Cars
Book your car for a MOT at the local garage up to one month before current expiry date.
In order to avoid losing any unexpired portion of your MOT. You are allowed to have your car MOT. Certificate backdated for up to one calendar month, this unexpired portion will be added on to your new MOT. The testing garage must have your old MOTcertificate. to be able to do this, (make sure you bring it with you.)
Having an early test can give you some extra time to organise repairs, if you think your vehicle is going to fail, or even time to purchase another car if your old one is scrapped.
The MOT.
At the allocated time drive to the garage for the test, if you live quite near it may be an advantage to drive a few miles to make sure the engine is at working temperature.
After booking in, ask to observe the test, there should be an observation area provided for this purpose.
Ask the tester if he could mark with chalk any components on the car that are faulty, this could be useful if intending to take elsewhere for repairs, in any case tester will provide a list of any failure points.
First details are taken of chassis and engine number, these are entered into computer and specification of your car will appear on screen. Your car will then be connected by wires and a probe into vehicle exhaust to a machine that measures engine emissions.
The result will be given on a print out, stating pass or fail.
A failure at this point can sometimes be very expensive.
The next part involves an inspection of the rest of the vehicle, tyres, lights, seat belts, door locks, are all checked.
A helper will sit in your car to assist the tester, he will operate the vehicle controls so that tester can ascertain any potential failure points.
Next the underside of vehicle is rigorously checked for corrosion. The main parts to suffer corrosion are suspension mounting points, floors and inner sills but wings, and wheel arches will also be checked.
Condition of exhaust will be noted, as will condition of fuel tank and associated fuel pipes, any leaks will attract a failure.
Braking system is checked for leaks and brake pipes are then inspected, for corrosion.
Power steering is also checked for oil leaks.
Any oil leaks on the engine will be noted.
With the assistance of the helper, handbrake linkage and cables are checked.
Steering is also checked, all ball joints are tested for wear also rack and pinion and drive shaft boots checked for deterioration.
Next wheel bearings are tested by spinning each wheel in turn noting roughness and movement.
Failure at any of these points can be expensive.
The final part of test involves brake efficiency test the car is driven rolling brake tester, brakes are applied and results are shown on a meter.
This will complete MOT. result will be a pass certificate or a failure.
