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Updated: 05/01/2012 17:50 | By motoringresearch.com
MOT test to get tougher
The MOT test is get tougher for 2012 with more mandatory test items included in the latest group of changes to the vehicle roadworthiness assessment.
The move from the Department for Transport has added a number of items the test will now have to cover in order to reflect the growing complexity of modern vehicles.
With ESC electronic stability programmes now compulsory on all new vehicles in the EU, the changes to the test primarily surround electronic items commonly fitted to modern vehicles. This includes the testing of electronic parking brakes, electronic stability control, steering and suspension and lighting.
Checks of ABS anti-lock brakes will be extended to cover electronic stability control, with cars failing an MOT test if the electronic parking brake or stability control lights are illuminated. Testers will also now be looking for “inappropriately repaired or modified” items.
The new test will see a host of other warning lights checked for correct operation of the relevant systems, including the headlight main beam, power steering, brake fluid, air bag, tyre pressure monitoring system and seatbelt pre-tensioner warning lights.
Headlights will be checked with any products that modify lighting characteristics, with items on the lens or light source resulting in a failure of the test.
The new MOT will also include more mechanical checks. The correct functioning of the steering lock will be tested as will the state of the steering system’s dust covers. Missing, damaged or split gaiters allowing dirt into the steering ball joints will result in an MOT failure.
However, VOSA, the authority that regulates the MOT test, has indicated that ‘failures’ falling under the new items appended to the existing test will be treated as ‘advisories’ for the first three months of this year.
Motorists will then have until the next annual renewal to fix any faults.
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13Comments
03/01/2012 17:41
This has nothing to do with car or road safety; it is a smokescreen by the elite to scam even more money from the working classes who are dependant on their vehicles to get to work. They cant finish us off by the hike in fuel costs SO they pull this one out of the bag - What next I wonder!
03/01/2012 18:39
Are they crazy as long as the brakes. tyres .steering. lights. are ok that is the most important safety items, if they make it harder for cars to pass there will be more cars on the road without a mot and that means there will be more accidents.when you hear how many cars do not have insurance which is a criminal offence next thing will be checking the ash trays are empty and the carpets have been hovered...
04/01/2012 10:02
It is a fact that most garages cant deal with modern electronics,even main dealers struggle,which leads to the use of new parts that are not neccassary,but cover the faults,at our expense of course
It is not unusual to have to take the vehicle back after a repair and be told it is something else then have more parts fitted to cover the elusive fault.The over inflated cost of parts is taking having a vehicle further from the reach of the working man.Having privatised and ruined the public transport system,we are now in a pre-planned trap,Pay or walk.If you cant get to your place of employment,tough,there are plenty of people to choose from with all the unemployed.
Mot's are just another angle to get the roads clear for the elite.
03/01/2012 23:49
These new rules were to be brought -in alongside the M.O.T. being changed . Instead of the first M.O.T. being 3 years , instead changed to 5 years , and every TWO years instead of annually . But it seems now , that if it ever comes in it will be a long time yet . As for motor insurance being a "criminal" offence ,well ! it is and it isn't . The 1988 act was supposed to make it one , but if you ever have to have a police check for a job or whatever you will find if you have been caught without insurance ,it is not included on the check . Even most policemen are a bit woolly over the rules . So insurance & no licence is recordable on the p.n.c. computer ,but not on a criminal record check & is not an arrest able offence . The law & it's rules are complicated [as usual ] ,and soon many more are coming the motorists [and motorcyclists] way in 2013 . I had to keep abreast of most new laws when I had a share in a M.O.T. station , the government will be happy when we are all on foot .
03/01/2012 21:49
No they are not crazy peter it's just another way of taxing the motorist with all the extra V.A.T they will get from the cost of new parts.
04/01/2012 21:08
daughters car ,on motorway engine management light came on ...got AA to check it
cat gone ......just reset computer with my little handheld diagnostic machine ..then put it through an mot ....passed first time as always
1000 miles later still no problems ...was going to cost a small fortune to fix
so much for new techno bull .
04/01/2012 21:07
why.we have good standards already.
05/01/2012 00:49
I drive an older car with no driver aids, dont want em, they add complexity and expense, dont need them, i drive properly and dont use technology as a substitute for a respect for newtons laws.Get sick of idiots who think esp and traction control will give them the ability to brake and steer on an icy road.Recomend remove the airbags, let these muppets die and remove themselves from the gene pool.As to the mot, its ok now, but if people buy into tech, its supposed to be working, screw em for the expensive repairs .
05/01/2012 14:27
...And, of course, the cost of all of this will spiral upwards exponentially. It will also lead to more vehicles being removed from the road which until now WOULD have been considered safe to drive. A ploy which would lessen the amount of traffic on Britain's badly maintained roads, thereby conserving even MORE of the paltry sum of motorists' road-fund license money that government spend on the roads!
The Tory-led coalition stated several months ago that it was considering making the MOT test a bi--annual thing ("Oh no, lads, that's FAR too easy; we want to make it difficult for motorists to keep their cars on the road"!) How the minds of these politicians do vibrate with joy at the thought of making more money to put towards the deficit that THEY are currently making more pernicious by their inability to get their sums right, and by putting more and more of the population out of employment! Perhaps they haven't considered that if there were less vehicles on Britain's road network they would have even LESS tax income than is raised now!
What next? A deliberate return to the horse and carriage to go with their planned increase to an 80mph maximum speed on UK motorways, then levy a tax on individual horses and not on combined horse-power?
06/01/2012 12:32
Just another 'pop' at motorists and an opportunity to extract even more £s from us. This goverment will not be happy until everyone buys a new car every 2 years or has to use our rubbish public transport
05/01/2012 00:54
The elite driving set will of course include those of us who are mechanicaly able as well,hope your shoes are comfy,everyone else.
05/01/2012 14:36
What the hell is an "electronic parking brake"?! Is this something that battery-operated electric cars have? Thought I knew pretty much ALL of the terms relating to the motorcar but I've not heard of THAT one..!
I wonder if our friends at the AA and RAC will support the government on this piece of legislation?
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