Quick MOT question

Hi all,

I may well be wrong (nowt new) but it is my understanding that if a rear door won't open on a car it is an M.O.T fail. Is this correct

Thanks,

Reply to
Orange? no thanks.
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"Orange? no thanks." gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Only fronts.

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Reply to
Adrian

Might depend on why the door won't open.

Reply to
krak

You live and learn. Thanks for that Adrian.

Regards,

Reply to
Orange? no thanks.

But presenting a car with doors that won't open for an MOT test is not likely to impress the tester.

Reply to
Colin
[...]

Makes it tricky to test the rear seat belts too...

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

Chris Whelan gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

It does? Bugger me, how do they do it on 2dr cars, then...?

Seriously, if they're that difficult to get to, the belts probably aren't testable under...

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"Passenger seats are those designated for normal use when the vehicle is travelling on the road."

Reply to
Adrian

Have you never owned or been carried in a two-door car?

The doors are much wider; the seats tip and/or slide to enable access.

On anything reasonably modern, getting in to the back of a four door car via the front would require a level of flexibility comfortably beyond my

64-year old frame, and my tame MOT tester is older than I...

I'd be interested to know anyone who's got away with that...

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

2dr cars usually have larger doors and seats that can tip forward. Getting into the back on any normal 4dr car is really quite hard if both back doors cannot be opened at all, I would imagine that could be grounds for a refusal to test. if one door can be opened either by reaching the inner handle or from the outside it should be ok to test. It would also be difficult or impossible to check the operation of foldable rear seats if you can't get into the rear seat area.
Reply to
Mrcheerful

Designated by whom, I wonder? Would "Do not use" stickers on the seats get you out of inspection of the belts?

:-)

Reply to
Ian Dalziel

Then again I always have the child locks on even at MOT test time.

Reply to
Colin

Chris Whelan gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Why, yes, Chris - there seems to be two parked outside right now...

Hint:

Reply to
Adrian

you are correct it is grounds for refusal to test, but you cant actualy fail it for a rear door that you cant open, (but this is changing next year from

1st Jan 20012 as all doors must open) but you refuse to test it because of the points below & no we are not allowed to grovel over the front seat to check rear seat belts ect.

A proper examination cannot be carried out because of the inability to open any device - e.g. door, tailgate, boot lid, engine cover or fuel cap - designed to be readily opened.

In fact I refused one today, actually two, first one was I could'nt open the rear door to gain access to check whether the rear seat belts upper & lower mounting points were secure/corroded & whether the rear seat back was secure. The other one I refused was the water pump was about to let go along with the timing belt !!!

The vehicles condition is such that, in the opinion of the tester, a proper examination would involve damage to the vehicle.

Reply to
reg

Assuming you own at least one of those, perhaps you need to look at ease of access to the rear compared to a four door. (Unless you've never owned or been carried in one of those, of course.)

Anyway, it looks as if our resident MOT tester, reg, has come up with the answer I anticipated...

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

As I appear to have started a bit of a debate I thought I should explain why.

I was looking through ebay and stumbled across this Scenic (

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). They state THE ONLY OTHER THING WORTH MENTIONING IS THAT THE REAR DRIVERS SIDE DOOR WONT OPEN AND IT HAS BEEN LIKE THAT SINCE WE OWNED IT. NEVER HAD IT LOOKED AT COULD BE AN EASY FIX

Having asked how long they have had the car (approx 10months) I was wondering about the validity of the M.O.T.

Cheers.

Reply to
Orange? no thanks.

On the strict wording of the MOT inspection manual I'd have to disagree. It states in 6.2 of private passenger vehicles:

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"Method of Inspection.

Open and close the driver's and passengers' doors. Check that each latches securely in the closed position. Check also that front doors can be opened from both inside and outside the vehicle."

So ALL doors have to be opened and closed by the tester, front doors have to be able to be opened from both inside and outside and rear doors only from the outside i.e. to allow for child locks.

Note also where the apostrophe is on [passengers'] indicating it means the plural, all passengers, and not just [passenger's] the singular which could be inferred to mean just the front passenger.

I very much doubt whether there'd be much debate about the intent of this wording and punctuation in a court of law.

Reply to
Dave Baker

Chris Whelan gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Both, thanks. But you're welcome to buy one of 'em off me.

Can I refer you to the second half of the previous reply?

Just the one at the moment, but plenty in the past.

There's one with three side doors outside, too - but you can walk from the front to the rear in that, and there's a cooker in the way of a theoretical second rear door.

Then there's the one with two doors, but only two seats. Oh, yes - and the one with no doors at all.

There's a fair ol' selection here. Take your pick.

Reply to
Adrian

My favourite seat belt failure was one of my neighbours cars, on the failure cert the tester had written. "rear seat belts gnawed by mice"

Steve

Reply to
shazzbat

On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:28:06 +0000, Chris Whelan wibbled:

Not quite the same, but I had a Saab 900 16v for a while with one knackered rear belt. No one ever went in the rear. I just put the baby seat in using the knackered belt at MOT time, and it wasn't ever tested.

Reply to
Mike P

very poor testing, I wonder what else was ignored?

Reply to
Mrcheerful

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