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Reverse light does not affect MOT?!

davethe11

davethe11

davethe11

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so I got my MOT today, and for the first time in years my little fiesta passed with flying colours! This is even more of a god send as both my insurance and my road tax are due the end of this month (well, tomorrow).

I knew my reverse light wasn't working when I took it in, and knew it was a problem with the switch on the gearbox rather than a wiring/bulb problem, so thought they may as well sort that out while they do the MOT. I told the mechanic at the garage what the reverse light problem should be, to save them the hassle of testing the bulb etc but he informed me that it did not matter, and that the reverse light had nothing to do with an MOT. I was surprised at this as I thought a car without one would be a safety risk to other motorists and pedestrians. Can anyone explain why this is the case?
 
some of the things on mot's are stupid. i remeber failing on a front windscreen wiper been split but the rear was the same too but there was no mention of that which seems daft to me
 
You don't need reversing lights AFAIK. They were there historically to "light" up the rear of the road so you could see where you were reversing into and see the edges of the kerb etc... However they are useful for city driving when vans are reversing etc... however that's not what they were designed for.
 
Griffo said:
I trust you had it fixed anyway?
Click to expand...

Nope, I'm gonna fix it myself, I believe that it's probably just dirt has prevented the circuit from closing so will sort it at the weekend, otherwise it's a trip down the breakers. Didn't realise I had the problem until I did my pre-mot once over, and thought it was an MOT failer so I just gave them the heads-up.
 
webmonkeyuk said:
some of the things on mot's are stupid. i remeber failing on a front windscreen wiper been split but the rear was the same too but there was no mention of that which seems daft to me
Click to expand...

There's no requirement for rear wipers at all. Most saloons do without.

Front are, obviously, a completely different matter. A car has to have fully functional front wipers to be road legal.
 
I had the same problem on my old 3.0s Capri.

It didn't affect the MOT

But....

The seized power steering tension idler pulley did matter.. So it failed on that.
to explain..

The power steering belt kept snapping and being the tight arse I was back then I just ran without one. Come MOT time I thought I'd better put a new belt on it.
The examiner found out why the belt kept snapping !!
When I went to buy another one (no scrapyards had the damn thing) Fords wanted about £40 for the 3.0s but only £15 for the 2.8i. Apparently they are incompatible.

I didn't argue with him because of previous run ins with him.
ie: I had a throttle cable snap on a Mk1 3000e Capri and the bloke point blank refused to sell me one coz I didn't know whether it was a Dagenham or Cologne V6.
I ended up buying a fancy Red one from my Speedway bike dealer and fettling it to fit.
 
My car has no reversing lights, no fog lamp, no rear windscreen wiper. Its still fully MOT'd.

The MOT only checks certain things. If its not on the list, it's can't be a failure. The MOT tester can still note it and 'suggest' you get it fixed though.
 
Bug One said:
My car has no reversing lights, no fog lamp, no rear windscreen wiper. Its still fully MOT'd.

The MOT only checks certain things. If its not on the list, it's can't be a failure. The MOT tester can still note it and 'suggest' you get it fixed though.
Click to expand...

rear fogs not compulsory?
surely that's the reason most JDMs have after market fogs?
 
Bug One said:
My car has no reversing lights, no fog lamp, no rear windscreen wiper. Its still fully MOT'd.

The MOT only checks certain things. If its not on the list, it's can't be a failure. The MOT tester can still note it and 'suggest' you get it fixed though.
Click to expand...

no rear fog lamp is deffo a fail.
 
Add a klaxxon too.

I did.. That made em do some searching on their computer.

Yup... It's street legal

AaaaaaROOOOOOOGAAAAH !!
 
As mentioned, reverse lights are not part of the MOT and nor is the rear wiper.

The reverse lamps on the Manta are now fog lamps and I don't have a reversing light at all.
 
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