Page 8 | To ask if your car normally passes it's MOT.

girlfriend44 · 2025-03-10T15:17:20+00:00

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

jasflowers · 13/03/2025 15:06

Dreamskies · 13/03/2025 13:23

A service won’t stop you failing an MOT. Service looks at changing your oil, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter etc to keep the engine running well.

MOT checks for road worthiness - is it going to fall apart? Are any load bearing parts rusting through, do your lights work, do your doors open etc. They’re not the same thing and not really linked whatsoever.

Both should be done for different reasons. If you maintain your car and keep on top of any advisories then no reason for it to fail.

And critically - an MOT doesn’t mean there’s nothing wrong with your car! It does specific roadworthiness checks only.

Edited

A good service should include almost everything an MOT would check for & a few things an MOT wouldn't look at, so i would expect brakes/hoses, steering and suspension to be checked and for me to be advised accordingly.

Ok it wont check emissions or brake bias.

Remember also that an MOT technician (who may not necessarily be a mechanic) isn't allowed to take off anything that requires tools, so brake pad and disk wear wont be checked if it cannot be done so without tools.

Dreamskies · 13/03/2025 15:08

Shade17 · 13/03/2025 14:56

Obviously. But to say they’re not linked is just wrong. A service should include a lot of checks as well as the replacement of the service items. I wouldn’t expect a car that’s just been serviced to fail on bulbs, tyre tread depth of brake pad thickness for example.

Although, as I said previously, the best option is to MOT first then pick up any fails during the service.

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My point was the myriad of people saying “mine won’t fail its MOT, I get it serviced just before” as though they are one and the same and that getting a service will rectify any defect that could cause MOT failure. I was simply saying that isn’t the case and not some kind of fail safe.

Which you’ve kinda agreed with in your final point….! That servicing first, while certainly not an issue, also isn’t necessarily the prescribed way to do it.

Dreamskies · 13/03/2025 15:10

jasflowers · 13/03/2025 15:06

A good service should include almost everything an MOT would check for & a few things an MOT wouldn't look at, so i would expect brakes/hoses, steering and suspension to be checked and for me to be advised accordingly.

Ok it wont check emissions or brake bias.

Remember also that an MOT technician (who may not necessarily be a mechanic) isn't allowed to take off anything that requires tools, so brake pad and disk wear wont be checked if it cannot be done so without tools.

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A service isn’t “prescribed” in the same way an MOT is, so you’ve no guarantee they’ve actually checked all the things you think they may have. As you say, a “good” service might pick some up, a lazy one probably won’t. And it’s still not a fail safe.

zingally · 18/10/2025 12:33

Hmm... Probably about 70% of the time, but I always get a full service at the same time as the MOT, so if it doesn't pass, it's not a big deal. It gets whatever repair it needs, and is then MOT'd again. IME, garages don't charge for the re-test if you've had a service at the same time.

JaceLancs · 19/10/2025 07:35

I think it depends on age of vehicle and how many miles a year you do
My 12 year old VW just passed with only one advisory which DP is fixing tomorrow - DD has an older car which again passed a few days ago but was given advisories for brakes and tyres