armoured cable

[ban-all-sheds]

All that is very true - there are nearly as many shades of grey in MOT tests for the non-critical items as there are in the Pantone chart.

I'll add another one to the list - the frequency of turn signal flashes. If not grossly fast or slow due to a genuine fault, are they going to let it by, or fail you because over a 1 minute span it's out by one flash?

I used to use a garage that did not charge for failures - they had a great incentive not to fail cars for trivial reasons.

 

[Aragorn84]

Yep exactly, if they're offering a free retest its a sign they're not just out to squeeze every last drop of cash from you.

Saying that though, if the vehicle is left with the garage for repairs (as opposed to the customer taking it away to fix it elsewhere), they're not actually allowed to charge for the retest anyway.

Theres also a list of items that if it fails on you get a free retest as long as you return within 24hours with it fixed (things like light bulbs) so you'll usually find they'll just offer to shove a bulb in for 50p than waste more of their time the next day checking it over again.

Even the critical items have shades of grey. The shock absorbers for instance get an inspection to ensure they're not leaking and a bounce test. Our cars 13 years old and is still on the original rear shocks, which are getting tired, but the point at which the tester decides they're done is completely open to his interpretation, and the point at which they begin to affect how the car drives comes way before they'll actually fail an MOT!

 

[person]

My garage has a 6mm swa going to it as there is only a ring and one light on the board. I also have a shed about ten metres from the garage, if i was too add power to thsi shed i.e one light and one socket would I have to take another swa from my garage board to shed for a board in shed or could I just run swas from that board for light and socket?