Can anyone advise please?:helpsmilie:

After a little over 4 years of restoration,:hammer: my 300zx tt is in a position to go for an MOT test.:taz: I have bit the bullet and booked her in for this coming Tuesday.

Can anyone point me in the right direction please as to what to look for myself? so as she does not fail on something silly that I could of put right before the test.

I am desperate for her to pass, so any help will be very much appreciated.

 

Big thanks, Redwine300

window wipers and jets..my first one failed on the clips being faulty..corrosion and sharp pointy bits on the body work.headlights pointing in the right direction

stupid stuff realy but they need to be just about perfect..

hope thats helpfull

My Zed's been off the road since July 2009, corrosion & brakes causing a lot of work, I took it to get Mot'd last week and it failed on a very soft brake pedal (now bled properly), a couple of areas of my body repair needing sorted (underseal and more underseal) and lastly 2nd emission test at idle (a bottle of injector cleaner into the tank and a good welly up the road).

All being well - she'll pass next week....................

- seat belts, make sure they buckle up and stay when pulled

- all lights work, brake lights, fogs, side lights, indicators, hazards, number plate bulbs

- Body work, make sure there are no sharp areas of the body work, if a bumper is damaged and has a split in it, gaffer tape it up

- Body work, excessive rust in areas that will cause a tester to put his tool through it, check the wheel arches or anywhere there is structural integrity at risk

- Can you open both doors from inside and out side the car.

- All rubber gaiters on the steering arms, can not have splits in them.

- steering wheel, grab it with both hands and see if you can shake it from side to side and up and down, there should be no free play in the steering column

- If you can jack the car up, check all sides for play, grab the wheel at quarter to 3 position and shake side to side, then at half 12 and shake up and down, there should be no free play (even if the suspension moves, the wheel and hub shouldn't)

- Exhaust system, check for signs of leaks, it can still pass if the leak is small and at the join, but anywhere else and it could be a fail point.

- tyres, check to see if there is sufficient depth IE not on the legal limit, that there is no side wall damage.

- check the windscreen washer jets on the front only, they need to squirt and clear the screen sufficiently

- exhaust smoke, any black or blue smoke emitted could fail the MOT if its excessive

- check the drivers seat for free play, it should be bolted firmly to the chassis of the car.

- IF you have a spare wheel, it needs to have a legal amount of tread on it and no side wall damage, it doesn't have to be inflated though

- if you want to remove all the wheels and check the brake pipes for excessive corrosion, surface rust isn't a problem, but if its there wire brush it off and sand it with a bit of sand paper, dont go ape over it, just enough to make it look like its not rusted to hell.

- Hand brake, tap it from side to side, it shouldn't disengaged if tapped. it needs to fully engage between 7 and 13 clicks depending on car, but its easily adjusted on the 300zx anyway.

- check brake disks for scoring, and check to see if you have enough pad left on the pads.

Edited April 22, 201114 yr by vodkashots

Cheers, zhoodyx, Managed to get front and rear washer nozzles working, Headlights seem fairly straight looking at garage door. I think I will fit new wiper blades just to be on the safe side.

Thanks also CrashCourse, Corrosion sorted, (hopefully) and have just tried breaking up and down the street and all seems good and straight. Hopefully emissions will be OK, I have a Gunson tester, may give it a go tomorrow. (GOOD LUCK FOR NEXT WEEK)

There is so much you wont be able to check yourself though, so really the easiest thing is to have it fail at the mot, then you have an exact list of the things to sort out. The retest is usually free and they only recheck the items on the list.

There is so much you wont be able to check yourself though, so really the easiest thing is to have it fail at the mot, then you have an exact list of the things to sort out. The retest is usually free and they only recheck the items on the list.

 

Retest isn't always free, i paid £27 for my retest as i took it away from the test center and returned with in 7 days, its also (as stated on the fail sheet) that its up to the test center if they charge a fee or not, but cant be the full test fee for a partial retest.

find an mot place that will do a free retest within 10 working days.

 

Took mine to see what it failed on, but missed the retest period by 2 days! Still, worthwhile doing otherwise id have replaced the rear brake discs when they were actually fine.

Retest isn't always free, i paid £27 for my retest as i took it away from the test center and returned with in 7 days, its also (as stated on the fail sheet) that its up to the test center if they charge a fee or not, but cant be the full test fee for a partial retest.

 

wot he said

i failed on stupid stuff iv mentiond and cost me an extra 25

best bet is try and get a modern mot check list an go round

i suppos it depends on the tester as wellif he/she's a jobsworth then it'll faill on the slightest thing

A cracked number plate is an MOT fail that is easy to correct.

find an mot place that will do a free retest within 10 working days.

 

Took mine to see what it failed on, but missed the retest period by 2 days! Still, worthwhile doing otherwise id have replaced the rear brake discs when they were actually fine.

 

Exactly!

 

It depends on the discretion of the garage, and what the car fails on.

 

Julia took the Rav for its MOT last week and unfortunately there was a tear on the inner side wall of one of the tyres. The garage (of which we are regular customers) gave 10 days to re-present it for a retest FOC.

 

Richard:cool3:

yes im sure they changed it so if it fails and you take the car out of the garage you pay the retest fee....but if you leave it there and let them do the work then there is no fee?

Thanks everyone, I have spent all day going through all your valid points and on the face of it, everything seems OK.The one thing I did notice however is that the outer skin of both back boxes have rusted through, should I cut away the flaky bits or just leave as is so as to be up front?

Retest isn't always free, i paid £27 for my retest as i took it away from the test center and returned with in 7 days, its also (as stated on the fail sheet) that its up to the test center if they charge a fee or not, but cant be the full test fee for a partial retest.

 

Thats why I said usually and not always :tt2::tt2: I've never been charged, but I know some do.

Edited April 23, 201114 yr by Yowser

Thanks everyone, I have spent all day going through all your valid points and on the face of it, everything seems OK.The one thing I did notice however is that the outer skin of both back boxes have rusted through, should I cut away the flaky bits or just leave as is so as to be up front?

 

Prob best to cut them off.

 

As long as its not blowing and its mounted securely your fine in regards to the exhaust, but they could mark it down for loose parts that could break off.

Thanks Yowser,:thumbup: While I was under there I noticed that the rubber gaiters over the suspension shocks have fallen to bits,:cursing: will this be a fail? Also, should I remove all evidence Of gaiter so as not to draw his attention to them?

As I was giving her a bit of a clean, I noticed that there was a small stone chip in the wind screen straight ahead of the driver about 10mm in diameter,:scared: will this be trouble also?

You will be fine with the shocks, just pull off what is left. you should also befine with your window screen. I think it can only fail if its cracked and in your vision

Cheers Car.Mad, :thumbup1:

This MOT lark is worse than when my wife had our daughter!:censored::wacko:

- seat belts, make sure they buckle up and stay when pulled

- all lights work, brake lights, fogs, side lights, indicators, hazards, number plate bulbs

- Body work, make sure there are no sharp areas of the body work, if a bumper is damaged and has a split in it, gaffer tape it up

- Body work, excessive rust in areas that will cause a tester to put his tool through it, check the wheel arches or anywhere there is structural integrity at risk

- Can you open both doors from inside and out side the car.

- All rubber gaiters on the steering arms, can not have splits in them.

- steering wheel, grab it with both hands and see if you can shake it from side to side and up and down, there should be no free play in the steering column

- If you can jack the car up, check all sides for play, grab the wheel at quarter to 3 position and shake side to side, then at half 12 and shake up and down, there should be no free play (even if the suspension moves, the wheel and hub shouldn't)

- Exhaust system, check for signs of leaks, it can still pass if the leak is small and at the join, but anywhere else and it could be a fail point.

- tyres, check to see if there is sufficient depth IE not on the legal limit, that there is no side wall damage.

- check the windscreen washer jets on the front only, they need to squirt and clear the screen sufficiently

- exhaust smoke, any black or blue smoke emitted could fail the MOT if its excessive

- check the drivers seat for free play, it should be bolted firmly to the chassis of the car.

- IF you have a spare wheel, it needs to have a legal amount of tread on it and no side wall damage, it doesn't have to be inflated though

- if you want to remove all the wheels and check the brake pipes for excessive corrosion, surface rust isn't a problem, but if its there wire brush it off and sand it with a bit of sand paper, dont go ape over it, just enough to make it look like its not rusted to hell.

- Hand brake, tap it from side to side, it shouldn't disengaged if tapped. it needs to fully engage between 7 and 13 clicks depending on car, but its easily adjusted on the 300zx anyway.

- check brake disks for scoring, and check to see if you have enough pad left on the pads.

 

Thats quite a good list Ian ,should help peeps on here a fair bit,couple or errors though,spare isnt tested so it can be in any condition,and handbrakes dont need to have a certain number clicks,as long as it works and it has reserve travel,in other words you can pull it till it reaches the end of the mechanism.