Couple of points caught my eye ...
1) Dangerously failed cars cannot be driven away (seems fair). So is there a storage charge ? What if a test station simply runs out of room after stacking a few successive dangerous fails ?2) Tyre pressures are now tested. Seems quite a faff. Will missing or incorrect valve caps be a fail ?
Something that caught my eye on the BBC red button text was that diesel vehicles with a particulate filter will have to pass more-stringent tests, which implies that those without a filter won't be tested, or at least not so stringently. That suits me fine as my old diesel Ford Fusion certainly doesn't have any particulate filters.
Ever tried pointing out to a driver that they have a soft tire or a light not working? The usual reponse (if polite) is "I know - it is going for an MOT soon"
I will report back tomorrow. Sod's law is in action: the earliest date I can have my car MOTed and still retain the 1 month extension is 21 May, the day that the new rules come into play. I made sure I booked a courtesy car from the garage in case of failure and the time taken to fix, and I made sure I had the MOT done at a main dealer for maximum chance of fixing anything that is model-specific.
Have the rules changed about *when* you can have the car MOTed? I've seen a couple of articles (can't remember where) which seem to imply that it is an offence to have the car tested earlier than 1 month before the MOT is due. Obviously you'd lose at least a month on the renewal date for next year, but is it actually an offence now?
This has always been true. An MOT tester could find what he regarded as a dangerous fault and refuse to allow you to drive away. The new rules have just made this option more explicit.
I was told that it is dependent on Euro rating: the higher the Euro rating of the engine (which equates with more recent cars) the more stringent the test. The garage didn't anticipate that they'd be failing many cars: it seems that garages have been unofficially observing (but not officially recording) the situation before the rules come in, so they are skilled at applying the rules correctly; my garage said on that basis, they haven't been "failing" any cars so far.
How do MOTs get round the fact that the new no-smoke rule for diesels will mean that everyone will make sure they drive the car for a while before taking it in, so the engine is hot and less likely to smoke when first started? Most diesels that produce acrid white or pale blue smoke only do so when cold, if the glow-plugs haven't heated the air enough yet, and black smoke is only produced on heavy acceleration, not when starting or at idle.
I'd expect them to provide free storage for up to 3 days. You would then have those days to make your own arrangement for the safe removal of the vehicle. That's how it generally works with free motorway recovery.
I'm sure there must be a fuel additive you can get that would 'cure' that problem; just tip it in before the test date so it has enough time to work.
In message , at
17:48:20 on Sun, 20 May 2018, NY remarked:
aiui they have to warm the engine up first anyway, before doing the test.
It happens that NY formulated :
With minor points of failure you can still drive the car until fixed and passed. The even less serious problems they identify, they still just advise.
No, you can still do the MOT anytime you like, but unless within the month before due, you loose out on those days remaining of that month - exactly the same as before. You can still get an MOT which is valid for almost 13 months.
Jethro_uk wrote on 20/05/2018 :
That would be your problem to deal with - leave it there if they have space until repaired, or take away on the back of a truck. The thing is, it cannot be driven on the road.
I haven't looked at the new regs, but something I've heard in radio discussions over the last week is that any visible soot from a diesel is now a fail, and this is specifically intended to get a lot of old particulate poluting diesels off the road.
Hopefully that'll catch those who have removed DPFs, whenever I've chatted to the MOT chap I use, he's said that it's easy to disguise the removal.
on 20/05/2018, Andy Burns supposed :
Chatting to mine, he said that ANY sign that the DPF has been tampered with and it would arouse his suspicions and maybe an automatic fail. My car showed a 0.6 on the meter, but then I tend to properly maintain it.
from my experience with a 20 year old diesel car thats done over 200k miles and still going strong if there is visible smoke it would not pass the smoke test anyway
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Er no. I had a huge row when they tried to use this trick to prevent me from what they said was £1000 pounds of service needed when an independent MOT said 'it passes' and the actual MOT inspector on a third test said 'tyres are perhaps a bit too cut up to be legal'
Insist on your right to drive it. It is not the garages place to enforce a police matter.
On tyre pressure if like a friend of mine the bmw display that looks like a bum says one is low but the tests on them show its not, what do they believe? Brian
Well they used to issue a red fail notice as opposed to an ordinary one.
Yes, I suppose you *could* drive it but if you did you'd be likely to be charged with driving a vehicle in a dangerous condition.
The new rules have made the 'dangerous' fail nmore explicit but what isn't very clear is what you are (or are not) allowed to do if you get an 'ordinary' (i.e. a 'major fault') fail now.
They won't enforce it they will just report it to the police who will enforce it. Why don't you try it?
the test is meant to "catch out" those people who have removed them from cars that should have them
A practice which is rife (apparently)
tim
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