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General => The garage => Topic started by: Egg On Toast on 04 June 2012, 22:35
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And I'm terrified the things gonna fail dramatically..
Now, what I want to know is, well, when do you think it's time to cut your losses, and secondly, what happens if you can't afford to sort it out straight away :| Kinda need the car for work XD
Thanks in advance :)
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Fail is a fail. There's no grace period.
You can eliminate a lot of the basic stuff by doing a good walk around of the car and checking the obvious.
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Give it a good clean, make sure all the obvious stuff is ok..lights/tyres/windscreen/wiper blades etc, give all the locks and latches a squirt with wd40 and make sure all the windows and locks are ok and top up all the levels so its all running well, i've always found that if you give the tester a straight forward job they'll be more reasonable.
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Give it a good clean,
This. all our testers HATE getting in a filthy car for MOT, INSIDE and out :smiley:
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awesome thanks guys :) I'm planning on sending it in early just in case. that way it gives me the week or so i need to get the money up together (payday)
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and as said, do the basics,
nowt worse than a tester having to fail it cos a number plate bulb is out.
this sort of thing happens a LOT, :lipsrsealed:
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Funny you should mention that, checked bulbs today and had to replace a brake light. I tend to check your average things like tyres, lights and levels fairly often just to keep on top of things so that should be ok. I know theres the slightest chip in my windscreen which I think I'll get filled in before I send it in. It's probably likely to be emissions/rust that kills me XD
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The tester has a procedure to follow and the law is the law but if he or she thinks you don't give a toss about the car then they won't either.
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Bring it to us Dan, we'll rip it to shreds! :grin:
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Also jack all the wheels up and give them a wiggle side to side and top to bottom, this should tell you if there's any play in steering gear, some suspension parts and wheel bearings.
While the cars jacked up you can also have a look underneath the car and check for rust, exhaust condition and just get a general good look under there for anything obvious
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never wait till the last day to get it MOT'd like i do every year. If im not mistaken even if you take it in early they will back date it up the expiry date for the next year. (correct me if im wrong on that one)
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they will back date up to a month before the end of the mot test. but dont get caught in the trap that even if it failed you have a test left because u dont a fail is a fail and not legal to be on the road
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Yep, remember you have 7 days to remedy failing items (provided the MOT station don't deem it dangerous to drive) so you have a little fallback anyway. Make sure you book it in for your free retest before you leave though, some are sneaky f**k*rs and "cant fit you in til next week" if you leave it a few days, so they can charge for a full retest rather than the free partial.
I take mine to a known and trusted tester too. I had mine and the missus's car to MOT in the space of a month, so took them both to the same place, and asked to wait whilst he did it. Its a small garage so the waiting area is inside the main workshop. I was chatting to him whilst he did it, and the second time round I did everything inside the car whilst he did the checks outside. I've built a rapport with him now and he's good as gold so I've been going back to him for years! He tells me what could need doing in preparation for the next year, as I do most of the work myself anyway. Never had a major failing item either. :wink:
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The garage chris works at always do mine :) fingers crossed lol
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I'm a tester myself you have 10 working days to fix any fails that dosent include Saturdays so 2 working weeks the MOT is a manual and a procedure that every tester should follow it should be black and white but there's so many grey areas it's untrue u do get harsh testers I know I've worked with them u do get bad testers that miss stuff but u do get tester like myself that are fair i just say clean it inside and out make it smell nice show them u care about it stay and watch ur allowed talk to the tester if u need to ur allowed to ask question unless u get a complete miserable bastard that hates his life and wife u should be fine
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Usually just the basic stuff, when I took mine for its first MOT last year I was really clenching my cheeks and knew it needed two new tyres but left them to see what else it would fail on.
Guess what it failed on.......... two tyres; no advisories :embarassed: