To ask if your car normally passes it's MOT.

[girlfriend44]

Car passed Mot today, and did last year too. I'm thankful.
Is this normal?

If brake pad depth cannot be checked without removing the wheel, it wont be checked in an MOT.

You re v lucky if your garage checks all the things you mention in a routine service, which normally fluids plus filters.. whilst not charging the earth.

It's a local independent garage who seem to check everything they can possibly check whilst it's with them and especially when it's on the ramp. Obviously, they're looking for things they can charge extra for, after all that's business, but they're honest and don't charge the Earth. They use the car's service schedule as the bare minimum they do, but they check everything else that they can on top of that.

I've used dealership garages when necessary (i.e. new cars under warranty) and have been shocked at their service checklists which are often very superficial with lots of "tick boxes" for superficial things anyone can do themselves to make it look like they do a lot for their hugely inflated charges. The last one actually took a video of a mechanic checking the tyre treads with a gauge and emailed it to me to "prove" they'd checked it - doh! I do that myself every few months anyway and don't need them wasting time videoing themselves do it and uploading it and then emailing it!

A good local independent garage is worth it's weight in gold. As I said upthread, they've kept my 17 year old car in perfect order with minimal work ever being needed and it's never failed an MOT and never needed any major/expensive unexpected work done, and never broken down or even failed to start. They've been VERY proactive in watching for things deteriorating year by year, and giving me realistic timescales/countdowns as to when to get things replaced to stop them causing any other damage or break downs etc.

Do people who don't bother having the oil changed not realise the importance of it, no matter how little mileage is done? The oil filter will rust and cause a leak and the oil will be like sludge running through the engine.

FFS, have it serviced!!! Not servicing a car (oil changes, brake checks etc) can mean it's unsafe, and it will definitely decrease the life of the engine. The MOT is very basic, and does not guarantee a car's safety/roadworthiness for the next 12 months. This is YOUR safety you're gambling with, plus that of others who may be injured if your car fails and causes a crash.

Yes, they have called me because it had a bulb out or a windscreen blade needing replacing which they do for me but I've never had one fail

Normally that would result in a fail, repair and pass under the PRS scheme. They’re not allowed to fix the car during the test with the exception of adjusting headlight alignment.

I mean, maternity leave is the perfect time to drive around with a defective tyre and risk a blow out.

Most drivers I encounter have no idea how their car works (or which lane they should be in). It’s one of the reasons I do the majority of my driving at night, when they’re out of the way.

Mine has never passed! It’s only five years old and I’ve had it from two years old. Every year they seem to find something and it makes me very suspicious. It has a full service history and low mileage. It’s the worst car I’ve ever had when it comes to MOTs, in contrast my older bangers always passed. Maybe it’s just my turn now!

I have a specialist car that’s 19 years old and immaculately maintained. It always passes the MOT with a few advisories. It’s a fun game to note which ones I’ve ignored and which don’t then appear on the next test cert.

It really is a very basic test and very reliant on how their tester approaches it as to what will be found.

I did have a car once whose brake pipes exploded when they did a brake test on a MOT. That was a surprise to everyone.

Modern cars are not designed to be sat around doing very low mileage. It’s really bad for them, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it caused issues on MOTS.

This. The cost of a basic service is buttons in the overall cost of car ownership. Not servicing it is great way to drastically shorten its life and reduce its value. The Americans are on the opposite end of the scale though, marketing has told them they need to change their oil every 3k miles 😂

Mine does because I get it serviced and a sight check and get any repairs done first.

It's daft not to get your car serviced OP.

The only issue I really get is my tyres cracking before they're worn out tread wise

I try and do a decent length drive when I do drive it (1-2 times a week) rather than short runs
Never used to do such low mileage but WFH now, however public transport is so shit I can't be without a car

My fun car has a 4500 mile service interval (and does 12mpg).

Sounds like an Evo. My fun cars tend to be serviced every 2-3k miles at most. My thirstiest does single figure mpg.

I recon it depends. Mine is very old. 15 years. hasn't passed the last few years and needed extra stuff done.

My car is 15 years old and failed once. I'd hit a pothole, knocked the tracking out on the tyres and one was being worn away on the inner wall. Easy fix. It rarely even has advisories as I have it serviced every year and check my pressures etc semi regularly.

Mine passed today but with an advisory for 4 misting shocks absorbers too. It's only ever failed one a couple of years ago for a broken suspension spring. 2017 Séat Leon.

I can't believe the amount of posters on here saying they don't service their cars, that's just asking for expensive problems later down the line.

Never failed. 10 year old Audi A3 TFSI, had it 8 years. Only mechanical problem with it has been when the battery went flat during lockdown.

@ItTook9Years not that I need to explain myself... but I drove my partner's car which I'm insured on throughout my maternity leave because it's considerably bigger than mine and that's where we installed the baby's car seat and the dog's car seat

Mine’s never failed, and it’s a Land Rover from 2010.

So yes, it’s normal. I’m not sure why you think passing two years in a row is something exceptional.

In the old days (70s, 80s and before) cars used to often fail because of rust, we used to have to have welding done on the sills a lot and I recall we had a VW Beetle which had to have a patch of metal welded into the floor pan as there was a hole in the bottom. Modern cars are much better made in that respect now so costly welding is rarely needed for MOT

Yes, so far. It's a 68 plate with low mileage. It's serviced regularly and is driven carefully. This year however I had to pay out a lot of money as the battery failed which caused a blown fuse to cut out the display screen (audio/cameras/sat nav). Took them three days of checking tons of wiring before they found the blown fuse. Frustratingly , when I took it in, I said "hopefully it's just a blown fuse" 😖

Depends how "modern" you mean. My 17 year old car does less than a thousand miles per year and can be sat stationery in the car park for several weeks at a time. Still in perfect running order and still never failed it's MOT. It's longest drive each year is probably the drive to the MOT garage which we use which is the other side of town. We drive it the long way round the town's by pass to warm it up and give it a good/fast run to help it through the emissions test!