m.o.t.

[jamesy boy]

I've only been driving since June and my car is due it's M.O.T. in a couple of weeks; what checks should I make myself before taking it in?
I've just put new wiper blades on as the old ones were a bit worn, what other bits can I do myself?

[Andyvon]

Hello Jamesyboy! Many people simply take their car along and see whether it fails on anything. If the car does fail the MoT, then you have a week to make the repairs and replacements and then you can then take the car back for a free re-test. They will only check the repairs but if you take the car back after a week, then it must be completely re-tested again. In that case, you pay for a new test and they may fail it on something that passed first time.

There are many basic things like wipers, seat belts, lights, tyres etc that you can check. It's easier though just to run it along and see whether they fail it on anything. It may even sail through.

Hope that helps. Just keep your eye on the basic things over the course of the year.

[jamesy boy]

thanks for that!

[homer75]

If your car fails and you take it away for repairs then you will be charged a full retest fee when you bring it back. They do not 'only check the repairs' which caused the fail - the vehicle undergoes a new inspection. If you authorise the MOT garage tto carry out any necessary repairs then you would not normally be charged for another test. Take the car for its test a few weeks before the old certificate runs out - that way you can be road legal if you drive the car away to have repairs done ( there are certain limitations to this however ). If your car passes and your old mot has less than 30 days to run they can be added on to your new certificate if you present the old document to the examiner.

[Toureman]

This is what is tested, if all are ok it will past the test.

http://www.motester.co.uk/cog.html

[kiss2u]

sounds stupid.. but dont forget to fill your wash bottle!

[kwicky]

I was under the impression that if you took your car for an MOT and it failed then that information is held on a government data base. If you then drove the unsafe vehicle and had an accident then you yourself would be fully liable knowing it was unsafe. The fact that you had a previous good certificate would be cancelled out by the bad one. Is this correct?

[homer75]

Good point kwicky look on here http://www.motester.co.uk/forums/forum4/55.htm l