[Nick]

A recent RAC survey found that 1 in 6 drivers that ignore the advisory notices from an MOT and experience either a breakdown or a collision as a consequence? That's an estimated 6 million people!



By gambling and not taking care of MOT advisories, drivers are at risk of soon being behind the wheel of an unroadworthy car.

Some of the most common advisories in the last 12 months include:

• Tyre Wear
• Brake pads or discs
• Suspension
• Lights, and
• Corrosion

The latest government data shows us that, in 2023, vehicle defects were a factor in 1,350 collisions - the highest number for 5 years. Of those, 36 resulted in a fatality.

Read more about this important topic on this article - and be sure take care of your advisory notices after your next MOT.

Do you deal with yours immediately? Or maybe you let them ride for a little longer before sorting? Or do you often ignore them?

Let us know in the comments.

[Beelzebub]

Originally Posted by Nick

A recent RAC survey found that 1 in 6 drivers that ignore the advisory notices from an MOT and experience either a breakdown or a collision as a consequence? That's an estimated 6 million people!

So 36 million ignored MOT advisories?

Are you sure? Are there even 36 Million tests in a year?

Or is this a wild extrapolation from the handful of people who were surveyed?

Anyway, what it seems to say is that 5 out of 6 who ignore the advisories suffer no ill-effects. Those are pretty good odds!

[olduser]

The problem is, the motor industry is so very trustworthy, advisories are treated as fishing for business.

[Drivingforfun]

To be honest I’m embarrassed to get them as I like to think I can pick up any niggles before the test, often I think wrongly and end up asking them to fix it ASAP!!!

Chatting to non-car-enthusiasts I think many think the MOT a “worry about it once a year” thing and once it gets through you’re fine for 12 months. I often tell people that a lot of the things tested in the MOT, if you had your car spot tested at any point in the year, it isn’t road legal if they’d fail an MOT

I don’t want to judge, because the times I’ve been hard up, I was also unemployed and didn’t need a car anyway. I won’t pretend that if I was poor, but in work and my car kept my roof over my head, I’d be more virtuous.

That’s not to defend those who just get their priorities wrong … e.g. a premium branded car with bald tyres, or even driving on the space saver for several weeks!

[NMNeil]

When I performed an emissions test on a car the first thing is to see if the check engine light is on, and the number of cars that had a piece of tape over the light was astounding.
Out of sight out of mind sort of thing, much like the MOT advisory.
"Yeah, the light came on about 6 months ago and the car was running fine so I just ignored it. Can't you just turn it off or disable it?"
Now the cost to make that light go of and stay off was often more than the car was worth.

[Nick]

Hi @Beelzebub - there's more data about the research on the article but yes, this is based on the answers of the people that took part in the RAC's survey.

The latest figure I can find online suggests that in 2022 there were over 30 million MOT tests.
The odds are definitely favourable for sure, however they also don't really matter for those people who might be injured or worse as a result.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by olduser

The problem is, the motor industry is so very trustworthy, advisories are treated as fishing for business.

I must admit that this has been my thinking in the past, I'm less cynical these days and a lot of that is landing on a garage that you trust. I've been having mine done at the same place for a long time now.

And I agree @NMNeil - ignoring them and letting things potentially fester is going to be more costly in the long run to get things fixed "eventually"

[Rolebama]

I always get advisories done asap. It is my experience that today's little niggles become tomorrow's headaches. In the same way if I am having a job done and something else is noticed, I get that done, for the same reason.
I would point out that I have known my garage owner for over 30yrs, and trust him implicitly

[olduser]

Yes, things are better if you have found a, 'good' garage but it then depends on how much the owner is in touch with the workshop.

I know how difficult it can be, in an industrial setting, to get electricians, plumbers, and fitters to follow instructions. Shortcuts are fine providing they don't compromise the job in the longer term.

[Rolebama]

I used to do MOTs on motorcycles. As well as Pass or Fails, we also had Red Notices which we could issue if we thought the bike was in a dangerous condition. In the event of one being issued, we were obliged to notify the local Police, and advise the owner it had to be recovered. Of the thousands of Tests I did, I only issued two. One was because the spokes were so loose on the wheels that the front rim would scrape along the fork legs. The other was because the frame was broken at the bottom allowing the whole thing to 'bounce' along the road.
My son-in-law, who has been doing Testing for the last 15yrs, tells me this is no longer supported.

[NMNeil]

Many of the garages I worked for where great believers in wallet flushing, and we were supposed to 'find' faults such as dirty brake fluid, worn wiper blades etc., things that could be fixed easily and had a good profit margin.
I would check things and tell the customer the truth which surprisingly made me more money than most everyone else.
For example one of the favorites for 'up selling' was the serpentine belt. A few cracks and the service manager would give dire warnings that it's breakage was imminent.
When the customer asked my opinion I would tell them that the belt is showing signs of wear, but it's unlikely it will break in the near future, but it's condition would not improve with age. To which the customer would ask how long it was likely to last before it needed replacing.
I would always tell them that it was impossible to say, but I could pretty much guarantee it would break at 2 AM in the middle of the Mojave desert, on the freeway in the middle of rush hour traffic or in one of the rougher areas of town.
The answer was nearly always, go ahead and change it then. 😎

[Drivingforfun]

I do quite like checking the MOT history of a used car for sale, as advisories can signal the kind of care the car has had, specifically when comparing between years it's good to highlight whether it's had an owner with the "it's legal, so it'll do" attitude

[Santa]

I always seem to get advisories. My low-mileage car has a service and MOT every year. Last year, there were two - the brake disks and a tyre. I had the tyre replaced the next day, but the disks are unchanged. The garage suggested that they were good for another 5k miles or so, and since that is more than I do in a year, I chose to leave it.

We shall see what they say next month. The point is that they are advising. It's up to us what action to take.

[Rolebama]

On a similar note I took mine for a recall in January, and they did a free safety check. New disks and pads all round, £700+ quoted. MOT 2 weeks later, no mention but a comment that there are no advisories either.

[olduser]

Disks and pads really annoy me, garages always tell you when the pads are changed the disks need changing but the manufacturers data gives a minimum thickness for disks which (unless it's changed recently) allows for further use, another service period in average use.
Yet when I ask what the disk thickness is , no one knows, and no one has ever produced any means of measuring!

They might point out the lip but that is chiefly road muck, pad dust, and rust easily cleaned off.

When I serviced my own cars, I found I would get a minimum of 3 sets of pads per disk change.

Sorry rant over.

[Drivingforfun]

@Rolebama my car has similar safety checks and their threshold for giving brake pads a “caution” red light on a traffic light system is 4mm

The piece of paper looks official but I imagine many don’t realise it’s not representative of law or anything and they can advise what they want

A bit like how mattress companies advise changing your mattress every 3 years 🤨

[olduser]

Originally Posted by Drivingforfun

@Rolebama my car has similar safety checks and their threshold for giving brake pads a “caution” red light on a traffic light system is 4mm

The piece of paper looks official but I imagine many don’t realise it’s not representative of law or anything and they can advise what they want

A bit like how mattress companies advise changing your mattress every 3 years 🤨

I must get my specs changed - I initially read the last line as;

A bit like how mattress companies advise changing your mistress every 3 years. 😅

[NMNeil]

And this can happen if you ignore all the warnings, even when given plenty of notice.
Scary because even when pointed out the customer declines repairs and drives off.

[Rolebama]

There used to be a tyre and brake place locally where they had a 'wall of shame'. A collection of badly worn or damaged tyres, disks, pads, pipes etc that people had driven around with in complete ignorance. There were no identifiers as to who the people were, until somebody wrote to the local paper complaining about how he felt humiliated having parts from his car on display. The paper received a lot of letters from others pointing out that in his attempt to remain anonymous, he had given himself away. He was most upset when he lost his seat on the council at the next election.

[olduser]

I once had a job which involved going to some council meetings and doo's.

At meetings there would be, lots of discussions about evil, rich, drunken, car owners, and how could the council curtail their activities, then they would end the meeting get in their cars and drive to the pub then home.

Council doo's, had a few nibbles, lots of free booze, much booze fuelled praise for the Mayor, Party leaders, and the Chief constable, finally with bout 50% of them legless they found their cars and drove home.

Not the brightest of people!

[olduser]

Because we humans are so clever, I would have expected that by now we would have systems in cars to detect tyre, and brake wear and put the car into limp mode if they are below minimum.

It should be easy to detect failed lights or by listening detect failed exhaust systems and again put the engine into limp mode.

But then safety do's not sell cars.