MOT Advisories, thoughts?

[Graham Butcher]

3 hours ago, Rooted said:

Is that actually correct about the cam belt for a 2.0 TDI ?

 

As to those that it applies to, it is 180,000 miles. 

 

 

Cam Belt Guidance change (1).pdf 893.71 kB · 1 download

Well that is certainly at odds with the info I was given. They asked me for my reg or VIN then when I gave it they checked their records and came back with the correct car details, then they went and checked with their technical team and came back with the 140,000miles figure 🤔.

 

Either way, that will roughly another 13 to 17 years away, so I'm not too bothered 😃

Edited 18 April by Graham Butcher

[310golfr]

2 hours ago, Rooted said:

Which is fantastic if the things checked are safe on the day and the car well maintained.

Not much use if the car never gets inspected and servicing and maintenance by someone that looks and tells you what the car might need doing and you would be best to do.

 

Like cars not getting their first or 2nd MOT, so just 3 or 4 years old. 

 

A new MOT is nice, but preventative servicing and maintenance is 'Simply clever'.  

I'm a diy type of guy , so car/ van always kept in good order so mot only /no repairs  places suit me.

I don't need someone to tell me my brake discs are corroded 

Nowadays with mot's you always want to check everything you can beforehand as any advisories you get are down in the cars history for life and the whole world can see them.

Always amazes me how cars fail on something like tyres, or wipers etc ,ffs do they not check them before going , or maybe should have gone to specsavers

[coppertop]

1 minute ago, 310golfr said:

I'm a diy type of guy , so car/ van always kept in good order so mot only /no repairs  places suit me.

I don't need someone to tell me my brake discs are corroded 

Nowadays with mot's you always want to check everything you can beforehand as any advisories you get are down in the cars history for life and the whole world can see them.

Always amazes me how cars fail on something like tyres, or wipers etc ,ffs do they not check them before going , or maybe should have gone to specsavers

Me too, a DIY kind of guy, but I couldn't legislate for the total idiot that did my last MOT and put down as an advisory 'Nearside Front Tyre has a cut but not deep enough to reach the ply or cords', when he hadn't realised what a winter tyre was with sipes in the tread, you couldn't make it up.

[Ootohere]

@310golfr  you are not the OP though, so what you do is not what everyone does. 

It has never amazed me where people do not service or inspect cars before MOT,s

 

Saying that when i used to buy them at auction or privately or take in trade ins they went for a MOT first, got the pass or fail & advisories then got the work done.

But that is who it gets done often in the Motor Trade, or with traders.    Leave the professional to do the poking and prodding,

& nice and easy. 

[Graham Butcher]

1 hour ago, Rooted said:

@310golfr  you are not the OP though, so what you do is not what everyone does. 

It has never amazed me where people do not service or inspect cars before MOT,s

 

Saying that when i used to buy them at auction or privately or take in trade ins they went for a MOT first, got the pass or fail & advisories then got the work done.

But that is who it gets done often in the Motor Trade, or with traders.    Leave the professional to do the poking and prodding,

& nice and easy. 

Exactly that, loads of traders and salvage rebuilders do just that. in the case of salvage, they repair the accident damage first, then take it for an MOT prior to selling it on, that way they only have to do what was noted, if anything.

 

For those that thought I should have checked the car over prior to the MOT, I did check the tyres, lights, wipers, horn etc anything that did not involve getting under the car because I have trouble in getting down on the ground and up again, and I'm 75 years old with some mobility problems, so that kind of rules out doing a full inspection myself. I always used when I was younger, and I also did all my repairs except for welding, I can gas weld but not arc weld.

 

Also, the car was booked in for a replacement oil pressure relief valve and also a number 3 cylinder glow plug replacement as on this car that also has a pressure sensor built in, and it was giving a faulty reading, so there was an engine management light lit on the instrument cluster which an automatic MOT failure in its own right. The sensor had to be ordered and was on back order. The car was booked in for the repair and then the MOT on the same day, but the tester took the car to their section before the workshop was ready to do the repair, so they had to retest the car again because their co-ordination was wrong.

 

The wiper fault was there because the car had been parked on the forecourt on a windy day and a twig had been blown of a tree and had lodged itself, out of sight under the back of the bonnet recess and that ripped the blade when the tester tested them. 

 

The discs are not rusty, they are lovely and shiny, as already stated, they were new only 6,500 miles ago and no high spots are visible from the outside and the brakes feel and behave perfectly.

 

Yes the advisories are recorded on the car's record, for all to see, that being said, I fail to see the problem with it, it shows the car has at least had a proper test and when they no longer appear at the next test it shows the problem has been dealt with

 

The cut in the N/S/R outer wall, I cannot find one anywhere, so that is a mystery. 

Edited 18 April by Graham Butcher

[Breezy_Pete]

7 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

The cut in the N/S/R outer wall, I cannot find one anywhere, so that is a mystery

Check the OSR (and the fronts come to that), not unheard of for things to be noted down wrongly.

[310golfr]

11 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

Exactly that, loads of traders and salvage rebuilders do just that. in the case of salvage, they repair the accident damage first, then take it for an MOT prior to selling it on, that way they only have to do what was noted, if anything.

 

For those that thought I should have checked the car over prior to the MOT, I did check the tyres, lights, wipers, horn etc anything that did not involve getting under the car because I have trouble in getting down on the ground and up again, and I'm 75 years old with some mobility problems, so that kind of rules out doing a full inspection myself. I always used when I was younger, and I also did all my repairs except for welding, I can gas weld but not arc weld.

 

Also, the car was booked in for a replacement oil pressure relief valve and also a number 3 cylinder glow plug replacement as on this car that also has a pressure sensor built in, and it was giving a faulty reading, so there was an engine management light lit on the instrument cluster which an automatic MOT failure in its own right. The sensor had to be ordered and was on back order. The car was booked in for the repair and then the MOT on the same day, but the tester took the car to their section before the workshop was ready to do the repair, so they had to retest the car again because their co-ordination was wrong.

 

The wiper fault was there because the car had been parked on the forecourt on a windy day and a twig had been blown of a tree and had lodged itself, out of side under the back of the bonnet recess and that ripped the blade when the tester tested them. 

 

The discs are not rusty, they are lovely and shiny, as already stated, they were new only 6,500 miles ago and no high spots are visible from the outside and the brakes feel and behave perfectly.

 

Yes the advisories are recorded on the car's record, so what for all to see, that being said, I fail to see the problem with it, it shows the car has at least had a proper test and when they no longer appear at the next test it shows the problem has been dealt with

 

The cut in the N/S/R outer wall, I cannot find one anywhere, so that is a mystery. 

My comment about checking things over before going for an mot was just a general comment,  not aimed at you.

When i got my last mot done , I was speaking to the tester  who seemed a decent bloke . I asked him what where the things most cars fail on and he said tyres snd lights, which to me is crazy because visible things  are easy to check beforehand. 

As for advisories, I just don't like the paper trail they leave, , so for me I always do my best to double  check everything I can myself 

[310golfr]

1 hour ago, Rooted said:

@310golfr  you are not the OP though, so what you do is not what everyone does. 

It has never amazed me where people do not service or inspect cars before MOT,s

 

Saying that when i used to buy them at auction or privately or take in trade ins they went for a MOT first, got the pass or fail & advisories then got the work done.

But that is who it gets done often in the Motor Trade, or with traders.    Leave the professional to do the poking and prodding,

& nice and easy. 

Was a lot easier back in the day for traders needing an mot 

£30 or so at the Barras market  got you a blank mot and a guaranteed 1st time pass with no advisories   😇

[Ootohere]

That's how it was right enough. But nothing to do with actual MOT tests. Just getting a certificate when you did get certificates.  Plenty got actual certificates from MOT centres when the vehicle was never at that test station. Or was and nothing in the tail pipe of that vehicle for the emissions test.   But then that still happens.  

Edited 18 April by Rooted

[Dieselgate]

I had a bit of an annoying  experience last week when I booked my Polo GTI in for a major service, brake fluid change and new front wiper blades (knowing they were a bit knackered) along with an MOT.

The independent VW place I use promptly failed it on the the MOT due to the wipers and then passed it (with no advisories) on the retest once they had fitted the replacement.

Why on earth they tested it before fitting the wipers is completely beyond me - it wasn't as if they had to call me up and say 'your car has failed but it will pass if we fit new wiper blades' as I had instructed them to fit new blades weeks in advance.

[Stonekeeper]

43 minutes ago, Dieselgate said:

I had a bit of an annoying  experience last week when I booked my Polo GTI in for a major service, brake fluid change and new front wiper blades (knowing they were a bit knackered) along with an MOT.

The independent VW place I use promptly failed it on the the MOT due to the wipers and then passed it (with no advisories) on the retest once they had fitted the replacement.

Why on earth they tested it before fitting the wipers is completely beyond me - it wasn't as if they had to call me up and say 'your car has failed but it will pass if we fit new wiper blades' as I had instructed them to fit new blades weeks in advance.

 

The MOT may have highlighted something else.

 

MOT then service seems a good idea?

[Gammyleg]

55 minutes ago, Stonekeeper said:

MOT then service seems a good idea?

Not if you have to pay for retest it's not.

 

Bugs the f*** out of me why people can't follow simple instructions!! It seems endemic these days in all walks of life. 

[Graham Butcher]

53 minutes ago, Stonekeeper said:

 

The MOT may have highlighted something else.

 

MOT then service seems a good idea?

Still begs the question why put it in for a MOT when they know that it would automatically fail because of the wiper blades? Like mine, an automatic fail with an warning light on the instruments lit up (I never listed that as it passed the 2nd test) but with cars being tested and serviced at the same garage, it just makes (to my mind) double the work load retesting the car?

[rum4mo]

I wonder if it is just due to "workshop loading", I'd be a bit pee'd off if that happened to me, mind you, I'd have fitted new wipers after checking them prior to booking it in.

 

Really, a professionally run and honest workshop should not be trying to accumulate as many fails or advisories as possible simply by running the MOT before a service - unless the customer is a total tight ass and requested that order of jobs.

[Graham Butcher]

1 hour ago, Gammyleg said:

Not if you have to pay for retest it's not.

 

Nah, most decent garages will do a free retest if its within x days of the original test.

[Gammyleg]

22 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

Nah, most decent garages will do a free retest if its within x days of the original test.

Agreed but that depends on what it fails on and the severity. If i'd told them what to fix in advance of the test and they chose not to, I'd be a tad miffed.

 

My car failed last year on inoperative rear fog lights. It's now recorded as such in the MOT history. It failed because the MOT tech didn't know how to switch them on. 

[Dieselgate]

3 hours ago, Stonekeeper said:

 

The MOT may have highlighted something else.

 

MOT then service seems a good idea?

Possibly but my general view is that if you have been asked to carry out some work on a car that improves its chance of passing an MOT then it makes sense to do that first? It's not as if the wiper blades would have taken them a long time, a couple of minutes at most.

[Graham Butcher]

1 hour ago, Gammyleg said:

Agreed but that depends on what it fails on and the severity. If i'd told them what to fix in advance of the test and they chose not to, I'd be a tad miffed.

 

My car failed last year on inoperative rear fog lights. It's now recorded as such in the MOT history. It failed because the MOT tech didn't know how to switch them on. 

I was a bit miffed as it failed because of the warning light being on, but after the glow plug/sensor was replaced, it passed but with the advisories, the retest was seamless and FOC so no worries. I have to admit that I'm really struggling to understand why people seem so upset about having advisories recorded, it makes not a jot of difference to the car being legal or its subsequent value, so no worries in opinion.

[Danoid]

3 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

I was a bit miffed as it failed because of the warning light being on, but after the glow plug/sensor was replaced, it passed but with the advisories, the retest was seamless and FOC so no worries. I have to admit that I'm really struggling to understand why people seem so upset about having advisories recorded, it makes not a jot of difference to the car being legal or its subsequent value, so no worries in opinion.

A clean MOT is much more attractive to a buyer or at least me.

 

If there’s a simple advisory that’s been there for years it shouts neglected to me.

 

That reminds me, must sort suspension out on my wife’s Fiat 500, been an advisory for years and years 🤫

[rum4mo]

For anyone who tries to do all their maintenance, ending up with advisories is a bit of a failure - at least that is the way that I view it.

 

We've got friends that tend to run VW Group cars and the husband has a garage full of tools etc, he claims to know all about cars, but being sneaky and checking the MOTs history tends to tell a different story, ie "talking the talk" and not "doing the walk" - leaving it up to the MOT tester to force a garage to return their cars into a compliant condition.

 

I don't mind if people can't fix their own cars or run out of skills sometimes, but claims that they can and end up successfully accumulating a big history of advisories - well that tells a different story.

[Graham Butcher]

Surely, if an item is continually appearing year-on-year as an advisory then it should not have been flagged as such in the first place, I thought the idea was that at the time of the test the item was not bad enough to fail, but warranted attention before the next MOT as it would fail that unless it was done. 

 

As a potential buyer and you saw something keep appearing year-on-year as an advisory, then that would suggest to me that it was more than likely the garage trying to upsell something that did not really need doing in the first place, otherwise it would not have passed the test.

 

My old Superb had an advisory on it that the O/S/F coil spring was rusty, and that was the only advisory the car had ever had. I checked the spring, and it did have slight surface rust on it, and I left it because so did the N/S/F spring but not mentioned. My Superbs have all been serviced and tested at the same garage and the car sailed through the next 3 years MOTs with no mention of that spring or any other advisories. The conclusion I can make from that is that either they were trying to upsell the first time, or that on the other occasions it was a different person doing the testing and deemed the spring to be OK?

Edited 19 April by Graham Butcher

[Berisford]

4 hours ago, Gammyleg said:

 

My car failed last year on inoperative rear fog lights. It's now recorded as such in the MOT history. It failed because the MOT tech didn't know how to switch them on. 

I used the same station for many, many years until they got a mot nazi on the team - he tried, but conceded defeat (couldn’t find the relevant section) when trying to fail my Golf for not having the plastic engine cover on!

[Stonekeeper]

6 hours ago, Gammyleg said:

Not if you have to pay for retest it's not.

 

Bugs the f*** out of me why people can't follow simple instructions!! It seems endemic these days in all walks of life. 

 

I still think if booked in for a mot and service on the same day it makes sense to MOT first then service. I also agree with you that in your case if you specifically said "can you change my Wiper blades first", they should have done.

The only problem i can think of is that the Mechanic and the Mot Tester at the Garage are not necessarily the same person.

There is no such thing as a two minute job in a garage.

Taking the mechanic off a job to change wipers , giving it the MOT tester to test then passing it back again to service is inefficient if it fails on other things.

What if the mechanic went the whole hog and serviced it then gave it the tester and he failed it. How would you feel if the mechanic serviced the car rang you to authorise Brakes and and discs etc, you agree to a bigger bill to do that work.

 

Then the tester fails it on Emissions?

Edited 19 April by Stonekeeper

[AGFalco]

6 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

Still begs the question why put it in for a MOT when they know that it would automatically fail because of the wiper blades?

If an MOT station has a very low advisory rate, they will get a visit from DVSA.

 

Thanks. AG Falco

[Graham Butcher]

1 hour ago, AGFalco said:

If an MOT station has a very low advisory rate, they will get a visit from DVSA.

 

Thanks. AG Falco

What, you think the implication of a low rate of advisories suggests that the station is allowing to pass then?