The randomness of MOT's

[halfnelson]

Took Biggreen for it's mot yesterday - to the same garage it goes to every year. Went to pick it up and was told everything was perfect - except it had failed because it had a powersteering pump fitted. He acknowledged the car had no powersteering, no powersteering rack, no powersteering, but as it had the pump bolted in place it was an MOT failure. I figured he'd just say 'here's the certificate - make sure you unbolt it for next time' but no, had to take it home, remove and re-present.
Did point out they'd done the last 4 MOT's and it'd sailed through each with no advisories - and had had the pump on each time. Sometimes MOT's can be so random.

[harvey]

The tester should go back and read the Tester's Manual:

"
If power steering is optional fitment on the vehicle but has been disconnected in such a way that there is no adverse effect on the steering, that is not a Reason for Rejection."

[Clifford Pope]

I agree, even testers I have known for years can suddenly display contrariness in their decisions, and either fail things they have passed previously, or pass things that a year before they would have failed.

I suspect it is because they are actually human, and so when each year they go on their refresher course, or get the new number of "MOT Tester Monthly", they hear about some particular item they are warned to watch out for, so for a month or so they get eagle-eyed for things to watch for. After that, they lapse back into normality, until some new topic comes along.

Over the years I have had erratic treatment of such topics as:

Front wheel bearings - obsession with tightening up even the most miniscule of float
Rear wheel bearings - mostly my man hardly even bothers waggling the wheel, but then one year he failed it on a small and within tolerance amount of float. I swapped it for another one, and put the shaft in another car, which he then passed a few months later.
Headlamp bulbs - failed on minute colour variation between different tints. At another time, he made no comment on a mixed blue and white.
Exhaust heat shield missing. Passed for 9 years, advisory one year, then passed again with no comment.

And so on. But he's a friendly, reasonable chap, so I go along with what he advises. Sometimes in return he trusts me to fix minor things. He seems to know how to dodge the on-line testing requirements, so can do quick "full" retests in about 5 minutes if he decides it's not worth going through the whole procedure.

[Paul Wildsmith]

try sending the car in with the wife

[Derek UK]

Originally Posted by Paul Wildsmith

try sending the car in with the wife

Is that meant to be a plus or a minus..........

[halfnelson]

Yes, all good now it's off. It was only on as the original owner toyed with adding power steering.
It's usually emissions that they struggle with - I had an old Alfa and it was an annual pain of leaning off and tweaking just to get it through and then re tweaking to put eveything back to normal.