Potentially very stupid question.

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letsgoagain1

letsgoagain1

New Member
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Location
Northants/oxon/warks border
I have a question. My 90 has its MOT in september and I have never taken a car to a MOT before, when I got it, it had just had one and I had a polo for 4 months before that and that had an MOT. So, I was just wondering, do they drive your vehicle to check if there is anything wrong with it, e.g steering, suspension etc, or just look at it? Excuse my lack of knowledge, ;) thanks.
 
No it's not test driven on the road.

Chances are good they will move it from car park to testing bay to car park though... so if something is really ****ed and they're doing their job properly it'll fail. I once had a car fail because the ABS light was faulty and they only spotted it while driving it from the test bay to the car park :(

Mind you... if there's something you know about that you think it'll fail on, ffs fix it before taking it in. No need to give the govt even more money for retest fees etc.

Cheers,
 
Na.. they dont tec it on tu roud, its all dun on tu rollin rud fu safty
reasuns, then start bangin underneth wi figgin big amma!!:eek: all tu ****e
falls orf, then they cun see al tu naasty stuff!!:eek: :eek:

Good luc wiv it!;)
 
Ooh, ok, thanks!! hmm, nothing I can think of it'll fail on really, had new front brakes recently as they were pretty knackered and squeaked like fcuk. And new handbrake shoe...that was broken, had to leave it in gear all the time. I do wonder if my steering is ok ocassionally, but obviosuly they won't know unless it is a visible fault.

Thanks for the info.
 
Heh... give 'em a bit of credit... they move a lot of different motors every day and will spot dodgy steering before they've gone 10 feet ;)

If yours is a bit vague, check the drop arm ball joint and the ball joints on the drag link and then the UJs on the rod to the steering box. If they're all ok it'll probably pass.

Might be yer wheel bearings need a bit of an adjust... jack up each wheel in turn and give 'em a wiggle in the 12oclock 6 oclock direction - if there's a fair degree of movement adjust 'em up a little - there's directions on here somewhere for a quick and dirdy way to adjust 'em.
 
Might take it on the road to test handbrake on a hill somewhere. Some brake testing equipment can do transmission brakes and some don't, and some like to test them on a hill anyway.

But remember that things have to be badly worn, and unable or unsafe to perform the job. Not like in a garage when you would replace something during a service because it was on it's way out. It has to be fooked.
 
DTZ said:
Heh... give 'em a bit of credit... they move a lot of different motors every day and will spot dodgy steering before they've gone 10 feet ;)

If yours is a bit vague, check the drop arm ball joint and the ball joints on the drag link and then the UJs on the rod to the steering box. If they're all ok it'll probably pass.

Might be yer wheel bearings need a bit of an adjust... jack up each wheel in turn and give 'em a wiggle in the 12oclock 6 oclock direction - if there's a fair degree of movement adjust 'em up a little - there's directions on here somewhere for a quick and dirdy way to adjust 'em.
Click to expand...

Righty then! I can manage wheel bearings, I had the unfortunate event of one wheel nearly falling off being held on by one wheel nut, scared me loads!! :D So, now I check them regularly.

Im gonna have to ask someone else to check that ball joint though, But I can to UJ's....im learning!!! So I'll just pop to see a friend beforehand and see what we can find!

Thanks for you help.
 
yer can, the rollers dont just spin at a speed, they spin with a specific amount of force as well to measure the braking force against it.
 
RAZ8550TDI said:
yer can, the rollers dont just spin at a speed, they spin with a specific amount of force as well to measure the braking force against it.
Click to expand...

They do spin with force so they do, what speed they go at I have never needed to know, but I do know that they are not all that reliable at cutting out at the given force, or lockup.

What I meen is that often the poor vehicle is getting it's tyres thrashed because the fookers sensors have been either de-calibrated by clanking across the rollers with the plates off or water has got into them and unless you watch and know the maximum braking force you are looking for then the tyres get it, or in the case of a landie a propshaft or a halfshaft.

Landies are very rare in garages and I think it a good practice to remind testers that they are constant drive and that it has a transmission brake, and pose the question of wheither their equipment has a facility for that type of vehicle, and more importantly they set it up for it.
 
david451 said:
They do spin with force so they do, what speed they go at I have never needed to know, but I do know that they are not all that reliable at cutting out at the given force, or lockup.

What I meen is that often the poor vehicle is getting it's tyres thrashed because the fookers sensors have been either de-calibrated by clanking across the rollers with the plates off or water has got into them and unless you watch and know the maximum braking force you are looking for then the tyres get it, or in the case of a landie a propshaft or a halfshaft.

Landies are very rare in garages and I think it a good practice to remind testers that they are constant drive and that it has a transmission brake, and pose the question of wheither their equipment has a facility for that type of vehicle, and more importantly they set it up for it.
Click to expand...

if the wheels lock on the rollers its only the same as locking up when driving and sliding, so if yer landie cant do that without breaking then its only good for the scrapper anyway, also just dont use it in difflock when testing the brakes, job done! ;)
 
RAZ8550TDI said:
if the wheels lock on the rollers its only the same as locking up when driving and sliding, so if yer landie cant do that without breaking then its only good for the scrapper anyway, also just dont use it in difflock when testing the brakes, job done! ;)
Click to expand...

Except the road dunt have agressive grit all over it, unless yer braking on that shell grip, and it tends to spread the load over the four wheels and not the full braking force onto one unlucky wheel. I think anyway, and off course you dunt use your handbrake whilst moving for handy brake turns and such, less you have a bandaleroo of half shafts and props.

Then of course there's retardation as yer tyre melts on the road, the experts say braking efficiency increases as the tyre melts, but I dont get it at all, and I think I will stick with the lift off and re-apply method, but the brake tester just rips chunks of rubber of yer tyres.:p
 
nymptonite said:
there's no guarantee they'll pick up whether it's unsafe, though
Click to expand...

Long gone are the days when guys from quick fit and such went on a testers course and carried out mot tests without any real knowledge of how a vehicle worked.

These days you have to be a mechanic, or sit a fairly difficult test encompassing many sections covering the relevant points a mechanic would have been taught. Any mechanic worth his salt or a good mot tester knows whats safe and what is not, and failing a vehicle without a valid reason is rare now because they get hammered.

In actual fact much has to be pass and advise to protect the tester since the test allows much more items to go through. The word "excessive" is the fail level, anything else is pass and advise.
 
my mate had his '56 chevy pick up smashed to **** by a little scrote from the mot station,this lad thought it would be nice to drive it after it was tested,this thing has a mental chevy small block in it and can do a bmw m5 up to 120!,this co-incidentally was the speed it was travelling at when the bonnet flipped.truck was ****ed and so was the little scrote from the garage.
 
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