Prepare Your Car Before an MOT
An MOT test is a test of vehicle safety, roadworthiness and exhaust emissions in the United Kingdom. It is required for most vehicles that are three or more years old. The good news is that you don’t have to know much about cars to be prepared for the MOT test. Just follow these simple steps before your MOT test, and your vehicle could be more likely to pass its MOT.
Contents
Steps
Doing Pre-MOT Checks
- Find out when your MOT is due. Enter your registration number into the UK Government’s website. Their central database will tell you the expiry date of your MOT. You need to have a valid MOT at all times, so you have to book one every year. You could even end up getting fined £1,000 if you’re pulled over by the police.
- Find yourself a garage. Book an appointment with your usual garage or find one in your local area. You can book your appointment up to a month before your MOT expires.
- Friends and relatives might have suggestions for reliable garages in your area.
- Clean your car. It’s a good idea to wash your car before your MOT test as it not only makes the mechanic’s life easier, it also shows that you care about your car. This can influence a mechanic’s first impression about whether it will pass the MOT easily or not.
Checking Under the Bonnet
- Top up your oil.
- Your engine needs a specific amount of oil to work correctly – too much, too little or the wrong type of oil can affect how well your car drives.
- Find your car’s dipstick. It usually has a coloured handle with a ring to pull on, but check your car’s handbook if it’s not obvious.
- Pull it out all the way out and clean it with a cloth.
- Dip it all the way back in and then pull it out again.
- If the oil level is close to the ‘min’ line, pour some more in and repeat the process until the level is just below the ‘max’ line.
- Fill up your coolant. Within your engine bay, there should be a tank filled with coloured liquid. This is coolant, or anti-freeze, which keeps your radiator from freezing in the winter and overheating in the summer. If the level of liquid doesn’t quite reach the ‘full’ line, make up a mixture of coolant and water, with a 1/1 ratio, and carefully pour it in until it reaches the right level.
- Check your car’s handbook to find out which type of coolant is best for you.
- Fill up your windscreen washing liquid. Under the bonnet, you’ll see a cap with an image of a windscreen and water droplets on it. This is the reservoir for your windscreen liquid, which cleans your front and rear windscreens. There will be a little maximum line on the side of the reservoir, just under the cap. If the liquid is below that level fill it up to reach that line.
Checking the Exterior
- Check your wipers.
- Give them a wipe down with a cloth to remove any gunk and dirt that might have built up and then run your hands along the rubber.
- They should be smooth and completely intact. If you notice any tears in the rubber, you will need to replace your wiper blades before your MOT test.
- Test your tyres.
- You need to have a consistent tread depth of at least 1.6 mm across each of your tyres. Take a twenty pence piece and place it in every groove of every tyre. You shouldn’t see the lower portion of the inner rim within the tyre groove.
- If you can, get your tyres replaced before your MOT test. Likewise, if you can see any tears in the tyre, fraying rubber or bald spots on the surface, your tyres won’t meet the MOT standards.
- Check your car’s body and suspension.
- Check that there aren’t any sharp edges and that your doors open and shut properly as those safety aspects will fail your MOT.
- Lean down on your bonnet as well to test your suspension. If your car bounces straight back up again on both sides and isn’t drooping at all, your suspension is MOT ready.
- If your car has dents and/or scratches, you don’t need to get them fixed before your MOT.
- Switch your lights on. Switch on your headlights and fog lights and make sure they’re bright enough. Walk around your car to look at your rear lights and ask someone to watch while you put your foot on the brake. You need more than half of your brake lights to work in order to pass your MOT test. If there are other lights not working, change the bulbs before your MOT.
Checking the Interior
- Declutter your car. Clean up any rubbish you might have lying about. If you don’t need it in your car, remove it or store it in the boot. Rubbish can get caught under the pedals which makes your car unsafe to drive.
- Buckle your seatbelts. Sit in every seat and put the seatbelt on. It should extend without resistance and clip into the buckle easily. Check the tension by violently jolting forwards – it should hold you in place almost instantly. Look for any tears as well. The seatbelt should be smooth, intact and clip in and out of the buckle with ease.
- Check your visibility. Look in both your wing mirrors, your rear-view mirror and out the windscreen. There shouldn’t be any cracks or visibility problems. An oversized air freshener could obscure your view of the road ahead which reduces your safety. Set up all your mirrors to your normal driving position. You should only just see the door handles in the corner of your wing mirrors, and you should see your rear head rests out of your rear-view mirror.
- Give your horn a press. Press it firmly and listen for the noise it makes. If you hold it down and there’s no noise, it will need fixing before your MOT test. Speak to a mechanic as your horn involves a complex mechanical system.
Doing the Final Checks
- Change anything that you need to. If there’s something wrong with your car, you must get it fixed before your MOT test. Top up any fluid levels, change any bulbs or tyres and clean everything that’s dirty. It’s unlikely that everything on this list will be a problem with your car, but don’t let something simple cause your vehicle to fail its MOT test! If you can’t get something fixed before your MOT, make the mechanic aware of the problem before they begin the test.
- Fill up your car with fuel. Your car undergoes an emissions test as part of the MOT process. A mechanic may refuse to do this test if they don’t think your car has enough fuel to complete it. This counts as an MOT failure. Don’t leave your car with your mechanic if it has less than a quarter of a tank – either fill up with fuel the night before or on your way to your MOT appointment.
