Council run MOT for a tubby

[Delgado-Go!]

Been a long while that my tubby's been off the road.

I now need to MOT it at was wondering if peeps have taken there tubby to a council run MOT centre. Logic being that they go no vested interest in passing it or failing it. Just a straight forward test. I been doing this with my last couple of cars and it's always been hassle free.

Trouble for me now is tht I'm running a 99plate tubby (import) so theres some stuff about emissions cos of the year. But then theres the whole ESVA test thing that there is no UK equivalent so they can't do the emmisions bit anyway but must do everything else.

Is the above true or just tosh?

I dunno where else to go as I don't want to get shafted nor do I want some yahoo giving a thrashing when I leave it there.

[MR2 Rich]

All tubby before Aug 95 get away without CATS for the MOT but after that date it has to have one.

[Harold]

I take mine to the local protyre where it's only £30 and they're very proficient, at a council place it'll be full price. VOSA have very strict regulations concerning mot testing, if a garage was discovered to be making up results and failing cars deliberately they'd be in serious trouble and would lose their licence. The worst you can expect is unnecessary advisories for things like discs/pads/tyres etc with the garage hoping that you'll trust their word.

[Delgado-Go!]

I take mine to the local protyre where it's only £30 and they're very proficient, at a council place it'll be full price. VOSA have very strict regulations concerning mot testing, if a garage was discovered to be making up results and failing cars deliberately they'd be in serious trouble and would lose their licence. The worst you can expect is unnecessary advisories for things like discs/pads/tyres etc with the garage hoping that you'll trust their word.

You'd hope tht'd be the case. But I don't think it's like that (good honest service) in all cases. I've had my share of probs with 'look we'll charge you a little bit here and then gloss over X'. I've also had the other side times when the garage has made something minor into a right ballache.

That's when I found out about the council ones and it's been fine for all my past cars.

Anyone got a 98/99 tubby that can advise? Not had this long enuff to tax it as previous owner did it for me on the week I bought it since then it's been sorn'd. Want to get ready for summer!

So if after 95 needs a cat then what about all the fuss I used to read on here about no UK model report and stuff like that that made the tubby exempt from emissions. No cat is auto fail right? Don't want to do the whole swapparoo with exhausts every year.

[JD]

It should default to the Basic Emissions Test if they've no reference anyway. I've never heard of a tester physically checking for the presence of a cat' so don't mention it and it should be alright. It should be within acceptable levels if everything is doing it's job anyway.

Edit - Unless BET levels are more stringent for post Aug '95 cars :shrug:

[MR2 Rich]

Read the first post;

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=43072

And then this;

http://media.sxoc.com/contributors/s13f ... _chart.jpg

[JD]

Ah yes, very helpful. I did have to respectfully take my business elsewhere when a misunderstanding with the local garage resulted in their receptionist shouting into the workshop, "he says he's not a got a cat is that gonna be a problem?"

(that's not actually what i said but at least it showed me how useless they were)

"yeah you need a cat. you can't pass without one."

I tried explaining otherwise with all the necessary evidence but of course, they're the testers and refused to even look at their book so I just bu88ered off and went somewhere nicer.

A familiar story to many I'm sure.

[gnzyza]

Council run bays are Muppets in my area but they do very thorough test and if you want a honest inspection they are good.

My local one has new ramps that do all the shaking , wriggling, steering lock automatically allowing the tester to concentrate on his sandwich,er mean the checking of components

[hmltnangel]

I remember my purple Tubby a few years back. I took it in to a test centre just to check the emmissions prior to MOT and the guy was adamant that " there must be a CAT on there as its so low"

There was no CAT haha

[RST]

I never knew there was such a thing as "council" MoT centres. Maybe its like "Kwik Fit" though, they're out there but never even considered using them.

[danthevanman]

I have a 98 Turbo running a full Berk turbo back exhaust and can confirm it failled the emissions test as after 95 the required values were reduced.
In order to pass I have a B pipe with cat fitted which runs from the decat to the backbox.
Its alot easier to replace than removing the decat every year.

Dan