Last year the old girl passed her MOT with one advisory, power steering pipe/hose slightly corroded offside front.

Yesterday passed with one advisory anti roll bar linkage ball joint has slight play nearside rear.

So happy enough but does get me wondering about the standards of consistency in MOT testing.
Has last years slight corrosion suddenly rectified itself?

Was same garage but a different tester.

All MOT testers are expected to test to the same standard

But not all MOT testers opinions of "advisory" items are the same

Had a Freelander 2 a while back that was failed on front and rear pads excessively worn, and discs in a dangerous condition
Went to another station 2 days later, which it passed without a single advisory, with no work carried out

Maybe Friday afternoon to minimise administration & or the £100 note found on the dashboard, who knows!

A lot of people down under were getting their driver's licence in above mentioned ways. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

Bogart wrote:

Has last years slight corrosion suddenly rectified itself?

No, he lost his glasses!

Click image to enlarge

 Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

You might be right.

Mikey wrote:

All MOT testers are expected to test to the same standard

But not all MOT testers opinions of "advisory" items are the same

Had a Freelander 2 a while back that was failed on front and rear pads excessively worn, and discs in a dangerous condition
Went to another station 2 days later, which it passed without a single advisory, with no work carried out

Lightwater wrote:

Maybe Friday afternoon to minimise administration & or the £100 note found on the dashboard, who knows!.

I suspect the police would be called if a £100 note was found on the dashboard.  2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Soon to be sold.
Hyundai Ionic 5 Ultimate on order.
Gone. 2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE.

You would need two £100s one for the garage the other for the coppers!

Had my wife's Suzuki MOT'd last week and watched the guy do it (no problems as it's only done 12k miles). Its at a small garage in the middle of nowhere in Dorset. I have taken my boys' Porsches there and the guy talks you through it as he does it. He told me that he occasionally gets cars bought in with known faults by the inspectors and that he will soon have to install CCTV cameras for number plate recognition and that he will be under surveillance during the test. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

MOTs are still open to fiddling by "dodgy garages". I once had a Volvo have an MOT in London, a pass naturally, when the car was in the south of France!

I assume all these cars with catalytic converters removed and massive exhausts must have some sort of understanding with the MOT tester. Learned to drive in 2011.
Bought a Micra - great little car
"Upgraded" to Kia Sportage - hated it
Proper upgrade to FL2 TD4 GS 60 reg Facelift - tailgate paint issues, fuel gauge rewire, transfer box failure at 36k miles, clutch at 60k
Reconditioned diff at 70k ish
Sold at 84k and now on a DS. Terribly unreliable.
Sold DS for a 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Fingers crossed....
Sold Outlander for a 2014 SD4 SE Tech because I’m mental

Probably put back on for the MOT then taken off straight after.

I can't see the point in removing the CAT, unless the ECM is mapped to alter the A/F ratio to take it out of closed loop control.
A CAT burns extra fuel for it to function, which is why the oil companies pushed for them to be fitted to all cars back in the 70s. For a CAT to work, the engine must burn fuel at the stoichiometric ratio of 14.7 parts air, to 1 part fuel. This is neither good for maximum power 12 to 1 is a better ratio, or better economy where 18 to 1 would be more beneficial.
Simply removing the CAT reduces back pressure in the exhaust manifold, which adds a couple of BHP, but it's really limited unless the closed loop map is also disabled by a remap, so the A/F ratio is richer for full power.
It would be difficult to switch between open and closed loop on demand, so getting the full benefits of removing the CAT are lost. 2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Soon to be sold.
Hyundai Ionic 5 Ultimate on order.
Gone. 2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE.

Whatever happened to the "Lean Burn" engine ? IIRC these were designed to run ratios of around 22:1

I was told that the gov at the time legislated for cat convertors etc which killed the design off, even though it promised to be a better solution to the economy/pollution issues. Jules

Lean burn was an adaption of an already existing A/F ratio. Most engines are happy to run lean when not requiring high power, like when cruising. Before CATs it wasn't uncommon for engines to run at 16 to 1 or more, as engine design improved. Lean Burn was an adaptation on that, allowing mixtures as lean as 25 to 1 for some engines. It takes a huge amount of clever combustion chamber and ignition system design to run mixtures that lean, as detonation becomes an issue. However the mandatory CAT made all that work irrelevant, along with the increased fuel economy afforded by lean burn technology, because a CAT must work at the stoichiometric ratio of 14.7 to 1.
The oil companies knew this, which is why they were very pro-CAT, as it meant increased fuel sales.


We still have lean burn engines, they are used to power garden equipment and the like.
Oh and of course diesel engines are effectively lean burn engines too, running at 200 to 1 at idle. 2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Soon to be sold.
Hyundai Ionic 5 Ultimate on order.
Gone. 2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE.