Hi from the UK

Hi there,

I just stumbled upon your great forum courtesy of google.

I bought a 400i last year and have spent a few long days and nights working on it. It's been off the road for a long while and this Saturday is its first big UK Ministry of Transport Test (MOT) to see that it meets all the safety and functional checks before it can be driven on the road. I've never even driven it before!

I'm dreading it.....they are really tough on regulations here, and make it more and more difficult to keep cars over 10 years old on the road.

Fingers crossed, arms, legs and anything else crossed, it'll pass.

I'll let you know how things go.

Regards
D

 

Welcome! Is there not an exemption to the MOT for older cars?

 

Welcome, there are alot of knowledgeable people here to help you if you run into any problems. Best of luck with your MOT test.
Don

 

Welcome to the forum and wishing you the best with the test....

 

Welcome Darren and good luck with the MOT.

If you think the UK MOT is tough you should try it in Switzerland.

 

Welcome Darren and good luck!

Nope. Older cars on the road is why there is an MOT in the first place. New cars are exempt for 3 years and then the MOT applies from its third birthday onwards.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

So if you were going to drive a 1920's vintage car on the road it would have to meet current safety regs??!!

 

The testers would make sure the chassis wasn't rusted through, that the brakes worked according to OEM spec, your wing mirrors (if OEM) were still on the car and in good order, your headlights, brake lights and indicators worked as designed, your tyres were of legal fitment and tread, seatbelts (if OEM) were fitted, etc...

Strangely, an older car that wasn't designed with a headlight adjuster switch in it wouldn't need that checked on an MOT but a newer car could fail the test completely if it wasn't in perfect working order. Similarly, if your car isn't fitted with a tow bar then no problem. However, if you fit one that's rusted through and structurally compromised then your whole car would fail even if the rest of it was in good working order - remove the tow bar completely, retest, and it would pass.

It doesn't have to meet current safety regulations, but you do have to prove that the car is in good mechanical order as per its design specifications.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Thanks for the kind wishes guy's.

12 hours to the Test!

Just got in from the garage this evening, I needed to align the windscreen washer jets, they weren't hitting the centre of the screen. I had a car fail for this before.

Hi Simon,

My car sold new in Switzerland, came to the UK in 1993, wasn't registered here until 1999.

Hi Urotrash (interesting user name),

Andrews right, the car has to meet certain criteria, not all makes sense. I have a couple of 1930's cars and they do not need seat belts, but I had to modify them by fitting windscreen washers to pass the MOT, yet if one had an opening windscreen it would have been exempt????
It's a real minefield of regulations. My local Test centre has a real pedantic examiner, but in some ways it's not a bad thing, because if he can't find a fault, the cars pretty damn good!

Regards
D

 

Interesting on the MOT thing.

So basically, the car has to have the safety equipment and other characteristics expected at the time it was built?

I've noticed in a lot of British car ads they say something like "MOT current". Is it expensive to do?

oh, does it include emission testing?

 

Mostly, however there are some criteria that are added after the fact. At the time some cars were built, there were no minimum requirements for tyre tread depth for example - now it's 1.6mm.

This is the first I've heard that a car would fail without retrofitted windscreen washers, but it's entirely plausible. There seems to be no logic to it. Cars built before a certain date are passable without seatbelts or airbags - although the car had to have been built originally without them - while a later model year, although identical in every way, would fail if an originally fitted seatbelt or airbag was either not secure, non-functional, or absent. Someone at a car show told me that he fitted aftermarket seatbelts to a classic Rover, then removed them years later for concourse judging (making the car completely OEM again), and initially failed the MOT because the paperwork showed that it had seatbelts in it the previous year. He had to go through all sorts of hoops to establish that the car didn't originally have seatbelts and therefore they weren't required for the MOT.

Another example (one that will cost me quite dearly)... In older cars, there can be a fair amount of play in the steering - almost a sort of "dead space" when the wheel is centred. That would be fine on a classic car and would pass, but my 2004 MINI, which seems to have developed that, would fail because of it. A mechanic told me that it wasn't in the slightest bit unsafe, but that it would probably annoy me and would certainly fail an MOT. I need to get that fixed between now and March 23rd, but have been putting it off for as long as possible because it's an eye-wateringly expensive repair.

There really is no sense to MOT regulations at times. They're sort of jumbled together over the years with a new specific requirement being added over time to apply from a certain point onwards. As Darren says, they're a minefield.

Also, any mechanic who does MOTs needs to offer the service for all types of vehicles. This means that if a Ferrari dealer offers an in-house MOT service then someone could turn up in a Peugeot and book an MOT at the Ferrari dealer for the government-controlled price of £50-something. If the Ferrari dealer wouldn't do it, then they could be stripped of their MOT testing station license. This is why many car dealerships don't do the testing on-site and have arrangements with independent garages off-site but close by. The dealership staff generally check the car over in-house then drive it off-site for the test, and return with the certificate to the customer in the waiting area.

Many specialists in Mini/MINI and SmartCar circles often lament those rules, as those mechanics could do a MINI or SmartCar MOT in just a few minutes. It's very time consuming to figure out what's required of a car and assess it, so it takes longer to take it to someone who doesn't really know what sort of car they're getting. Minis, MINIs, and SmartCars tend to be modified and SmartCars are very, very niche.

Last year it was about £54, but I think it's gone up a little bit since. It'll be in that ballpark though, certainly not more than £60. If you fail the test, you get so many days (14?) to put it right and then you can get a free re-test of the failed items providing there aren't a whole bunch of them. On a £40k classic Ferrari the up to date MOT is worth about £50 not to have to do the test right away and whatever hassle it might be to trailer it across town from the purchase site to your house - it's not a huge financial thing. It is only legal to drive a car without an MOT on the road if you are the owner, it is insured in your name, and you are driving to a booked appointment at the MOT station. However, if you're a teenager buying a £500 Skoda (as I once did), then a current MOT is worth 10% of the car's value and suddenly becomes a significant financial proposition.

It irritated my dad to no end when we both took our cars in on the same day to be tested and we got back a failure. The guy comes out and says: "one pass, one fail". Dad makes some comment about that "piece of junk Skoda" and the guy says: "Actually, it was the BMW that failed - the Skoda's fine." Turns out the BMW failed it's first ever MOT on the parking brake not holding the car (not critical with it being an automatic, but a failure nontheless). What really irritated my dad was that he'd had the car in the dealership only 2 days earlier and told the dealership to "fix the brakes". He went back to the dealer and said something to the effect of: "I didn't expect to have to tell you specifically to check the parking brake as well - it's inclusive in the instruction 'fix my brakes'." The dealership tightened the parking brake and the BMW went back to pass the re-test.

It was still a pretty funny moment getting the keys handed back with my beat-up little car passing and the shiny 5-series failing. I still occasionally bring that up: "You know dad, I've never had a car fail an MOT...".

Yes, it does. The exhaust system is checked for completeness (cats not missing), integrity (no holes or leaks), that it is silencing effectively (you can fail for being too loud), and the gasses themselves are analysed. Cars of different eras are expected to meet different requirements, but I don't know exactly what they are.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Hi Guy's,

Well there's good and bad news...car didn't pass, but it didnt fail either?

When I turned up at the test staition, the tester was very very interested in my car!

We had a real job getting it in the workshop and on to the ramps as its so low. 30 minutes of messing around with planks of wood and we were in. He asked me a bit about the history, and said, I'll put it through a test but won't log it into the DVLA computer. (Basically it was "poping" at idle so he said "No point putting it through as the engine needed setting up and wouldn't pass the emissions" So we ended up spending 5 HOURS of his time tinkering with the car.

Set up injection system, mixture and throttle linkages, put it on their machine and got the combustion spot on.
Took off rear section of N/S exhaust and re attached it so it wasn't rubbing on the rear axle.
Adjusted handbrake (real pig of a job)
Re attached a few pipes & clips (fuel & brake)
Greased/oiled cables
Found and fixed a coolant leak on the top centre hose.

The guy was absolutely Fantastic. He really enjoyed it. (didn't even charge me a penny) So I went straight out and bought him a crate of Stella (Lager Beer)

Cars booked in again in a couple of weeks for it's actual test. (when he's back on duty) He gave me a list of stuff to "improve" ready for then.

Drove the car home....Big smile on face, running great.

Regards
D

 

Sounds like you had a really good day!

What's on the list of things to do before the test day?

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Things to do:

1.Replace throttle cable (took it off today and found wear in the bearing on the foot pedal/accelerator, so need to look at that now) The throttle's not smooth, when you press your foot down it jumps in steps like its sticking.
2. Replace rubber boots on track rod ends.
3. Weld brace on exhaust (twin pipes: the bracket that holds them as pairs has failed on LH rear)
4. Replace several Exhaust hangers.
5. Replace fuel line brackets.
6. Investigate noisy fuel pump, plus smell of fuel in boot (trunk)
7. Oil leaks on LH blank, and RH Distributor plate (rear end of cam covers)
8. Excessive play in rear wheel bearing on RH side.
9. Drivers side electric window slow and sticking.
10. Brake disks badly corroded from car standing outside for several years

Plus lots of other bit's and pieces to tidy car up!

Regards
D

 

How long has the car been standing unused?

By the way, if you need any technical guidance for the 400 then this is probably the best place to catch the attention of FChat's experts:

FerrariChat.com > Model Specific Discussions > 365 GT4 2+2/400/412​

It might also be fun to start a project thread there and take/post pictures documenting your progress.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Welcome to the forum to share your experience, information, ideas and options.

Stay connected.

 

IT PASSED THE MOT TODAY!

HOORAY, I can now scare myself legally!

Now where's the nearest Shell Garage?

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=1_kwxzU4wL4&vq=medium

 

Congratulations Darren!

Interestingly, your Ferrari's return to the roads coincides with my 28th birthday.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Congratulations and welcome to a wonderful online community!

 

Congrats and by all means share some pictures of your car with us on the 400/412 forum- We'd be delighted to see it!

 

Err,

Cant really post a picture there, it would look a little out of place!

My cars a hand built 1971 365 GTS/4 Daytona spider body on a 400i chassis, using engine, suspension and running gear of the 400i but looking like a 365 Daytona.

Now that's really going to make you all want me to post a picture!

Regards
D

 

Darren congratulations on passing the MOT.

Daytona Spider replica, you dark horse

 

Was this the Pistonheads car just before Christmas - looked ok

 

Oh crud, I spoke too soon!

Regional Areas - International > United Kingdom > "MOT Problems"​

Unfortunately it's not a simple thing. The MOT tester (also a repair garage) allege that the car failed, while my specialist SmartCar garage is telling me that there's nothing wrong with the car when I authorised repairs. Had to involve VOSA to try to figure out what the heck is going on.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Hi Jimmie,

Yes. Good to see you have your finger on the pulse!

What the ad didn't tell you is that the car was never MOT'd since being built on the 400i chassis. Lots of annoying problems had to be sorted out to make it road legal and pass the MOT. Including a lot of mechanical hurdles. I've sorted them out and are consentrating on asthetics now. Still much to do, but I've spent loads of time on it and I'm making it as "authentic" as possible. (for example I've even changed the fuse box to 365 with covers, labels and correct cable colours, changed the battery tray to 365, relays to 365, bonnet catch hoop, air horns to 365 etc etc.) It'll be the best 365 daytona "recreation" (I hate the word replica...reminds me too much of hideous Toyota and Pontiac creations made by teenagers in their back yard on a shoe string budget)

Besides mine has REAL Ferrari DNA!

Regards
D