Folks,

Got my MOT on Wednesday (gulp). I think all is OK with the exception of;

1. Rear washer jet leaks inside. I have a a cheap fix ready from this forum but have not gotten round to doing it what with the weather etc. Me being lazy also Do they check this on an MOT do you know?
2. The spare wheel I have is a 19" but the wheels on the car are 20"s. Do you know if this is classed as a failure?

Thanks in advance.

Neither of those items are even checked on the MOT.

The spare tyre doesn't even have to be servicable, it can be bald, punctured and buckled. You don't even have to have one!

I thought the rule as that you didn't need to have one, but if you did, it had to be road legal? Got - 2017 SDV8 Autobiography in Loire Blue
Had- 2008 TDV8 Vogue SE in Java black
Had - 2007 S/C in Stornoway Grey

unless it's changed within the last couple of years, they don't even check it for the MOT.

If you were to fit it on the car it would be a fail (ie. the car standing on it), but when its in the boot as a spare is can be in any state, can be an advisory if noticed, but they don't have to check it.

Last edited by Zirconblue on 24th Aug 2015 11:11pm. Edited 1 time in total

That's what I remember from many moons ago. If you had one and it wasn't legal they failed you but if you didn't have one at all they couldn't. I'll need to read up a bit I think. Stupid rules.

http://www.motinfo.gov.uk/htdocs/m4s04000101.htm

There you go the official MOT manual for MOT Testers - if you've ever had a failure for a defective spare tyre, the MOT tester was wrong.

Quote:

"This inspection applies to tyres fitted to the road wheels only. The vehicle presenter should be informed when it is noticed that there is a defective tyre on a spare wheel"

Every day's a school day!  Got - 2017 SDV8 Autobiography in Loire Blue
Had- 2008 TDV8 Vogue SE in Java black
Had - 2007 S/C in Stornoway Grey

It's common sense really, if they had to fail you for having a defective spare. They know full well you'll just take it out of the boot and take it back for a retest without it! - It's rare for government agencies to apply common sense!

ok that clears that up then. Thanks. I've been wondering whether to just take it out anyway, save a bit of weight since it's the wrong size anyway.

It'll be fine as a spare, the over all size with the tyre wont be much different, but you should treat it as a space saver spare.

Shouldn't be too hard to find a matching 20" rim on ebay, you can then sell on the 19" to pay for it.

I have the 7 spokes so will take a look.

Like this one;

Easy to find, just make sure you get one with the little holes between the bolt holes.

I might even have a spare one when i've finished getting mine refurbished. I bought a spare so i can get the wheels refurbed one at a time without being without a spare and in case any of mine were found to be bad during the refurb.

I used to work on a lot of cars years ago in the 90s and took cars for mots regularly and rightly or wrongly he did say if it had a spare it had to be legal and I did see him check on more than one occasion,i did take many out for the mot !

Yes I had all my wheels re-done last December, powder baked etc. Look really nice £400 for all 4 all in. If you have a spare you plan on putting up for sale let me know. Thanks.

Rangeyman wrote:

I used to work on a lot of cars years ago in the 90s and took cars for mots regularly and rightly or wrongly he did say if it had a spare it had to be legal and I did see him check on more than one occasion,i did take many out for the mot !

MOT testers are all human after all, they can make mistakes. If you ever get someone trying to fail your car for something like that, you're entitled to have them show it to you in the MOT manual - they have to have a copy on site for reference.