Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[clan chieftain]

Following on from Tangos topic on her mini having a load of faults and just being MOTd the week previous, In one of the garages I used to go into when the owner went out on a Wednesday to the car auctions his mechanic was doing dodgy MOTs until one day the MOT inspectors caught him and told him to put the car back up on the ramp and they checked it...and of course failed it. The owner was the bloke I felt sorry for as he lost his MOT station and the garage is now closed. He knew nothing of what was going on.
I have also heard of cars passing an MOT and believe it or not the new bits were stripped off and the old bits put back on and the car was then sold with a full MOT. Hard lines on the garage who done the MOT in good faith if the new owner of the car reported it. There is still a big gap in the MOT rules and far too many garages doing MOTs.
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The Clan Chieftain

[Riley Blue]

That's the best reason to go to a test station that doesn't do repairs or sell cars, they've nothing to gain by issuing dodgy certificates and everything to lose if they did.

[colwyn500]

[47p2]

I used to work for a company that kept a set of MOT tyres. They were fitted to the truck, sent for the MOT and removed when the truck came back to the yard.

I also worked in the north side of Glasgow for a large company which was close to a taxi retailer who would supply dodgy MOTs for £15
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ROVER
One of Britain's Fine Cars

[ukdave2002]

It's the NT who looses his licence first these days....VOSA can turn up at any time and re test. If an NT gets suspended I doubt the garage is under any obligation to pay him.

Dave

[Richard H]

It's very easy to get dodgy MoT's. My blue A55 (bought on Ebay) came with a near 12 month's MOT from an East London garage which was very iffy. The windscreen washers didn't work, brakes didn't work, no battery clamp, no headlights, no horn, several corroded brake pipes...

Before I sold it I sorted out all the problems and got a proper MOT on it.
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Richard Hughes

[Scotty]

[Tango]

Hi, I have to say after we found some of the awful & somewhat dangerous faults on the Mini I rang VOSA & reported them. I would hate for someone to have a nasty accident because some dodgy MOT station is taking backhanders etc.
Jaine

[victor 101]

Took my modern for MOT yesterday, and whilst waiting for it (about an hour)my thoughts went back to what was probably my first MOT which would have been late sixties. Pulled up on the forecourt, and the tester stood in front, lights/indicators/wipers, round the back, lights/indicators/brake lights. jumped in, horn, drove forward 5' and braked, same backwards, then forward again for the handbrake test, finally laying on the floor and poking about underneath with a metal bar.
must have taken about 5 minutes.

[Tango]

[RUSTON]

A few years ago the company that I worked for sold a pair of Seddon Atkinson eight wheel tippers to a contractor, he got one through its test (my old lorry as it happend) and then swapped the reg and chassis plates over onto the other one and passed with that as well haha!

We used to keep various parts for 'test time' like a drivers seat that wasn't broken and of course a better set of tyres. We also used to take the wear out of propshaft sliding joints by filling the splines with junior hacksaw blades, in the days of the infamous Foden transmission handbrake we took a length of pipe to put over the lever to get more leverage, then had to stand up in the cab to try and get the ratchet off again!

Pete.
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Measure twice...cut once!

[pigtin]

My first ever MOT was in 1960 (I think.) I left my Vauxhall 14/6 at the garage in the morning, and in the evening a pair of salesmen visited me at home and told me the car had failed disastrously and they could offer me good terms on a new one.

I advised them Foxtrot Oscar then took it to Martin Walters, the main Vauxhall dealer, for an assessment of what was wrong. They could only find a little movement on one Dubonnet suspension pod shaft. I bought one for £4 from the breakers fitted it, and they gave me an MOT.
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Due to the onset of my mid eighties I'm no longer sprightly and rarely seen in my Austin special. I have written a book though. https://amzn.eu/d/7rwRRqL

[JC T ONE]

[V8 Nutter]

There used to be an American car dealer in the midlands who I believe went to prison for his dodgy dealing. Example, a local club member bought a Camaro, with a new MOT, driving home he thought the brakes were bad. He looked underneath and found one front caliper was seized, and a pair of Mole grips on the flexi pipe on the other side to stop that brake working and level up the system. He complained to the MOT station and discovered they had tested a different car with the same number plates.

[Ellis]

I thought the days of "dodgy" MOTs were over, by and large but the experience of a friend has taught me otherwise.

In February of last year (2012) he bought a 1996 Discovery 300tdi with eight and a half months MOT remaining. He used it for some weeks until one day he attached his trailer (a small one) and pulled away. He heard a bang and the rear N/S wheel disappeared under the wheel arch.

The radius arm mount had been pulled out of a completely rotten chassis.
The O/S was little better and the inner sills were all but non existent. There was no point trying to repair it - there was nothing worth welding onto. The Discovery was a death trap and he was quite shocked and with good reason.

The vehicle had only travelled some 600 miles after the MOT. Surely it could not have deteriorated to that extent in just over three months and 600 miles.

I bought the vehicle from him at scrap value.
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Starting Handle Expert

1964 Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre
1962 Land Rover Series 2a 88"
2002 BMW M3 E46 Cabriolet