Car MOT advisory... Curious

So I sent my car for its service and and mot at same time. It gets picked up from home…

Curious little advisories.

Ok I get the child seat point.

Did they really have to tell me they adjusted the headlight from the dial I might use a few times on a drive to adjust to situation?

And the “items removed” was a phone holder I used for a satnav surely someone could have just removed it before the test?

No big deal either way but they do seem strange advisories…

Probably they’ve been caught by VOSA doing something wrong, so now add in the easy “issues” to prove they are doing their job

Arse covering exercise

3 Likes

These are advisories, things you should be aware of and act upon.

Items removed from drivers view is advising you to place the phone holder to a position where it does not interfere with the view ahead. What has most probably happened here is the tester has removed the phone holder because it interfered with his view of the brake test screens and therefore will interfere with the drivers view.

Vehicles internal headlight adjuster altered to re check lights is advising you the headlamp beam cut off was too high and that the internal adjuster should not be set in that position until the headlamps have been properly aligned, something you should be aware of so as not to dazzle oncoming traffic.

Now the bit you don’t want to hear - If you refit the phone holder in the same or a similar position where it interferes with the drivers view or you set the internal headlamp adjuster so that the headlamp beam cut off is too high it could have legal and insurance issues especially if you are involved in a collision.

Whilst I get the bit about the phone holder…

The bit about the headlamp I don’t. The internal adjuster is standard, so if it is going too high, isn’t that a claim for Kia cars and the dealer who serviced it? Shouldn’t all positions in the internal adjuster comply with rules and regs of the road? I have never adjusted the beam beyond this.

As part of the service they do a safety check so shouldn’t they have addressed this or at least told me it needs addressing?

This is hilarious given his lights are probably ok. What about the 50 cars I get blinded by a day because their lights are just so off they are pointing directly at me. I’d put money they still pass as a minor and no fill in your word here ever corrects it.

It’s to adjust for the weight in the car (and thus how the car sits)
What they are saying is that with the car loaded in the way it was (which might be empty), that setting was wrong. They have had to adjust it to pass the test.

I don’t think it can hold any future issues as it’s dependant on what’s in the back, and that’s not been recorded

And that’s the thing… It’s not saying what was wrong (too high or too low), or even that there was something wrong. Just that they changed something to test it.

That’s a good thing to know. So when you get back in your car, you now know to adjust it back where it was.

Am I the only one who adjusts that multiple times on a drive to the situation?

What changes on a drive that makes you change it?

I rarely change mine, but it’s rare I use my headlights for seeing, so it’s generally left at the lowest position.

If for example I’m on a dark country road (which I have to to get home) and I have a car ahead meaning I can’t use my full beam, I will then lift them up to see a bit further.

If I get back onto more congested traffic I may lower to middle and lower to the lowest when I get into town

I often get, unable to inspect underside of engine.

There is a manufacturer fitted under tray there.

1 Like

As Boris said the adjuster is to lower the cut off when the car is loaded not to raise it and should be used, for example, when you have a heavy load in the boot.

The headlamps will be adjustable where the headlamp is bracketed to the car and with the headlamps at the lowest internal setting the cut off should be lower than the centre of the headlamps at 25’. If the adjuster can raise the headlamp cut off higher than that, assuming the boot is empty and the car is as light as it gets then the headlamps need to be adjusted. Raising the headlamps above the cut off because you have a car ahead meaning you can’t use the full beam is almost the same as using the full beam in that it raises the cut off dazzling the car in front and as well as dazzling oncoming vehicles.

Yes there are too many vehicles out there on the road with incorrectly adjusted headlamps and too many drivers unaware that their headlamps are incorrectly adjusted.

Could be worse, I got this one a few weeks ago…

1 Like

Huh I never knew it was to do with the weight inside the car…

I always just thought it was something one used to adjust as and when

Spot the landrover

2 Likes

Been there, done that with my old ford fiesta that I bought from a dodgy dealer. Shall forever be know as Mr Bucket, even though he was more of a sieve…

Just to add a final note to this. Drove car today and had a look. The adjuster was changed to the setting when the car is fully loaded. The car was empty at the time of testing…

That makes sense. When the car is fully loaded the rear suspension compresses which means that the headlamps are aimed high, the adjuster pivots the headlamps to lower the cut off.

1 Like