Mercedes W169 - Annual Service and MOT

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Sat 26 Sep 2015 04:48
Mercedes W169 - Annual Service and MOT - the_bandit
When booked in for a service and MOT which would you expect to be carried out first?

Turns out I had the MOT first which turned up a fail item that would have been corrected if the service had been carried out first.

I guess the end result is what matters it's just a little annoying to have a record of an MOT fail for something that could have been avoided.


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Sat 26 Sep 2015 09:06
Mercedes W169 - Annual Service and MOT - elekie&a/c doctor

I would say mot first.Can,t see the point of spending out on a service only to be told you need to spend the same again to pass the mot.There are loads of items on an mot that are not checked on a sevice,eg brake efficiency,emissions from exhaust.

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Sat 26 Sep 2015 09:07
Mercedes W169 - Annual Service and MOT - RobJP

Hard to say, really. If they carried out the service, and then found that the car needed £2k of work to get through the MOT, a lot of people would complain that the garage had cost them money that way round too, and if they'd known about potential costs then they'd have not bothered having the service carried out !

Having a record of an MOT fail, immediately followed by a pass when obviously rectified, is not a problem.

What was the failure for, out of interest ?

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Sat 26 Sep 2015 09:23
Mercedes W169 - Annual Service and MOT - gordonbennet

MOT first, might bring up something that is worth investigating during service, secondly no matter how good a service is, unless the vehicle is going on diagnostics and emissions testing @ £££s (even then a brake imbalance could crop up) there's still no guarantee of a pass.

As said, if the MOT had found a potential £1000+ bill leading to a keep or part ex decision, you'd not have been amused if you'd just paid for a full service and brake reline.

The real question though is what does the average person, or the average garage for that matter, class as a service.

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Sat 26 Sep 2015 09:23
Mercedes W169 - Annual Service and MOT - John F
When booked in for a service and MOT which would you expect to be carried out first?

A good example of a question which can only be answered if you accept its underlying premise (e.g. 'what is your favourite colour'....if you don't have one, it is unanswerable). In this case I would have no expectation.

Neither. They are two different and separate tasks, albeit with some similarities. One is an appraisal of the vehicle's roadworthiness, the other is attention to the requirements and wellbeing of the vehicle.

The garage receptionist should have asked if you had a preference as to the order in which the tasks were to be performed.

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Sat 26 Sep 2015 11:14
Mercedes W169 - Annual Service and MOT - nortones2

I get the MOT test done at a specialist that has no sell-up targets.

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Sat 26 Sep 2015 11:41
Mercedes W169 - Annual Service and MOT - Wackyracer

Having not failed an MOT on my old bangers in 14 years, I'd say a proper service before the MOT would prevent most likely MOT failures but, That depends on what "Service" was carried out.

My idea of servicing is alot different to the 'oil change services' of today. If a car fails it's MOT on brake balance or efficiency then something is seriously wrong as the tolerances for balance and brake efficiency are pretty poor IMHO.

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Sat 26 Sep 2015 16:05
Mercedes W169 - Annual Service and MOT - the_bandit

Thanks for replies.

Reading the them I hadn't considered some of the other scenarios that could surround the decision to either service or MOT first but there was no danger of any uneconomic repairs at this point in time.

In this instance the service would have identified this fault, corrected it (approx £50) and subsequently would not have failed the MOT.

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Sat 26 Sep 2015 16:43
Mercedes W169 - Annual Service and MOT - RobJP

Can I ask what the MOT failure was for ?

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