Broken Down on Way Back From MOT Stories

[jamescarruthers]

For about 5 minutes last week I felt fantastic driving my new C6 back from the MOT station with a pass. Then the suspension sprung a leak and I bounced home on the bump stops with half power-assisted steering.

(Lower than low C6!)

As I see elsewhere on the forum, do others have similar joy to grief stories?

[wesacosa]

Not quite a breakdown, but the very first MOT on my very first car, the handbrake cable snapped as I parked it up outside the MOT station 

Lovely looking C6 by the way, hope the leak is an easy fix

[djoptix]

Took the MGF that @marm now owns and it disgraced itself by having the starter motor fail immediately after the mot (the garage boys had to push it back into its parking space).

Spent ages removing the old starter motor, new one didn't fit, decided to bench test the old one and it worked, cleaned up the connections and refitted - lo and behold it worked perfectly. 

Failed to send the new one back so I still ended up £50 down on the day, and two wasted hours. 

[warch]

I took my Land Rover in for MoT on December 21st 2012. I can remember the date because it was the same day that the Mayans predicted the world would end, but then I figured at least I wouldn't need to worry about booking a retest if it failed. 

It didn't fail although the MoT man stated the usual advisory that he and about 20 odd previous testers had made about the state of the rear chassis. He was lenient enough to pass it despite the fact one of the rear brakes had gone on almost solid between me dropping it off and him driving it out of the bay. Luckily a few tweaks of the effing useless shoe adjuster soon had me rolling.

[cobblers]

I put a new engine, box and clutch in my old 106 Rallye:

First drive out was  for an MOT which it passed!

When the tester was reversing it off the ramp, the clutch friction plate center fell apart and fired two of the springs out, which all got tangled up in the clutch fingers and made the most awful noise, and the car zoomed off the ramp backwards!

Fair play to the tester who managed to get it out of gear about 10cm before crushing his emissions machine (Which still had the sniffer probe up the exhaust of another car that had generously taken the emissions test instead of mine😅)

 

[jakebullet]

I scraped an MOT on an old land rover 88" and set off home triumphantly. Got 2 miles down the road, and a giffer in a nissan micra decided give way coming out of a housing estate didn't apply to him and rammed the passenger side hard. Managed to flip me like I was on robot wars. I salvaged one unbent door.

[sierraman]

Not an MOT trip home fail but equally embarrassing. Was selling a Mondeo diesel years ago and it broke down on the test drive. 

[PhilA]

A very low 1970 Beetle convertible of my friend's went in for test, the guy putting it down off the ramp nearly overshot on the way up as he was riding the clutch hard and was doing the same on the way back down. The aggrieved release ring finally gave up, detached from the clutch fingers and the fork went straight into the springs. They spent the next ten minutes trying to lift it enough by hand to get it back down off the ramp as it had beached itself on the edge.

It passed but had to be towed home.

[Justwatching]

1991 Proton blew a radiator whilst on the test ramp. I'll never forget the look of horror exchanged between me and the tester before he leapt into action and shut the engine off. 

[Crackers]

Focus front spring let go while parked up at home the day after the MOT, if that counts. 

[lisbon_road]

I got an MOT on an old Clio and it EML'd when driven off the ramp.  But the red Astra, after an engine rebuild, first trip was an MOT.  It was really noisy and it got worse and worse and they could keep it running for an MOT test.  Even my tester said he couldn't pass it.

Took the engine apart and there was a nut in there.  Never did find out how it got in.  Cracked piston.  Old pistons and I'd been considering getting it rebored.  Had to after that.

[dollywobbler]

My 2CV got so rotten I had to take her off the road for over a year. The partly crowdfunded restoration project caused great excitement but she kept cutting our during the test. Forgiving tester let me off but she conked out on the way back home. Had to run home and grab another coil and then got home safely. I think I'd nicked the coil for the Dyane I temporarily owned during the 2CVs period of rest. 

EDIT - this post reads like it was written by a five year old. Sorry. I'm very tired.

[Spiny Norman]

I once waited while my old W210 Merc was done at my local MOT place and when I started it up to drive it out the MOT bay  before he'd even printed off the certificate the bulb failure light came on and one of the brake lights was out.

"Fuck me, I checked them literally 5 minutes ago" was the response.

[Isaac Hunt]

I rebuilt an old Triumph, new panels, new gearbox, loads of work.  One handbrake cable was seized, so I replaced it.  

On the MOT test, the tester yanked the handbrake on for the test and the other handbrake cable snapped.  Car would have passed had it not of been for the cable.

 

 

[Isaac Hunt]

7 hours ago, Justwatching said:

1991 Proton blew a radiator whilst on the test ramp. I'll never forget the look of horror exchanged between me and the tester before he leapt into action and shut the engine off. 

Garage i’ve been using for years has s concrete pit.  Never ever seen water in it, low water table.  Once I was in there and it was damp inside.  I said, your pit started the leak with all the rain we ‘ve had, nah came the reply and he pointed to a radiator propped up against the wall, it had popped whilst the car was over the pit.  It nearly soaked me he said, but I was checking the rear of the vehicle when it just went pop and gushed coolant into the pit.  He said, he’ll of a coolant capacity cos it was like Niagara Falls

[Vince70]

Years ago I had a nice little red rust free MK2 escort automatic and picked it up from its MOT and off I went on my journey home.

On the way back I stopped for 20 B&H and when I went to close the drivers door the door hinge dropped and I couldn’t get the thing closed so I thought I would use brute force and a steel toecap boot to help it close.

I ended up going full Basil  Fawlty so a trip was needed for a secondhand door and a grill and a bit of rope was also needed to go around the roof and through the other door to hold it shut.

I also had a BMW which decided to drop all its coolant while it was having its mot so the garage got the job of repairing it so I ended up with a big bill for a radiator thermostat and water pump and went on my way and got down the road and it did the same thing again.

I ended up buying a new viscous fan clutch for £20 plus some more coolant and all was well.

[Spurious]

I'd a Clio that broke during the NCT test. 

The NCT is the equivalent to the MOT in Ireland. Except you can't have a "friendly" tester because they're all just contracted government testers in massive test centres.  And they fail stuff for fun. The tester noticed it was steadily getting hotter during the test and the fan wasn't cutting in. Being a good egg he turned it off and left it out back. I was watching wondering what was going on, confused. He did fail it as being unsafe to test. 

It was working fine just before the test. Never did figure out why it broke during the test. 

It needed a new fan switch. And it passed after that. 

Also did have a funny fail with the Starlet I had. It had a funny non-standard airbag light. It wouldn't come on unless there was a fault with the airbag. There was no self test airbag light. So no light = ok. Except the NCT man was adamant that it was faulty as it wasn't working right. I'd to get a letter from Toyota Ireland stating the light didn't come on unless something was wrong. Pain in the arse. 

Ironically the airbags were later subject to recall as being unsafe 🤣

 

https://garagewire.co.uk/news/vehicle-recalls/toyota-to-recall-thousands-of-uk-cars-over-exploding-airbag-fault/

[Mrcento]

It wasn't a total breakdown, but my old Discovery got Mot'd, needed a fair bit of welding on the front end and a couple of brake items, got done. It was pricey but probably better than expected. Rest of it was mechanically sound and had been no bother, so i didn't begrudge it too much.

Had to go and collect some stuff 10 miles away, so paid the garage, got in, pulled off the forecourt,  there was a small clonk at the back dropping off the kerb pulling onto the road and within another 200 yards it started sounding like a 747 winding up for takeoff. Pulled over, all looked ok, no leaks.

Got back in and drove the 5 minutes home making the same horrendous racket. The rear diff pinion bearing had collapsed pulling off the fucking forecourt after spending around £400 to get it through the MOT.

[anonymous user]

I suppose mine would be with my A40 "pickup" (also known as the deathmobile) it had been down at the garage for various jobs to get it roadworthy. The journey home was less than a mile, which was just as well. One of the jobs done was swapping the steering box and column, unfortunately in doing this it had upset the adjustment on the column gearchange so that it only had first, second and reverse. Rather than take it back I took it home, very slowly and adjusted it myself. It also didn't help that the coil main lead had come loose so I had a lot of misfiring to contend with as well

[Schaefft]

The Renault Safrane which someone on here recently bought had it's alternator fail during the MOT test. Good for the next owner as he received a freshly rebuilt one in the car.

[omegod]

2.0 calibra flew through it's test but when I picked it up it completely refused to crank, not even a click. Garage owner couldn't give a fuck and closed up leaving me there so RAC attended and couldn't find an issue but it started eventually. I later replaced the ignition switch which sorted it 

[groovylee]

mine didnt break down, but i bought a 1990 mini cooper, for £150 back in the days when that was normal (i wish it were still true!). it was the first car that i had ever owned that went straight through the MOT, with no advisories.  buoyed by my new found success, i promptly rammed it up the back of a Corsa driven by an off duty policewoman (she stopped due to some idiot pulling out on her at a junction). written off the same day as it passed the MOT

my other one was a bike - my 2002 Aprilia Mille.  checked over before the MOT - checked the lights... no headlight. pulled the bulb and it had blown on the way there!  the nice tester said "if you can swap that out before i finish the test, i'll pass it"  i managed it. just. with multiple lacerations to my arm 🤣

[1duck]

On 6/1/2021 at 12:20 PM, jakebullet said:

I scraped an MOT on an old land rover 88" and set off home triumphantly. Got 2 miles down the road, and a giffer in a nissan micra decided give way coming out of a housing estate didn't apply to him and rammed the passenger side hard. Managed to flip me like I was on robot wars. I salvaged one unbent door.

you don't want to fuck with a micra, they are like the jack russels of the car world.

[straightSix]

On 6/1/2021 at 10:26 AM, jamescarruthers said:

For about 5 minutes last week I felt fantastic driving my new C6 back from the MOT station with a pass. Then the suspension sprung a leak and I bounced home on the bump stops with half power-assisted steering.

(Lower than low C6!)

As I see elsewhere on the forum, do others have similar joy to grief stories?

Must be a Citroen thing. My old CX broke down leaving the MOT station the three times I took it for a test..  I did get some funny looks off the tester as I was blocking off the entrance, my head under the bonnet. Got a very clear message it wasn't his problem though. Passed first time all three times though!

[bunglebus]

I got my old T3 van through a test after many years in a barn, after a dispute with the tester about whether the missing front anti-roll bar was a fail (link was snapped and I couldn't get the remains out of the arm). Then hit a kerb stone that had fallen over on the way home and popped a tyre

[jamescarruthers]

3 hours ago, straightSix said:

Must be a Citroen thing. My old CX broke down leaving the MOT station the three times I took it for a test..  I did get some funny looks off the tester as I was blocking off the entrance, my head under the bonnet. Got a very clear message it wasn't his problem though. Passed first time all three times though!

They can be troublesome but this one was thankfully just a loose pipe that someone hadn’t done up. Can’t hold this against the car this time! 

[Steve79]

18 hours ago, Schaefft said:

The Renault Safrane which someone on here recently bought had it's alternator fail during the MOT test. Good for the next owner as he received a freshly rebuilt one in the car.

Forgot i own this 😂

Best try and get running this weekend.

[Schaefft]

48 minutes ago, Steve79 said:

Forgot i own this 😂

Best try and get running this weekend.

Ah yes, let me know if you have issues, it might be the lock/unlock anti-theft problem I mentioned on the thread before!