Here’s a great explanation of why your MOT REALLY matters written by Simon Ross of Hove MOT.com. He also explains what happens when it’s taken to a FOXY Choice approved and highly stylish FEMALE FRIENDLY GARAGE like his in Hove of course….

OK it’s a bit technical but hang in there so when someone asks you whether you agree with the EU that MoTs would be OK every other year, you’ll know why the UK model of a MoT safety check every year is best for road safety reasons and can save us lives.

Here’s what Simon has to say about all this…

“Not everybody has a natural affinity with the mechanics of a car, just because you can drive one. Without sounding condescending I have tried to map out a simplified view of what and why a component failure can be dangerous to help a driver identify what might be wrong with their car.

There are a vast number of components on any car that can fail to do what they were meant to and make a car dangerous and it’s almost impossible to predict which component might fail and when.

However, the MOT test has been designed to put a car under various stresses that can replicate road use in order to allow a trained tester to see if vital moving parts are doing what they’re meant to do.

Brakes

The brakes on a car are probably the most important but are also the easiest parts to test, the visual inspection carried out by the MOT tester will tell him if the brake pads & discs are in good serviceable order and the rolling road will test the cars braking ability and how evenly distributed this is.

The part marked “Rotor” is otherwise known as the brake disc, it is the part that rotates with the wheel, it is compressed by the brake shoes to create friction in order to slow or stop the wheel from turning when the driver depresses the brake pedal.

The parts marked “Pads” are the brake pads, they are made of a steel backing plate and a man made fibrous bloke that is designed to press against the disc to create friction, obviously, over time, both the pads and disc will wear away.

Part of the visual inspection of the car braking system is to see how much of the man made block is still in serviceable condition, if a driver allows the block to wear too thin it will lose braking ability and severely damage the disc, eventually the brakes will fail completely.

There are clear guidelines set out by VOSA (the governing body of MOT testing) that give a specific minimum depth for the brake pad so that, with regular servicing and annual MOT testing, it should be almost impossible for a motorist to find themselves driving with pads that are likely to fail or damage the disc.

This is one of the simple aspects of motor car maintenance and MOT testing.

Ball Joints

Ball joints, much like the human body, are the mechanical version of a hip joint; a ball sits inside a cup (trapped) in order to allow the joint to move in numerous directions without becoming detached.

Also like the human version, a ball joint can become worn through use and can develop flat spots or become loose, the joints are often protected by grease filled rubber socks that can deteriorate or split allowing the lubricating grease to escape, therefore, the joint will become dry, possibly rust and fail to move correctly or become very noise or break.

During the MOT test, depending on whether a manual or an automated test is being carried out, all of these joints are tested. On an automated test lane the car is placed on a machine that puts the front wheels through a variety of different stress tests, this shows any excessive movement within the various joints.

On a manual MOT test, a similar process is carried out by two men with an iron bar that is used to apply pressure on the individual joints.

Clunking noises are the most common tell-tale signs of a worn ball joint, another common fault being a broken coil spring in the suspension assembly.

Suspension

The two most common components in a suspension assembly are the shock absorber suspension struts and the coil springs that wrap around them.

With continued deterioration of our road surfaces and an extremely noticeable increase in potholes, the suspension assemblies on our cars are coming under constant attack, this combined with rust causes coil springs to break quite easily.

One of the MOT test physical/visual checks is for the tester to run his/her hand over the length of the spring, quite often it can be found to have broken inside the retaining cup at the bottom of the spring, however, they can also fracture in more obvious places in the midway area.

Loud clunking and banging when driving over speed humps (a further cause of broken springs) is clearly evident.

The potential loss of control with suspension failure is enough to know that it is a repair that must be carried out IMMEDIATELY, especially if it is the front suspension. Sadly there is little one can do regarding maintaining springs, like so many parts on the modern car they are considered to be “consumables” they have a relatively short life expectancy.

Exhaust Pipe

The exhaust pipe is not simply a metal tube to transport the exhaust gases of a car away from the engine; it has evolved quite dramatically over the years and is now a far more important component to the way in which your car operates.

A normal internal combustion engine fueled by either diesel or petrol will produce poisonous gases; in the early years of motoring these gases were not recognised as poisonous and very little attention was drawn to them. However, over many years and the production of millions of cars, it became apparent that the poisonous gases and increasing levels of engine noise needed to be controlled. We would live in a very different world if the exhaust system had not been introduced as a necessary automotive component.

The exhaust pipe ensures that the poisonous and noxious gases are kept away from the occupants of the car and, ideally, from pedestrians. It is fitted with mufflers or silencers to ensure that the engine noise is within allowable decibel levels and the catalytic converter removes most of the poisons from the exhaust gases.

All in all, the exhaust system does rather a lot.

With regard to MOT testing and maintaining a car properly, the areas of concern are:

1)   Exhaust gas leaks that could poison occupants.
2)   Open joints or broken exhaust sections that would allow a distinct increase in engine noise.
3)   The security of fixings ensuring that the exhaust system, like any other component, cannot fall off of the car and, potentially, cause damage to the car behind which; could cause an accident.
4)   That the catalytic converter is absorbing sufficient poisons, this would become clear during the engine emission test.

Tyres

The only point of contact that your car should have with the ground is through your tyres so they are absolutely critical to your safety and should be maintained regularly and replaced before they become a time bomb.

Tyres can wear in different ways under different circumstances:

All of these types of tyre wear are very common, a tyre being over or under inflated is the most common but also the easiest to resolve, all modern cars (normally inside the fuel filler flap or in the drivers door shut) are marked with the correct tyre pressures, these should always be checked regularly and especially before long trips.

Alignment problems can often be resolved easily by a trained mechanic or tyre fitter with the help of a laser alignment tool, the fact that a wheel is out of alignment may well be the result of a pot hole or kerb impact.

The wear caused by a failing suspension strut or shock absorber can also be easily resolved by a trained mechanic.

None of these wear patterns should ever be allowed to occur and with regular servicing, maintenance and annual MOT testing, the root cause would normally be resolved before costly repairs are required.

The kind of damage that cannot be avoided is the type of thing caused by pot holes:

Lights

I think lights pretty much speak for themselves but it still astonishes me how often cars are presented for an MOT test with either lights not working at all or with wiring faults that make the wrong lights illuminate, also very common.

One of the most common MOT fails is light alignment, this only applies to the headlights, it’s when the angle of the headlight unit is set incorrectly so that it looks as if you’re either driving with full beam on all of the time or they are pointing too far to the left or right or they are so low that the driver cannot see far enough ahead.

All MOT test centres are equipped with a calibrated light alignment system which determines acceptable tolerances for both high and low beam settings.

Indicator lights must be yellow/orange, this used to mean that the actual lense was coloured but these days they are generally fitted with a coloured bulb, this certainly makes replacing the unit cheaper but the coloured paint on the bulb often flakes off leaving white light so the bulb needs replacing more often.

Many modern cars are now fitted with two low level brake lights and one high level central brake light. Current VOSA legislation states that only two of the three need to be working to pass an MOT test, however, if three are fitted then common sense says they should all be working.”
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Thank you very much Simon. Click here to find out about his MOT garage in Hove and what makes it different from so many others.

FOXY Steph

Our family bus, the wonderful long suffering Citroen Picasso, needed its MOT doing this week. The nearest FOXY Choice subscriber was female friendly SB Motors garage in Hove run by foxy lady Caroline Baxter so off I trotted for a chat whilst the job was being done.

Caroline told me that despite trading better during the recession than in 2008 (in which she is bucking the industry trend) the Bank says she is in a high risk area (garages presumably are discretional income?) so she can’t expect to borrow from them and must fund business growth herself. Whilst I am waiting for my car in the nice and warm reception area there is a steady flow of MOT, car servicing and repair business coming and going which certainly looks healthy to me.

My car then fails its MOT (I seem to recall a recent ‘grounding’ that may have caused this which my husband is unaware of until he reads this…) and needs a central exhaust part <not discretional income in any way Mr Bank Manager> so off I trotted again yesterday to get the job finished.

Whilst I was there I finalised a special offer for local members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club and talked Caroline into being FOXY’s first Female Business Ambassador; a new network to recognise female friendly garages who employ and/or are run by women, giving them the opportunity to describe a typical day for the benefit of other females who might want to know what is involved.

In my experience this means they are more likely to understand and appreciate what women want and many women see this as a sign of reassurance BUT it is by no means compulsory to employ women to be a female friendly business so this is not sexist thing and in fact most of the men I have spoken to quite like the idea too .

More about this later as the Female Business Ambassador network is under wraps and not quite ready to launch yet… hopefully by early February.

FOXY Steph

Clearly I am biased about this because I run a motoring club but many women drivers like me need a car for one or more of the following reasons…
“Our public transport service is virtually non-existent”
“I have multiple small children to ferry around”
“I like to feel safe when I go out at night”
“I am not confident enough to cycle in town”
“I am not confident enough to drive an unfamiliar car that I know little about… (common car club concern)
So with all these good reasons why many women drivers favour our cars why should we be made to feel bad about this or be inconvenienced for driving when we have no choice? Who are the real motoring sadists out there?

Well I suggest that a few of them must live in Brighton; cyclists probably, trendsetters of course and jolly good environmentalists I feel sure. But they clearly care not a jot about business people who need to visit Brighton and who must surely dread the experience as much as I do.

Whenever I have a business meeting in Brighton I need to add another half an hour to get through the traffic and find somewhere to park. It’s unbelievably stressful, wastes loads of my time, too many meters are unreliable (trust me I know) and car parks are SO very expensive.

Why is the traffic so bad Brighton and your parking provision even worse? Why are so many new houses built without any parking spaces or garages? If the buses are where it’s at, how come so many of us still need to use cars to go to the theatre, attend business meetings, deliver heavy sales stocks or simply travel from one business location to another without wasting days entering or exiting your city…

Give me a choice and I’ll arrange a meeting anywhere in Sussex but Brighton. I’ll then buy a drink and a meal which would otherwise have gone into Brighton’s coffers.

Just how unfriendly can you really afford to be in future?

Are there other unfriendly places motorists should avoid in the UK?

Please tell me before it’s too late…

FOXY Steph