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Does anyone else get MOT nerves?


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So I've got my proper MOT test tomorrow.  I'm 99.9% sure everything is going to be fine considering all the work I've done - but still, I'm feeling really anxious about it for some reason.  I suppose mostly because the only things I cant check myself are the emissions and brake roller tests - although I'm confident those will be fine too but you never know.

 

What is it about MOT time that makes people anxious?  especially those of us here who really know their cars and whats been done - it kinda doesn't make sense lol

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Perhaps you take "its" failure personally as you have been doing the servicing?

Goes some way to explaining my mechanics comment at last MOT.

"Of course it passed. I service it!" He is the MOT tester.................

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I'm just not comfortable with someone else violating him with proddings and pokings and shakings lol.. 

 

But yeah - I think for me its the "did I miss a huge hole in the floor?" type of wait....

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There's quite a few things to think about here. I had been using the same small garage for my MoT for ~20 years and never had any grief -but then they closed. I decided to try a local garage and I've never seen such a long list of advisories as they came up with (this was not on my 7 but on another car). Fortunately, someone put me on to another garage and the same car has subsequently passed another 2 MoT's with no advisories.

 

Of course with that car, and now with the 7, we're talking about cars which are pretty old, so it's more likely they will have problems than a say a 4 year old car. You just cannot be 100% sure that you've sorted everything prior to the test.

 

Bit I also share the same feeling that I really hate anyone else touching the my cars. So, it's not so much that I feel nervous, but more like the bad feeling that somebody is intruding where they are definately not welcome.

Edited by bazz54
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Quote

Bit I also share the same feeling that I really hate anyone else touching the my cars. So, it's not so much that I feel nervous, but more like the bad feeling that somebody is intruding where they are definately not welcome.

 

its a horrible feeling isn't it.

 

A couple years ago I was getting my MR2 tested and the guy drove it onto the brake rollers at a bit of an angle, with the inside of the passenger rear tyre rubbing against the concrete divider between the rollers.  If I hadn't spotted it and asked him to straighten it up he would have shredded my tyre and possibly the wheel along with it.

 

I didn't get angry, everyone makes mistakes, but its crap like that that makes me nervous - when you do something day in day out you tend to not really give a crap after a while and you never know whats going to happen.

 

My MOT tomorrow is the first with my Celica, and its a new testing station (for me) as well - although they do have a very good reputation.

Edited by G.Lewarne
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The worse thing is...you are at the mercy of someone's opinion on the day...(unless you are having the MOT done by the garage that looks after your car..that's usually a good result.;))

 

All you can do is present the vehicle as best you can having checked the basics....I spent some years in the trade and even the resident mechanics got a little nervous when MOT time came around.

 

I was a little nervous myself back in May when my imported 2003 Estima went for it's first MOT in my ownership...but no worries..it went through with no advisories whatsoever.:D

 

Neil

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A looked after celica very rarely fails on anything serious

 

The only ones that do tend to be badly oil burning 140s on emissions (when I say bad i mean pouring out smoke). Now rotten subframes, tanks and filler pipes are the big ones - but its not all of them (mine is W reg, 271000 miles and all are solid) and I have never done anything to clean / protect it underneath and have even been known to go 10,000 miles between washes (through winter).

 

Over the years have seen plenty of cars come in with long lists of failures that when they have been retested have not been failures at all. I have also seen cars come in (from elsewhere) with a years MOT with serious failures (one had no handbrake, no fog light, headlights that had virtually no output and suspension that was knocking its arse off on both sides as well as several other issues.)

 

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I'm glad I did another pre-check this morning :o

 

Between me checking all the bulbs a couple days ago and this morning, a side indicator bulb had gone, so have time to pop to the factors to get a pair and replace both of them.

 

Gonna give it a good warm up before I take it to the station (technically 3 mins drive from my house).  Ive washed the bodywork and chassis to show off all my lovely new suspension, brakes, subframes and steering parts and given the interior a thorough clean.

 

Also picked up a full set of new bosch wipers as one of mine was starting to judder with all the recent sunsine cooking / rain spells

 

fingers crossed no issues.

Edited by G.Lewarne
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WOOHOO !!!!!!

Full pass, no advisories whatsoever.  Brake tests perfect, emissions absolutely perfect.   Some very nice comments from the MOT tester on its general condition and how nice it was to test.

 

£30 later and all my hard work has paid off :D

 

woohoo!

 

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23 minutes ago, bazz54 said:

Exellent! As above, a looked after 7 seems to be pretty bullet proof in terms of MoT's. I guess the main issue as they age will be keeping rust at bay?

 

 

MOT dude couldn't find any of the brown stuff left on mine that I hadn't already caught and corrected.  Just means that now I'm all set, ive got to keep an eye out and plan a good check over every 6 months or so to try and catch the tinworm larvae early enough

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Brown stuff...    had me worrried there for a minute! Incidently, when I painted my sills recently, I also set up a little corrosion experiment - it's a strip of what was really rusty steel, cleaned up with a wire brush, and then I painted some patches on it, some straight on the metal, some on top of Flag's anti-rust (which you recommended), some on top of Jenolite. The paint is zinc phosphate primer. This is not exactly scientific, and I don't know how long it will take to show any effects, but I'll post any results when they show. As well as my 15 year old Celica, I've also got a 19 year old Rover 600 to keep fettled :doh:

Edited by bazz54
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34 minutes ago, bazz54 said:

Brown stuff...    had me worrried there for a minute! Incidently, when I painted my sills recently, I also set up a little corrosion experiment - it's a strip of what was really rusty steel, cleaned up with a wire brush, and then I painted some patches on it, some straight on the metal, some on top of Flag's anti-rust (which you recommended), some on top of Jenolite. The paint is zinc phosphate primer. This is not exactly scientific, and I don't know how long it will take to show any effects, but I'll post any results when they show. As well as my 15 year old Celica, I've also got a 19 year old Rover 600 to keep fettled :doh:

 

neat experiment.

 

So far I'm liking the FLAG stuff - with a couple coats seems to hold up well.  In 6 months my front brake disc hubs still aren't rusty

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