MOT failures. What for?

[pedro]

I guess most of the contributors on here will rarely get any MOT failures on their bikes. Most things are pretty easy to check even for a mechanically challenged person. But I did wonder what things CBF1000s can fail on.

The funniest (depending on your standpoint) one was with my Mk1 a few years ago. I'm generally a summer rider these days and so I dragged it out of the garage one fine spring day and checked the usual and took it for it's MOT. The tester failed it on the fork seals, which he said were leaking. Ho hum. I got him to change them, paid the piper and rode home, fresh MOT in my pocket. Only after getting home and sitting down with a coffee did I realise that I'd put a thin coating of oil on the fork shiny bits to ward off the wet in my slightly damp garage the previous autumn and then forgot to wipe it off. No doubt that's what he saw. D'oh!

So, has yours failed and if so, on what?

[Art]

Passing an MOT should be a formality for any well maintained vehicle but when its not we should be grateful to those who inspected our vehicles closer than we did.

At 14 years old and with 48,000 miles on the clock my SC58 failed due to excessive wear in the rear shock upper bush. A little embarrassing for me because my pre-MOT checks had included checking for any play in the rear wheel, shock absorber and swinging arm, all appeared to be OK at the time. It seems even an old hand can miss something but in my defense my checks were carried out by hand vs the MOT tester's inspection which was made using a long lever placed under the rear wheel with a little more than hand pressure applied against the weight of the workshop apprentice laid across the pillion seat.

Took it home, seats off and a closer inspection revealed the cause of the excessive play was a loose shock absorber mounting nut. This is a self locking nut that has a friction clamp cut into the top threads, its re-usable but should be replaced if there is any excessive deformation of the clamp. The clamp appeared fine and the nut required a 17mm socket on a short extension and a ratchet handle to fully turn it on/off the bolt's threads. Threads cleaned and refitted with medium strength blue Loctite 243, torqued to the specified 42Nm and all was as it should be. I've since checked the shock absorber three or four times for play using a 4' lever and all remains as it should be.

[Rev Ken]

I think most of members of this website know for a time I was in charge, first ion Edinburgh, and then for GB for the MOT scheme in the early days, so when I took my little DAF55 in for testing I can assure you it got a very thorough inspection. I lived in Kirkliston just outside Edinburgh and took my car to the local garage. As I expected there was a lot of banging (checking for corrosion) with 'toffee hammers' and much pulling and pushing at at last was told it had passed. However as I pulled out of the garage over a small lip the exhaust fell off.....

Looking back I can assure you their faces were a picture, but I couldn't stop laughing!

[Flying Fox]

I did all the checks and went for an MOT. The garage was having an official Government "Can this place do an MOT?" inspection, so they gave the old grid a really thorough going over (to be fair, they always do that). The rear lamp (both brake and rear) had blown on the way to the test center. The Government chap was a realist rather than a jobsworth so turned a blind eye while a new bulb was fitted, saving the cost of a retest (God bless you, sir, you restored my faith in human nature). I rode home with a new certificate and left the engine running while I opened the garage door. For some reason I went behind the bike. "Bless me" I thought (although I didn't think the word "Bless") "That rear light looks as bright as a brake light". A closer look showed that the brake light was on permanently. Some diagnostic work revealed that the brake light switch had crudded up and stuck in the "on" position. I found myself wondering if it is an MOT failure if the brake light does not go off. (Let's not go there, eh?).

[Rev Ken]

Originally Posted by Flying Fox

I did all the checks and went for an MOT. The garage was having an official Government "Can this place do an MOT?" inspection, so they gave the old grid a really thorough going over (to be fair, they always do that). The rear lamp (both brake and rear) had blown on the way to the test center. The Government chap was a realist rather than a jobsworth so turned a blind eye while a new bulb was fitted, saving the cost of a retest (God bless you, sir, you restored my faith in human nature). I rode home with a new certificate and left the engine running while I opened the garage door. For some reason I went behind the bike. "Bless me" I thought (although I didn't think the word "Bless") "That rear light looks as bright as a brake light". A closer look showed that the brake light was on permanently. Some diagnostic work revealed that the brake light switch had crudded up and stuck in the "on" position. I found myself wondering if it is an MOT failure if the brake light does not go off. (Let's not go there, eh?).

Oh yes it is a fail! At least the DVSA examiner used common sense, as I hope most of his colleagues do!