Any tips for having an MOT done…

… and not being ripped off? Paranoid..

Brilliant !

Will this be today, mols ? Pleeease ?

😉

go to a friendly garage you or others trust?

(where? – I’m sure somebody will know a decent garage)

What kind of a wreck is your car that you think it’d do anything other than pass?
If you think it’s going to fail, you shouldn’t be driving it anyway, especially at the warp speeds and crazy overtaking you do.

Take it to a local authority run garage.

They can do MOTs, but not repairs, so no incentive for them to rip you off.

^ This. The local council usually has a depot that does the servicing on their vehicles and MOT tests. They can MOT test for the public but not do repairs, so they tend to be strictly by the book and fair as they have no interest in it either way.

basically an mot means that your car is just road worthy. if it doesnt pass at any garage (unless they are bobbing beggers) then you need to get it sorted.

you can always look at a haynes manual and give the car a look over yourself on some of the easier MOT points.libraries sometimes have a variety of haynes manuals.

Yeah I tried the local authority, but of course this being me it’s last minute, and they were full 🙁

It looks ok obviously, but the other car looked fine and the nit picking sod failed it. Fairly sure I was ripped off that time (different garage).

I can recommend one, but he’s in East London 😉

What iamroughrider says. Check the easy stuff yourself. Lights working, wipers, screenwash etc. Then you are not going to get caught out on something silly.

edit .

Are you still working around Farnborough Molly? I’ve been using the Halfords Autocentre in Sandhurst for a couple of years now, they’re an honest and decent bunch and haven’t tried to rip me off yet (that I’ve noticed!). They quite often have online deals too so you can get the MOT done half price.

look on the good garage scheme website for the local garage reviews
http://www.goodgaragescheme.com/

^ This. The local council usually has a depot that does the servicing on their vehicles and MOT tests. They can MOT test for the public but not do repairs, so they tend to be strictly by the book and fair as they have no interest in it either way.

^ That.

Lights and tyres are two of the most common failure areas.

No reason not to check these before you take the car in.

Read this lot and do a comprehensive check.

Basic check lights belts and for anything loose leaking or rusty.

^ That

^ This

Yup, check the easy things, don’t worry about anything you can’t check yourself as there’s no point (and don’t assume that just because you don’t know about it, it’s not a legit problem). Get a recommendation for a local- I’ve got a place I trust, and I will never let them go!

I always do a wee bit of credential establishing if I don’t know the guys, maybe “casually” mention some work I’ve just done myself or similiar, no idea if it really works tbh but I took my dad’s car into the famously crooked garage he insists on using and it’s literally the only time in 10 years they haven’t insisted he needs new wipers 😆

Common suggestion is to find somewhere that doesn’t really do car spannering- a van place, or an MOT specialist. If they won’t work on your car then they’ve got no motivation to “find” some spurious fault. Though on the other hand if there is a minor fault that another garage could fix there and then, they won’t do that either 😉

Are you still working around Farnborough Molly?

No, but will bear it in mind when I next do ta 🙂

I have booked it in to the Halfords place in Newport cos it was only £27.50.

NW – can you fail on wipers? They are a bit cruddy. The thing I’m worried about is a smidge of corrosion on the outside of the front disks (last 5mm or so of the face) from when it was sat for a while in the rain. A reasonable tester would surely pass it, but a dodgy guy will try and rip me off for new discs. If I tell them up-front that I won’t be paying them for any work, they might get the hump…!

2 things, not Halfords and avoid places offering heavily discounted price. The price is fixed by the government, anything below the full price (£54?) is out of the garage profit, therefore they may be looking for ways to make this up. Make of that what you want.

Oh.. didn’t know that 🙁

If the the brakes test ok then the corrosion is an advise only discs have to be in a horrific state to fail

£54 is not a set price it’s the max price

Yeah, but they have to be insecure, not working, or not clearing the windscreen effectively. ie stuff you’d probably fix anyway if you’re not mental. Outside of discs ought to be fine if it’s just surface or minor rust, if it doesn’t scrub off in use then it’s not on the braking surface anyway.

re Halfords, sure cheap MOTs can ring the alarm bells but unless you’re a conspiracy theorist it’s hard to believe that Halfords are nationally crooked but have never had a whistleblower.

On the other car it was ‘excessive fluctuation’ which was in fact ‘the faintest hint of fluctuation only detectable at about 5mph.. 👿

An mot computer slot costs very little it’s the labour and equipment your paying for, you can charge what you want but some places use very cheap mot £10 ish as a way of getting you through the door then failing on head light adjustment or something to bring the bill up.
In my 20 + years in the trade the worst people are the receptionists who call you up and because they are commission based, the testers advises become ” you need x4 tyres ” not the tyres are cracking but not showing cords and will pass but with an advise.

Thanks folks. Will keep you posted.. you’re going to have to wait til about half past two 🙂

Oh, the other thing, it’s had advisories for the last 3 years or so on cracked suspension bushings…

I’ve had to pass 100x worse that’s an advise all day ( unless warped or poor effort / imbalance )obviously

Halfords Autocentre – £500 for supply and fit of rear discs & pads for a Clio. Needless to say I went elsewhere.

richmtb – Member
Lights and tyres are two of the most common failure areas.

No reason not to check these before you take the car in whenever you drive the car.

Fixed that for you!

Not to mention if you fail these simple things, the tester is more likely to be looking for other things – Think of it as an attitude test!

Well aware of the state of my tyres and their pressure 🙂

I’ve only taken the Focus (which is maintained wit the bare minimum of effort/expense) to halfords or kwikfit.

I’ve only taken the MG (which is fastideously checked before taking it in) to specialists.

The focus has cost me £75 in testing fees, a number plate light (which they amitted was still dim after they replaced it but couldn’t find any other fault so passed it) and a fuel filler cap in 3 years.

The MG has cost me £400 in ‘Really? You’re going to fail it for that?’ type jobs in the same time.

Next time the MG is going to kwikfit.

Next time the MG is going to kwikfit.

Should be safe enough there, no fitter is going to want to work on an MG.

@legend
It wasn’t a clio 197/200 was it? As rear discs and pads alone are £250 so that Explains a bit if the £500 although it’s still steep.

Interesting thread.

Does anyone know of a list of things you can check yourself before the test? Like others have said; wipers/lights etc, but more of a comprehensive list.

Thanks

Check wipers, bulbs & tyres +1

I stupidly got stung for £30 for a set of wiper blades and £6 to replace (supply & fit) side light bulb on Wednesday. It was my own fault for not checking them, but sometimes life gets in the way and I couldn’t easily get down to the garage with my own bought wipers and bulb before a retest.

There’s a certain stupidity in getting a Kia serviced and MOT’d at a Mercedes garage, but that’s a whole other issue for another day 👿

The nearest garage to me is a Jaguar dealership. Found out recently that my neighbour takes his Honda there, I had no idea they did MOTs.

“Would you like free coffee and wifi sir?”
“No thanks, I’ll just sit in these cars for a while”