Was interested to find my 1998 Spider passed its mot (eventually) with its airbag light on without even a mention on its advisories .
Is this unusual ?
Was interested to find my 1998 Spider passed its mot (eventually) with its airbag light on without even a mention on its advisories . Is this unusual ?
My mate who runs a garage was on an MOT course today and I got him to ask about this, as the Alfa GTV I'm buying has the airbag light on. He confirms that it's due to happen, but he couldn't find out when.
Had a chat with my friendly MOT tester when I put our sheddy Rover through with the airbag light on. The new changes (eg Airbag light on failing rather than advisory) have not gone through yet due to various reasons. As of yesterday (when it was the GTV's turn) they still havent.
Mine is in for MOT on Thursday, enquired about this when I booked it in and they said that it is still an advisory, no confirmation on when it will become a fail - I reset my light anyway so no longer bothered anyway
My mate who runs a garage was on an MOT course today and I got him to ask about this, as the Alfa GTV I'm buying has the airbag light on. He confirms that it's due to happen, but he couldn't find out when.
When they do implement these changes I can see a heck of a lot of middle aged cars failing, and with expensive bits like cat converters and ABS systems being part of the new rules a lot of these will end up being scrapped.
Maybe the Govt doesn't want to risk rebellion from us oiks who don't run around in new, state paid for, chauffeur driven, Jags?
I can verify that the airbag light is still advisory as I had my Spider MOT'd today. The changes are still on hold with no date announced yet for implementation.
Actually it's a bit of a rediculous reason to fail on, having a malfunctioning airbag does not make the car unsafe, few 15-20 year old cars came with them and I could go and buy an MG midget or something like that and it won't have one so it can't fail because of it. Perhaps they've delayed because VOSA have realised it will take alot of cars off the roads and many motorists will not be able to afford to make costly repairs to a non-essential personal safety device.
But it's not just the air bag that triggers the warning light. The main culprit is the seat belt pre tensioners. These are fitted to keep occupants tight back in their seats as the bag fires. I would guess there are types of car out there that still fire the bag with the belts faulty, which could explain the concern over operation.
Within months of the rule coming in there will be gizmos on e bay for switching the lights off via a timer just as people do for ABS lights.
to add to the weird additional checks, i was told yesterday headlight washers not working will also be a fail.
I know of many that have had fuses removed to deactivate as the systems leaked.
my wifes car (non-alfa) failed yesterday on perished tyre valvles. that was a test done with a fine tooth comb.
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