Beware LED sidelights and MOT failure !!

[mike foster]

Just had MOT done - passed eventually.

On arrival to collect car MOT man said "do you want to know what it's failed on " ? Obviously I said yes and he produced the fail sheet which said :- nearside and offside front position lamps incorrect colour ( 1.1.A.2c ). This sheet had already been sent through to VOSA.

I had fitted LED bulbs which were supposedly both legal and Canbus error free. They weren't error free but that was sorted by a parallel resistor and obvioously weren't legal either !!

I asked if I could swap them and, to be fair, the guy said yes. I asked if he had a couple of bulbs which he gave me (literally ! ) and after fitting he passed the car and gave me the certificate.

I then asked him what was wrong with the colour and he said they looked blue. I said they looked white to me but which machine says they were blue?

His answer, and this is the point of the thread, was that it's not a machine - it's me !! Now everybody sees colour differently but it appears that a decision to pass or fail a vehicle on the colour of the sidelights is purely down to the colour vision capabilities of the tester !

Moral of the story must be that if you have changed any lights to LED's then swap back for the MOT or it might fail.

Just thought you all might be interested

Cheers

 

[Khufu]

front lights should be white or yellow but there is the option to issue an advisement if they are slightly discoloured. I use it if there is a slight blue tinge to a bulb as some legal bulbs do and usually the light they cast is white.

 

[scottie123]

finicky mot'r

Take it to Khufu, He is colour blind

 

[mike foster]

As far as I was concerned they were white. To my eye they did not emit any blue tinge at all.

All I am saying is that the acceptance, or not, of a bulb colour is apparently purely subjective and not the subject of technological examination, just like the second England goal !

Right Scottie - he was a finicky old sod and if Khufu lived nearer Yorkshire i'd definitely go to him next time !!!!!!

 

[antmax7]

on my old car i had led bulbs fitted in side lights and number plate bulbs took it to the same mot station with the same tester two years running first year he did not even mention them second year he was gonna fail it for them until i pointed out they were in last year when he tested it! and past them no probs.I think it's a if there having a good day or not topic

 

[luke1987]

mine passed with led no cambus sides and led no cambus numberplates

 

[Khufu]

been there before RE number plates etc - passed last year but not this year? - rules have changed etc - moan - hey there are a lot of people dead who werent dead last year - still moan LOL

 

[DriveByShooters]

Some new A6's have "BLUE" capless 501's as standard..!!

 

[hollows wife]

no problems here then my brother owns a garage and mot bay and hes colour blind also and hes the mot tester
lol

 

[SAiLO]

I got numberplate leds and passed no problem a week ago. But then again numberplate and front lights are two different things.

 

[smudge_don]

At the end of the day, an MOT can be passed or failed due to the tester

Each decision is down to his opinion, and most of the time they will try and shaft you for whatever to get a bit of cash out of you unfortunately

An MOT'er can fail a car if the exhaust is too loud in HIS/HER OPINION

It's all down to who you get to test it

 

[Gti Jazz Blue]

I usually have mine tested where my mate works as an MOT tester.

Not that there is anything that would fail an MOT on mine, but I won't get shafted for any un-required work.

Paul

 

[lloydsta101]

Same here, my mate works on the same Trading Estate as me and is the MOT tester for their garage. They always do my MOT's and don't stitch me up for unnecessary work, but let me know if there is anything that needs attention and allow me to get the parts myself and fit it before the re-test (if necessary).

I have LED sidelight bulbs, which shine completely white... but he said the same, they can fail them if they want to. It is completely up to the tester if they want to fail you on petty things, but as mentioned it's usually down to the day they're having!