Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Hello,

Just wanted peoples opinions.

About 5 weeks ago I took my 944 track car for an MOT, it failled on a couple of little things which I did and got a pass.

So proceeded to book trackdays, did track days and then destroyed the engine. So breaking the car, in the course of breaking I removed the front shocks and found that both front arms are rotted right through right by the ball joints.

Now normally I would no be bothered but having driven this car round a track a silly speeds with the knowledge that it had a valid MOT I am filled with fear of what could have happened.

I am seriously thinking about raising this issue with the MOT station, what do you think?

Thanks

Neil

An MOT pass doesn’t guarantee that the car is mechanically sound. It just verifies that a car is road legal.

Yes I agree, but severe corrosion e.g holes in both front arms is not road legal, it should have been an instant fail.

I complained about a false fail as they were clearly after the work.
Called VOSA (i think from memory) and they put me through to the local guy who took it pretty seriously.
Got to be worth a call. At the very least I imagine they would tell the station to buck their ideas up if it is a part that should have been failed.

Regards
Paul

I might have a word TBH but MOTs are funny things. SOme MOT testers are anal about lights, another will focus on wheel bearings etc.

I agree with this sort of corrosion the car should have probably failed the MOT but as said before it is only a certificate of roadworthiness and some testers focus on certain areas and miss others.

I would personnally not use the MOT system to guarantee my car was acceptable to race around a track, although it should give you some confidence I would still either check it out myself or have it done by a specialist.

However I suppose the issue is the MOT station passed a car which is basically not roadworthy which probably needs bringing to the attention of the appropriate authorities.

An MoT tester can only examine what he can see. If the corrosion is not visible he can't fail it.

I had a complete subframe detatch itself due to rot many years ago! (I won't say what car it was )
This was roughly 2 weeks after it had been MOT'd.
Needless to say the MOT tester had his license revoked and he had to employ someone else to do it for him.

I took my old Golf for it's MOT before i tried to sell it. Next day took the jetwash to it and blew holes through the sills. It didn't take alot of effort but meant the money spent on the MOT was worthless, along with the car.

My neighbour took his Mercedes to the local council / government testing station. Anybody can go to them, and like he says, they're not a garage and therefore do not benefit from failing the car just to get the work. He looked it up on the internet, and if he was here rather than in Los Angeles I would ask him for the info. I'll post it another day. He just phoned up, booked it in, paid his money and was very happy.

Although issued for 12 months, logically an MOT is really only valid the moment the car passes. Look how many people borrow tyres etc for MOTs - as soon as they put the old ones back on they're an MOT failure. If a bulb blows as you drive away from the testing station the car is technically an MOT failure.

MOTs are a waste of time really aren't they - but what's the alternative?

I know this is a bit off topic but the government wants us all to have crb's done for walking past a school or something like that and they are only as good as the y day they are issued as you can do anything after you ahve been checked!!!

just after i passed my test i was driving around in a square steering wheel allagro, when 3 days after getting an MOT the front passenger ball joint collapsed and i watched in shock as the wheel careered into a lampost, when i complained to the MOT station they collected the car and repaired it FOC