AIBU to disable a faulty tyre pressure warning to pass the MOT?

[NorwichMom]

I’m aware the latter option probably isn’t legal. Keep in mind the car is old and I will keep it until it dies so won’t be passing this problem onto someone else.

I have a light on the dashboard because the tyre pressure monitoring system valves have failed. I took it to a garage a year ago who said it wouldn’t be a mot failure. That it would be about £500 to fix and they recommended I learnt to live with it.

Fair enough i thought. None of my previous cars have had a tyre pressure monitoring system I can live without it. So bought a pump which plugs into the cigarette lighter thing and I regularly check my tyre pressures and inflate if needed. Old fashioned maybe but safe.

Turns out it is a mot failure after all. The mechanic suggested I find someone who can do something to my car to make my car think it hasn’t got a tyre pressure monitoring system and then the light will go out. Someone has offered to do this (I think for free). Or I pay circa £500 to have it fixed.

That is literally what he said to me. I took the car and that’s what he told me. Nkw whether he was exaggerating how bad it was to make himself look good and gain me as a repeat customer that’s a possibility. It’s down as an advisory but he said it’s his judgement as to how bad it is whether it’s a fail or an advisory and he’d “be nice and put it down as an advisory”.

What happened to the mechanic checking the tyre pressure with an air pressure gauge?!

I would get a second opinion.

I hate TPMS systems. Most useless invention ever. How did we ever cope before they were invented?

OP, can you get someone to remove the little bulb behind the dash or take the correct fuse out?

DP finished his MOT quals 2 weeks ago as another notch on his job belt, so up to date fresh training, they don't plug it in.

Just like they cant be overly tough on checking for rusty sills.

MOTs are very minimal checks in the grand scheme of things

Yeah they are totaly pointless. It's normal to just check tyre pressure regularly anyway

Well I thought about that but am worried as someone said all lights should flash on initially and then Go off. So there is a potential for a switched on mechanic to notice it never flashed on.

It's of no benefit to him to "be nice" though - because surely if it's a fail he can then fix it?

Removing a warning light bulb on a Vauxhall Astra dashboard is physically possible on older models, but modern Astras use soldered-in digital LEDs linked to the computer. It will not fix the underlying car problem, and a missing mandatory warning light causes an instant MOT test failure.

so probably not a good idea sadly.

Fair point. So I have no idea why he said it but that’s what he said. 🤷‍♀️

Perhaps an independent garage with a strong and loyal customer base may wish to offer that extra care (subtext doing work as required and before a massive problem). Don’t ever believe a main dealer offers 1st class care.

And looking at your tyres is really sensible too.

Well obviously if you are checking the pressure you are more likely to notice wear or cuts etc

I'm confused on what you are saying

I disagree. They give advance warning of a tyre problem.

We got a low tyre pressure bong due to a puncture while driving on the motorway towing a trailer. It gave enough time for us to come off the motorway and fix it in safety.

Shakes head….

Ime, garage mechanics say shit like that to women. I don't know why. Possibly some kind of "white knight syndrome".

I bet they've never said it to a man.

My last year's MOT he said he'd passed it but the handbrake was loose - he implied he was doing be a favour. Seemed odd to me as I'd just had all the brakes replaced. I took it back to where they'd done it and they checked it all (a small place, I was literally sitting by my car as they did it) and said there was no problem at all and they didn't know what he was talking about. I've never had a problem and it passed this years MOT.

I can give you about five stories like this. I'm kind of immune to it.

Whilst they don't use it to view fault codes, some MOT emission test analysers plug into the vehicle's 16-pin OBD port to pull live data like engine temperature and RPM speed needed for the test.