Worth appealing, or moving on with life (MOT)

Kenai · 18 Feb 2019 at 20:53

jsmoke said:
So why were they too high did he have a load in the boot?

Probably because the bulbs have been replaced and don't sit in the same position as the previous ones did but no one bothered to get them checked and adjusted.

jsmoke · 18 Feb 2019 at 20:54

In that case it's a total fail MOT, no complaints. Need to find the reason they were too high.

andy_mk3 · 18 Feb 2019 at 21:05

MOT Tester here. Firstly, a couple of snips from the MOT Testing Guide:

If driver’s beam aim controls are fitted, you should test the beam aim without altering the control setting. If this would result in failure for beam aim being too low, you should re-check the beam aim with the control set at its ‘highest’ position.

You mustn’t carry out repairs during an MOT test, but you can make minor adjustments to the headlamp aim.

What he did by adjusting the internal control down is totally wrong. Although there was no reason to fail it after doing that, it's pretty pointless. What the majority of testers do, including myself is to adjust the headlamp aim properly if it's going to fail, and if it does adjust then wouldn't even make an advisory about it. The only reason most people would ever fail headlamp aim is if the adjustment in the headlight is broken or at full adjustment.

It's probably not something really worth appealing. But at the same time they've not done the right thing by lowering the internal adjuster. Because you could flick it back up to 0 and the aim would once again be too high!

Vanquish-Storm · 18 Feb 2019 at 21:33

What's to say they were the ones that flicked it up so it failed? Do you remember exactly what number it was set to when you took it in?

Kenai · 18 Feb 2019 at 21:39

Vanquish-Storm said:
What's to say they were the ones that flicked it up so it failed? Do you remember exactly what number it was set to when you took it in?

That's irrelevant, there should be no position on that adjustment that leaves the beam high enough to fail, unless you dropped the car in for MOT with 20 bags of cement in the boot.

tom_e · 18 Feb 2019 at 22:13

Vanquish-Storm said:
What's to say they were the ones that flicked it up so it failed? Do you remember exactly what number it was set to when you took it in?

So they could fill out extra paperwork? :confused:

it's not like they made any extra money from it.

bainbridge · 18 Feb 2019 at 23:39

I'd move on, IMO there's nothing wrong with a failed mot and another pass right next to it with the required work done (even though in this case you're right they should have used the cockpit adjustment).

My car's previous owner had a fail for incorrect number plate spacing one year (presumably a private plate) and another year a fail for the screen wash bottle being empty.

theone8181 · 19 Feb 2019 at 07:33

Kenai said:
That's irrelevant, there should be no position on that adjustment that leaves the beam high enough to fail, unless you dropped the car in for MOT with 20 bags of cement in the boot.

I suspect that most people with a boot load have never set the level to reduce the height either, hopefully this will die out as most cars with xenons are self adjusting.

Dogbreath · 19 Feb 2019 at 08:05

andy_mk3 said:
MOT Tester here. Firstly, a couple of snips from the MOT Testing Guide:
What he did by adjusting the internal control down is totally wrong.

Agreed; if the headlamps are too high and the car is unloaded then the alignment should be adjusted, not the drivers lowering control.

andy_mk3 said:
MOT Tester here. Firstly, a couple of snips from the MOT Testing Guide:
Although there was no reason to fail it after doing that, it's pretty pointless. What the majority of testers do, including myself is to adjust the headlamp aim properly if it's going to fail, and if it does adjust then wouldn't even make an advisory about it. The only reason most people would ever fail headlamp aim is if the adjustment in the headlight is broken or at full adjustment.

As I already posted the tester was 100% correct to fail it on the beam being set too high. His subsequent method of correcting it is the only issue here.