car with no MOT can it be kept on the road

wijcc

wijcc

wijcc

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Joined
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My car has failed its MOT, it is still insured and has months of road tax left. Can I still keep the car parked on a public road while i decide whether to repair it or scrap it?
Thanks in advance.
 
Well, he's definitely not going to be able to keep it parked on the road if he SORNs it, is he? ;)

wijcc - have you not got anywhere off the road where you can keep it for a while?
 
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No i don't have a driveway or anywhere else to keep the car unfortunately.
The car is an 2001 ford focus, with 135K miles on it.
It failed on the following things:
Brakes imbalanced across an axle rear (Axel 2)
Rear brake recording little or no effort offside
Coil spring broken offside rear
Registration plate lamp not working rear (bothsides)

The garage quoted it would cost about £500-600 to rectify all these issues. The car also has some other little niggley problems no associated with the MOT.. so i am edging towards scraping it I think. It is a garage i have been using for over 10 years... he advised not fixing it as worth the money.
 
Has the MOT expired, or has it just failed. Unless deemed unsafe for the road you still have an MOT until the current one expires.

Building Candy said:
Pretty sure no MOT means no insurance :confused:
Click to expand...

Not at all true. You need an MOT to get Tax, but insurance is seperate. You can insure SORN cars for example.
 
The current MOT expires on the 14th, I can drive it till then. Trying to decide whether to repair it or replace it... I have another thread going regarding what I might replace it with if I decide to go down that route.
 
Sounds like just a rear caliper that's stuck, and a pair of rear springs and a couple of bulbs. Couple of hours work and a hundred quid at most, surely?
 
it has drum brakes in the rear. I think it was last year or the year before that they/same garage took off and then cleaned the rear brakes for me.
Here is the pic of the brake test results.
IMG_20160108_192948.jpg
 
A new wheel cylinder, a spring and some bulbs. What's the big deal? That's about £50 in parts and a couple of hours labour.
 
as well as other problems other than the MOT failures:
Consuming a lot of engine oil, need to top up approx a litre every month, worn piston rings
interior central locking not working, also boot release button on dashboard not working.
Leaking coolant fluid and thermostat needing replacing too.
VSS sensor will need replacing again soon (replaced it about 5 or so years) as every so often the speedo will not working for a few secs or till restart the engine.

I am weighing up all my options, going to get quote from another garage with regards to solving the MOT failures.
Will also see what i can get if i choose to trade up and get a newer vehicle
 
wijcc said:
as well as other problems other than the MOT failures:
Consuming a lot of engine oil, need to top up approx a litre every month, worn piston rings
interior central locking not working, also boot release button on dashboard not working.
Leaking coolant fluid and thermostat needing replacing too.
VSS sensor will need replacing again soon (replaced it about 5 or so years) as every so often the speedo will not working for a few secs or till restart the engine.

I am weighing up all my options, going to get quote from another garage with regards to solving the MOT failures.
Will also see what i can get if i choose to trade up and get a newer vehicle
Click to expand...

On its own it might seem simple to just throw it away, but in combination with your other thread about its replacement being around £2k at most, fixing it for a couple of hundred is the sensible thing. There's a high chance any £2k car could generate an MOT failure list just like that next time round.
 
My car failed on the brakes being imbalanced last year & they were fine, it was just the MOT place trying to scam me.
 
There is a garage that will charge me £130 for labour if I provide the parts.
To change the rear brake drums, shoes and cylinder as well as the broken coil spring. Is that a reasonable labour cost?
 
With that brake kit you also get the actual drums - probably overkill as rarely do drums really wear out, but if you change them now then they are unlikely to ever need changing again within the serviceable life of the car, and the kit is well priced.

Spring is fine, if you really want to be thorough you could change the pair but you don't have to.

Labour costs don't sound too bad, but I'm not a garage user!

The only thing you don't have there is handbrake cables, but unless it's been parked in a swamp for 10 years they're not that likely to be seized or need replacing.
 
no nothing was mentioned about the handbrake cable by the garage, just to get the drums, shoes and cylinders.
By looking at the brake test printout... the readings which have me a bit confused, do you think i need to get the handbrake cables? It is in the hand brake test where the left has greater braking force than the right. The rear axle test reading doesn't seem to bad to me at 122 on left and 119 on the right.

Would you change the other spring coil, will cost me another £30 labour charge I guess?

Thanks for your help guys by the way
 
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