My driver's side door mirror is cracked quite badly. All the glass is still in the mirror housing and you can use the mirror OK but is this likely to be an MOT failure? If so, I'll get it repaired when the car's in for a service in the next couple of weeks.
Thanks
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Soupytwist !
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Depends on how cracked and the mood of the tester.
www.motuk.co.uk/manual_810.htm
Reason for rejection
b. so damaged or deteriorated that the view to the rear is seriously impaired
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The link implies that the internal rear-view mirror could still qualify as the 'obligatory mirror', so does this mean that the external mirrors are merely augmentations?
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>>The link implies...
No.
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Passenger vehicles with more than 7 passenger seats of any age, and all passenger vehicles first used on or after I August 1978 (not being a minibus as above), must have two mirrors, one of which must be option 'a'.
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As the Octavia is a passenger vehicle first used after 1 August 1978, it must have 2 miirrors, one of which must be the one fitted to the offside - option 'a'.
The best thing to do to effect a quick, cheap repair to obtain the MOT is to stick a new mirror over the old broken one. Then, when there's more time available, a proper repair can be carried out.
Number_Cruncher
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Just to elaborate on NC's response, you can buy, for a pretty nominal sum, stick-on replacement mirrors.
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Replacement (not OE) stick-ons are about £4.99 in your local Halfords etc.
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i passed two mot,s with driver wing mirror cracked badly , but got an advisory for a cracked number plate the second year!! its still dangling now (oooh err misses)
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In case anyone's wondering I had the car MOTed yesterday and it did fail on the mirror, so the garage stuck on a replacement piece of glass which cost £10. That was the only thing it failed on (I'd already got them to replace the front pads before the test as I knew they were on the way out).
The crack in the mirror was OK until recently, the winter weather had led to the mirror glass getting quite dirty and the combination of crack and dirt was making it necessary to clean the mirror once a week in order to be able to see using it.
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Soupytwist !
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So number_cruncher was right :-) Could have saved £5 and had a better mirror in the meantime though.
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Am I the only one who thinks it strange that you would only replace a cracked mirror if it was going to fail an MOT?
No wonder these rules are in place if people are not prepared to pay even £5 to ensure their safety and others around them are not compromised.
And then we get people complaining we live in a nanny state that just keep hitting us with new rules!
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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If the mirror cracks right across and the glass shifts, safety may be compromised especially if it is a convex mirror. If it's flat and the glass hasn't moved, the interference caused by the crack is theoretical and in my opinion negligible. So it's a bit annoying to have to fiddle about replacing it for the MoT.
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Sorry, Mr Plod, but you see, the mirror cracked just after the last MOT and I simply couldn't afford to spend £10 to put a new glass on. I thoight it better to spend the tenner on going to the pub to watch the footbal on the big screen. I know replacing the mirror would have saved the awful accident I've caused which has left the driver of the other car with a broken leg, the passenger with a knee injury, and their dog dead since it came crashing through the windscreen. But I will get it fixed for the next MOT........ I just need to convince my insurers that my car was roadworthy so that they will pay for the huge injury and damage claims against me by the other car driver & passenger.....
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Ever done that because of a cracked mirror or seen it done gs? If you can prove it I'll give you a fiver. No, on second thoughts make it a quid. I too have Scottish blood, or so I am told.
'It has never been difficult to tell the difference between a Scotsman with a grudge and a ray of sunshine.'
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Really gs, what are you on about? Do you imagine a world in which everyone's car should be gleaming and impeccable, with the drivers gasping for a drink and missing the football because thy can't afford to go to the pub and they've sold the TV to get UNIMPORTANT PARTS for their silly shiny motor?
For heaven's sake. A bit of realism please.
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So being unable to maintain your car for a fiver and replace the mirror is not a safety issue?????
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Lud - a mirror is an unimportant part? Think you need to get real.
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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IMHO it's not something to be compromised. Door mirrors are not now simple pieces of stick-on glass - they have anti-dazzle coatings, both driver's and passenger's now have a concave outer edge to cover blind spots and electric adjustment is almost universal in modern cars to ensure correct angle. Anything that compromises safety is, or should be, an MOT fail.
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>>Anything that compromises safety is, or should be, an MOT fail.
But it's not that black and white. A Fiat Panda isn't a Volvo 940; so should the former automatically fail?
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Lud - Its a fiver for goodness sake. Stop being a plonker for the sake of it.
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< Ulla>
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 10/03/2008 at 19:21
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AE and the rest of you: All I said was that it's a bit annoying to have to replace a mirror for a crack that doesn't compromise safety to a significant extent. At that point I also said that if the glass moved safety would be compromised.
I didn't say mirrors weren't important. I didn't say they weren't safety related. I didn't say the cost of replacing a door mirror glass was excessive.
Who really are the plonkers here? And not doing it for its own sake, but in all sincerity.
:-P
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you also said, and I quote.
with the drivers gasping for a drink and missing the football because thy can't afford to go to the pub and they've sold the TV
I repeat. Its a fiver lud. One drink in your neck of the woods. To fix an MOT failure that cost the bloke 10 quid extra.
Now get back to page three of plonkers weekly. ;)
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< Ulla>
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>>I repeat
We all do from time to time AE, no need to apologise. It was the Scotsman, not I, who suggested people with cracked mirrors had spent the repair money in the pub watching football. Clear now?
Oh well, never mind.
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All this nonsense reminds of years, now gone by, when some motorists got frozen radiators and engine blocks in the winter because they were too tight to put antifreeze into their engine coolant.
I worked for decades, in a chemical laboratories and people were always on the cadge (sp!) for R350, our code, I think, for Ethylene Glycol. Even then they could not be bothered to go to the local motoring shop and buy the stuff already made up with the correct corrosion inhibitors. There's nowt so queer as folk!
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Well, I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!
While I take the point that I could have saved a £5 and stuck a bit of replacement glass on there myself, until very recently I was perfectly happy with the view I was getting via the mirror in question. It was only the recent deterioration in weather which had led to it being difficult to use.
I would have thought that the fact that I knew my brake pads were on the way out and had arranged for this to be done prior to the test indicated that I am not someone with the sort of cavalier attitude to vehicle safety and condition that's being suggested by some.
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Soupytwist !
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