Van has just failed it’s MOT
I’ve had my own cars/vans since April 2005 and I have never, ever had one pass first attempt.
Anyone beat 15 years of consecutive failures?
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This one is the newest I’ve ever had, just under 6yrs old when I got it last April, 79k miles. Oldest was 15yrs and highest mileage 140k so not proper bangers. Seven vehicles altogether.
Thankfully minor this time, rear brake caliper and brake pipe.

I once had a car fail on so many points they had the write half of them on the back of the sheet. So that probably covers me for a lifetime of motoring.

Not had that run of luck but my van failed the mot just before Christmas with a broken front spring, it had only done 387 miles in the full year before the mot but still managed to fail!

I had a nova fail so badly when I went in to collect it, they said it would be quicker to tell me what didn’t fail…

I check mine before they go.

I have had one fail in about 5 years. It was so I had a fail sheet for selling it.

The Mot really is a very basic roadworthy check it’s not hard to keep the car in safe condition.

I run a 33 year old land rover and a 15 year old van …..

Most of my previous cars have even been french.

I do how ever also have a good rapport with my local garage .

The Mot really is a very basic roadworthy check it’s not hard to keep the car in safe condition.

You should inform the seeming 25% of cocknockers that drive round with only 1 working headlight!

Thats just ignorance and motorcyclists.

You should inform the seeming 25% of cocknockers that drive round with only 1 working headlight!

It’s OK, they just put their foglights on to compensate.

15 years…wow. Don’t take your car to a garage, take it to a ‘Just MOTs’ place.

Family friend was boasting how her car always passes the MOT. Turned out she was paying about £300-£400 every year for a pre-MOT check and repairs. I convinced her to go to a place that will only do tests, she was shocked when it passed with just an advisory for a worn tyre to be replaced within the next 6 months.

You should inform the seeming 25% of cocknockers that drive round with only 1 working headlight!

Or one of my wife’s colleagues who didn’t realise that servicing is a thing – she was waiting for MOT department to ‘tell her’ when she needed an ‘mot’. She returned a near three year old lease Aygo with seized engine through lack of oil, again thinking the warning light was to be dealt with at the ‘mot’.

We share the roads with these people…

My current car is a 2002 which I’ve owned since 2003. It only failed once when the power steering fluid was a little low, but the tester had some in and then passed it before I picked the car up. The odd advisory that I sort out (brake pads getting low, slight corrosion on rear brake ferrule) No advisories last year, and test due next week.

Had a Berlingo for 6 years that has only ever failed on bulbs, should really sort those before taking it in but usually forget.

Did have a Toyota Avensis that failed when they put it on the brake rig. Burst a pipe and dumped brake fluid all over the floor.

I got rid of my old Octavia when I was given the attached list!…

Reason(s) for failure

Exhaust emits an excessive level of metered smoke for a turbo charged engine (7.4.B.3b)
Offside Registration plate lamp not working (1.1.C.1d)
Nearside Windscreen washer provides insufficient washer liquid (8.2.3)
Offside Obligatory mirror seriously damaged, affecting the rear view (8.1.2a)
Offside Rear Brake pipe excessively corroded (3.6.B.2c)
Offside Track rod end ball joint has excessive play (2.2.B.1f)
Nearside Front suspension has excessive play in a track control arm inner bush (2.5.B.2b)
Offside Front suspension has excessive play in a track control arm inner bush (2.5.B.2b)
Offside Rear coil spring broken (2.4.C.1a)

Advisory notice item(s)

Nearside Rear Brake pipe slightly corroded (3.6.B.2c)
Nearside Front Brake pipe slightly corroded (3.6.B.2c)
Front Brake pad(s) wearing thin (3.5.1g)
Nearside Front suspension has slight play in a lower suspension ball joint (2.5.B.1a)
Offside Headlamp damaged but light output not reduced (1.7.5a)

My garage tell me that if they pass too many cars with ‘ no fault found’ the dvla come looking as no car is fault free in they’re opinion.

I think I’ve only had a couple of times where it has passed first time. I still don’t believe them until I’ve only paid for an MOT and driven away.
Normally find at least one thing to fail it on.

My van failed it’s MOT cos the handbrake had too much play in it. That’s alright, I thought, and the garage thought (who I’ve used for years, good honest place), just a case of tightening the cable.

£900 and a complete replacement of the rear brakes later… 🙁

Take the same car to different MOT places and chances are you’ll get different minor fault reports.

If our cars fail it’s usually something unforseen, most annoying lately were a wiper blade splitting during a test and sidelight wiring fault despite it working before leaving the house.

I’ve had tests abandoned due to the Starter motor failing and on another occasion I slightly over filled the expansion tank.
They left the car running during the test and the car spat the excess over the tester. I felt a little bad but leaving a 30 year old car running for 1/2 hour stationary is asking for trouble.

This makes me nervous. Mine is due next week. It’s booked in & due for a service anyway and has passed cheaply the last two years. Here’s hoping for 3rd time lucky!

In 20 years of motoring, I’ve only had one fail – indicator bulbs not orange enough (Halfords in desperation). I asked for the old bulbs back and put them in the car for the next MOT and it passed.

My car is 16 years old. I also check all my cars before they go to the garage. I also only use MOT centres.

I have a 12 year old Mondeo which passed last night without me having to do any more than wash it. In N.Ireland we have MOT test centers which are government run, so there are no mechanics with vested interests. If you have an old car like mine, you run it through, get the list of what is wrong and get it retested. I always thought the mainland system was a bit odd.

I used an MOT place at the bottom of our road, but the owners went bust/another business, so I just use the family run mechanics in the village – they don’t ‘make’ work as they are always fully booked, so give an honest pass/fail and list advisories where needed.

Never had a failure in 30yrs of car ownership but then again i was a mechanic/mot tester, i have had a couple of mot test centres try it on with fictitious mot failures/issues but they quickly changed their mind when i pulled them up on it.

Halfords – rear number plate bulb insufficiently bright, replaced and no different. Also filler cap closed, but didn’t ratchet apparently. Couldn’t figure out what that was actually supposed to do/mean but they only charged for the part which was £6.

Had an advisory for new disks, every year, did 70,000 on the fronts and 90,000 on the rears before replacing them!

Other than that just some suspension bushes, and some borderline tyres (some I’ve replaced afterwards despite not being a fail, others I think were a bit harsh e.g. worn shoulders. Can’t think of much that was a fail that I should have known about.

I actually think it’s got more lenient as the years have gone on. A 40,000 mile car with part worn pads and some scoring on the disks got an advisory to replace, a 130,000 car still on those same pads 90,000 miles later didn’t! Same with stuff like “indicators not orange enough”. I think they just assume you won’t replace them so don’t bother flagging it.

oo just looked at my old motor sold on 2 years ago. Looks like its dead 🙁

god knows what they’ve done to it in that time over 16k miles

Do not drive until repaired (dangerous defects):
Nearside Front Tyre has ply or cords exposed (5.2.3 (d) (ii))
Offside Rear Wheel bearing play so excessive it is likely to break up (5.1.3 (a) (ii))

Repair immediately (major defects):
Nearside Front Windscreen wiper does not clear the windscreen effectively (3.4 (b) (ii))
Front Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases front pipe blowing (6.1.2 (a))
Nearside Rear Registration plate lamp inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps (4.7.1 (b) (ii))
Offside Rear Registration plate lamp inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps (4.7.1 (b) (ii))
Oil leaking excessively from transmission (8.4.1 (a) (i))
Offside Front Lower Suspension arm pin or bush excessively worn (5.3.4 (a) (i))
Nearside Front Brake hose excessively deteriorated (1.1.12 (b) (ii))
Brake lever has insufficient reserve travel (1.1.2 (a))
Nearside Rear Passenger’s seat backrest cannot be secured in the upright position. (6.2.6 (a) (i))

Monitor and repair if necessary (advisories):
Offside Front Shock absorbers light misting of oil or has limited damping effect (5.3.2 (b))
Offside Front Play in steering rack inner joint(s) ()
Nearside Rear Tyre worn close to legal limit/worn on edge worn to 2mm (5.2.3 (e))

My garage tell me that if they pass too many cars with ‘ no fault found’ the dvla come looking as no car is fault free in they’re opinion.

The DVLA must have a field day with Skoda then! My car could be on fire with the wheels falling off and they would still say “No fault found”.

Always driven old cars. Never paid more than 2k for one. I reckon on average I probably have a 70% pass rate over the years, failing once every 3 or 4 years.

Do most of my own work on them though, so anything obvious is fixed before it goes in.

Take the same car to different MOT places and chances are you’ll get different minor fault reports.

My advisories are always different year after year, even if I take it to the same place. Sometimes wonder if they just pull them out of a hat.

I was annoyed at mine, I was aiming for a clean pass but it turns out it has 3 number plate lamps and one of them was blown- I just thought it had 2.

The big difference is safety and not safety though isn’t it. I’ve never had a vehicle fail on a safety critical and hope i never will, it’s not like the MOT is a very demanding standard for a ton of fast moving metal. But my motorbike should have literally never passed any of its MOTs just purely because of noise.