MOT Failure......or not ?

[jetronic63]

Hello all,

I have a '90 240GLT Saloon in the UK and the MOT is due in July. I have had the car for about 2-3 months and have noticed the following points which I am concerned may cause it to fail its MOT.

1.) Front discs, clean but worn with pronounced ridge on the edge
2.) Rear discs, rusty and pitted with only limited clean shiny areas
3.) Slightly high tick-over (1000-1100rpm) - but smooth !
4.) Cracked rear lamp cluster, cracked on the return near the licence plate and covered in silver duct tape, main rear facing area is not cracked and unit is not showing any white light.

Thanks, Steve.

[dgbalfour]

This is quite a good website for such queries:

http://www.ukmot.com/manual.asp

I had cracked light clusters for years and it's never caused the MOT man to fail it. I changed them when they started letting lots of water in because that cheesed off the current sensor for the warning light.

David

[the great one]

1 front discs should pass
2 rear discs may fail if excess
3 idle can be adjusted but may have air leak causig emissions to be high
4 as long as no white it should pass

The discs should not fail less the brake efficiancy is down.

The lense will fail now as new rules came into force last month (i had the light tape on mine and failed. The emissions will fail if they're above a certain percentage, although a good rev does normally resolve the problem


Charlotte

[the great one]

you can fail discs on condition not just performance

[morsing]

[QUOTE=stephenmogg]Hello all,

1.) Front discs, clean but worn with pronounced ridge on the edge

This will probably fail depending on thickness as well

2.) Rear discs, rusty and pitted with only limited clean shiny areas

My BMW failed on this even though it was only a very minor area on the inside on one rear discs!

3.) Slightly high tick-over (1000-1100rpm) - but smooth !

Can't see that being a failure

4.) Cracked rear lamp cluster, cracked on the return near the licence plate and covered in silver duct tape, main rear facing area is not cracked and unit is not showing any white light.

Don't know. Front lamps can't be cracked but I don't know about rears

[Mike_Brace]

What I do in these situations is to ask the person who will test the car before putting it into test - he's more than happy to advise and would sooner not have a re-test! It is worth asking.

Mike

If the brakes seem bad enough to be a concern for the MOT, isn't it best to get them checked out for your own sake rather than just so it'll pass the MOT?

Re. the MOT, just get it done within good time before it expires. Then if it fails they will tell you, get the work done and you've got 14 days before the re-test.

Unless you are one of these "proud to never have had an MOT failure" types, let the MOT pick up anything that fails.... you might go and do a load of work on stuff you think will fail, turns out it fails on something completely different and you'll be kicking yourself for spending out on the other stuff it probably wouldn't have failed on anyway!

But as I say, I wouldn't rely on an MOT to pick up anything which you think might be safety critical. When I first got my car I got an MOT done just to "check it out" - it's only £30 after all! As it turned out, plenty of stuff wrong with the car but it passed the MOT.....

Pete

[Alec Dawe]

Front discs, depends if the disc thickness is still within the makers wear tolerance, if the tester is that picky.

Rear discs. I would be worried about this, If not all shiny, then for some reason the pads are not making contact with the discs! Stuck pad, seized piston????

Lights, mine are the same, and went through MOT last month, not even mentioned, but I'd think about getting rid of the silver tape, as it draws attention to the crack, and replace with coloured. Provided the crack is not in the light emission area, then should not be a problem, but don't highlight it with silver tape.

Emissions.. well these should be adjustable, depending on the injection system.

[ivor940]

Hi, I usually remove the outer lip with a 4" angle grinder while spinning the disk. Check in Haynes for minimun disk thickness. Remember that disks are now much cheaper than they used to be and due to no Asbestos in the pads, disks may only last 2 pad changes. The rear disks may have been pitted due to non use of car for a long period. As rear pads do not get as much use in a car driven with no load in the rear, the pads will only polish a small part of the disk. I agree with Alec that there could be a caliper seized. If you intend keeping the car for a long time, recommend replacing the back disks, check for seized rear caliper & if the front disks are below minimum thickness, replace them as well. If funds are tight, maybe some other forum member might have good secondhand disks for sale at a low price. A second hand good rear light lens will improve the appearence as well as help pass the MOT. Alternately, you can get red lens repair tape in motor factors. Keep these 240s going as long as possible.

ivor940