old workplace. They seem pretty well put together and are fairly easy to drive, certainly better than the previous Escort it replaced.

 

Here is a hypothetical question:

 

Lets just say that whilst abroad (say Belgium for example) I was given, for free, a British registered car that had been standing for while. The owner is an ex-pat and just wants shot of it. Its run out of Tax and MOT, but its pretty easy to get the thing up, running again. Where do I stand legally? Short of getting it recovered back to Blightly would I have to go to the European equivalent of an MOT centre and get it tested? Can I insure it from the UK or would I have to use the insurance of whatever country I'm in?

 

The reason for this question is, over the past year or so whilst passing through Belgium/France/Germany I've seen a few British registered cars that have been parked up collecting mould and flat tyres and always wonder what happens to them.

[garycox]

Another MOT question:

 

The headlight "flasher" function thing on my Allegro doesn't work, the main full beam does though. It that an MOT failure?

[loserone]

Could't say for certain, but in a mk1 MX5, the switch is there to flash the lights, but it's not actually connected to the pop-ups - so the lights flash under the bonnet, which is entirely useless. Unless someone's been tinkering of course.

[Pete-M]

Could't say for certain, but in a mk1 MX5, the switch is there to flash the lights, but it's not actually connected to the pop-ups - so the lights flash under the bonnet, which is entirely useless. Unless someone's been tinkering of course.

 

I think that's normal. I used to use the pop-up button on the dash instead. Do it right and you can wink at laydee motorists!

[loserone]

It is on pre-94 cars, apparently:

tinkering

[scaryoldcortina]

"flash" function not tested, Main and dip must work though (with a warning light for main)

 

My question - was the VOSA main computer down today, or was it just us? Spent half the morning in a world of fallback/SAT/ET pain (I had to read section N of the scheme guide, it wasn't fun!) and couldn't get through to the help desk either.

[warren t claim]

Is the Peugeot 607 still in production? I saw an 11 plate one today which seems quite new for one of these.

[Pete-M]

 

My question - was the VOSA main computer down today, or was it just us? Spent half the morning in a world of fallback/SAT/ET pain (I had to read section N of the scheme guide, it wasn't fun!) and couldn't get through to the help desk either.

 

Yes. VOSA was on the wonk.

[scaryoldcortina]

^ There was a special notice a few weeks back saying Siemens Data Services had been bought out by somebody (probably Talk Talk : ). If the whole lot was down, it explains why we couldn't get through to any of the helpline numbers!

[garycox]

"flash" function not tested, Main and dip must work though (with a warning light for main).

 

Cheers Scary, looks like I'll be OK then.

[Albert Ross]

ET for sure. Ref PCC 1312. I had a right game as I was logged on when it went tits up. I ended up doing a 6 hour test in the end. Only one ET cert issued by me. I pity the others......

[Danblez]

What is all this twin air bollocks about?