mot

[hawk]

looks like were going get again by vosa when new mots regs come in strick on lights brakes and such now if you have warning lights on before it was a advicory now you get afail for it looks like all those driving with that abs light that just wont go away will now fail as if the test is not bad enought i spent over £300 on my last car to get its mot and it still failed on co2 been to high i changed erverything but the engine to nothing but a loss off money so sold it for £240 and bought a bmw 318i for £255 with full years mot

[grahamw48]

Oh I can soon make those pesky little warning lights stop.

Still, a nice Morris 1000 complete with a starting handle and no silly electronic gizmos and flashing lights would do me nicely for running around locally.

No road tax either.

[imagine]

and just as much room under the bonnet as there is in the boot

i had a traveller
morris.jpg

[grahamw48]

Filipina free with every one ?

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Attachment 7933

[grahamw48]

Then of course, there is always this...that I'll be receiving in the next few days. heehee.
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Attachment 7934

[les_taxi]

My taxi test is very stringent and my dreaded abs light came on (as it often did) while doing test and it failed.
Quoted £900 for new ecu unit
Luckily engineer discovered wiring fault and fixed it for only £220
Better than £900 i suppose

[grahamw48]

My son's Fiat Punto has dash lights on all over the place... although everything works.

What a damned ripoff those ECU prices are, considering you can get a new Laptop for under 300 quid.

[Terpe]

looks like were going get again by vosa when new mots regs come in strick on lights brakes and such now if you have warning lights on before it was a advicory now you get afail for it looks like all those driving with that abs light that just wont go away will now fail as if the test is not bad enought i spent over £300 on my last car to get its mot and it still failed on co2 been to high i changed erverything but the engine to nothing but a loss off money so sold it for £240 and bought a bmw 318i for £255 with full years mot

I've just had this issue with my car.
MOT failure as ABS warning light was ON

Recently sometimes the ABS warning light comes on, then just goes off from time to time.
Cost me £65 for a diagnostic test to reveal something is wrong with the rear-offside system. Could be the toothed wheel, sensor unit, sender box or system wiring.
Cheapest potential solution £312 for fitting a replacement sensor unit, worst case scenario was fitting a replacement toothed wheel kit at £1200
Let me add that this is an error code dashboard light.
The brakes function correctly and exceed all MOT and safety aspects. The ABS system is working..............but the warning light comes on and goes off from time to time.

Very frustrating situation.

I always use my local garage for MOT's and repairs, but they just couldn't access the ABS system to read the error codes due to software blocks. That's why I was forced to use the local dealership (stealership )

My local garage told me that they MUST test the car as presented so I waited and waited until the ABS warning light was 'out' then took the car down for an MOT test presto presto.

As the car was being moved on the ramp the darned light came on again. Fail
As I was driving the car home the light went out again, so back I go to the garage.
This time the light stayed out for the duration of the test.
MOT PASS

That warning light stayed out the whole of that day and the next.
Over the weekend it came on again, Tuesday went off and yesterday came on again.

Graham if you have any words of wisdom on how to stop this darned warning light from causing such stress, please can you share ???

I have no problem to spend £300 if I really really must, but it was such a frustration and stress with the timing of MOT.
I do have a problem to spend £1200 if the 'system' needs replacing.

Any help from the pistonheads out there much appreciated.
Oh BTW, any break in circuitry will cause the warning light to come on. (so just disconnecting the sensor will not work)
Removing the tiny bulb in the warning lamp will cause the ETS warning light to come.

[grahamw48]

I haven't got an immediate answer to your question Peter, as it's still a bit new to me...also not knowing the model of your car.

However, provided that you are totally satisfied that your ABS system is working correctly, a lot of these electrical niggles (you may have noticed) seem to occur during cold damp winter days, so if your gremlins appear to go away during the warmer weather, it would perhaps be useful to re-schedule your MOT due date.

Talking of 'pistonheads', you may glean some really useful technical advice over on 'pistonheads.com'. Your car may not have its own section on that forum, but there is a wealth of general advice over there from some pretty clued-up people.

Personally, I may be tempted to buy a small pot of black paint and unscrew the dashboard, if all else fails.

It looks like 'classic cars' may well become a cheaper option for some though.

[Pete/London]

Took our car for MOT this morning and glad to say it passed. Only thing was as I got in to drive home there was an awful smell, I thought I had stepped in something. Its the window washer as the water seems to have stagnated.
Might try some Milton steriliser inside the washer bottle unless anyone has a better solution.

Peter, if you say any break in the circutry will cause the ABS warning light to come on you can try bridging the circuit, (connecting the wires together) as a tempory measure if your sure its just a nuisance fault.

[Terpe]

...Peter, if you say any break in the circutry will cause the ABS warning light to come on you can try bridging the circuit, (connecting the wires together) as a tempory measure if your sure its just a nuisance fault.

Thanks for the interest, what does that mean ? which wires do I need to connect together?

[les_taxi]

Thanks for the interest, what does that mean ? which wires do I need to connect together?

mine was wires and only the dealship could find it

[Pete/London]

Thanks for the interest, what does that mean ? which wires do I need to connect together?

I`m no expert on cars, boilers are my forte,but from what you descibed as the problem being the rear offside part of the system then trace out the pair of wires that supply that part of the system. It may be on a wiring diagram for your car giving you the colours of the wires. When your sure you have the right ones and they dont connect to anything else then cut them and tape them together. If it doesn`t help then reconnect with terminal connectors, make sure its water tight.
Its only a suggestion!!! no responsibilty taken
have you tried an on line search?

[hawk]

best way is to take out speedo and then remove the little bulb then no more lights showing for mot most of the time its age of the wireing that becomes brital and couses a wire to bare and short go look at scrap yards sometimes your lucky and find a new one on a mot fail car i found 2 new rear shox and front disc and pads for the same price it would have cost for 1 rear shox so saved lots of money at same time put that ecu in your bag

[Terpe]

.....Its only a suggestion!!! no responsibilty taken
have you tried an on line search?

That's OK I certainly wouldn't hold anyone responsible for something I'd decided to do

In fact I appreciate your feedback. Thanks.
I think it's a pretty darn good suggestion, and one I hadn't considered.

Yes, I've tried an online search. It's a Merc and I'm also a member of an owners forum.
I've done plenty of reading and searching the archives and haven't found a definitive answer for the rear systems.
It's quite a complex system and complex wiring arrangement. Each wheel has it's own independent system.

I'll wait until the warmer weather arrives then I'll do some cutting etc. Thanks for the idea.
I'm also thinking about how to 'eliminate' the dashboard warning light. No light means no MOT failure.

My frustration was due to the random way it came on and went off. On = Fail, Off = Pass
unpredictable, but I was lucky. Yipee

[grahamw48]

Forgot to say...well done on the pass anyway.

[hawk]

trouble is the car makers all makes have issues on warning lights and havent a clue all they say is book it in and see but when you do the problem doesnt show and its cost you £60 or more i can see lots of cars failing this new mot even one near new maybe theres a signal code they send to your car the minute warranty runs out ats ok till then 1 second over it starts lighting up like a christmas tree with faults

[imagine]

I think graham's pot of black paint is a safer solution, you ever looked at a cars wiring diagram

[imagine]

they know they got you , with all this electronics, that's why they sting you