MoT Exempt. All you need to know.
If your car is now MoT exempt, you may well not bother to get it MoT’d any more. The car has to be a VHI, a Vehicle of Historic Interest and this information will be on the log-book, or what is now the ‘V5C’ DVLA form. Whilst your car may not require an MoT it MUST conform to the MoT regulations in that the car must be roadworthy. This little ditty is to assist those of you who are not engineers or an experienced older car owner. Any police officer in uniform may, at any time, stop you if you are on the public road and check your car over. Now herein there is a problem simply because the car is old, the officer may well NOT be up to the current regulations applying to the year of your model. There is information here to assist you in your quest to not be prosecuted for something your car did not require!
First, many pre-1956 MGs have a brass plate on the battery box under the bonnet. This has the chassis and original engine number stamped into it. Alas, near by is the little plate with the body number on it and a few VsC’s have this number as the chassis number, which is WRONG. Check your V5C has the correct numbers on it as when the officer carries out a ‘PNC’ check against your car’s registration number, if a body number comes back instead (remember you’ve just shewn him this brass pale as your ‘VIN’ number) he may well impound your car as a possible ‘ringer’. If you had your car MoT’d up until they did not any longer require it, the MoT station should have checked this data against the DVLA records, but possibly not. Unlike modern cars the chassis number is not stamped into the car’s floor under the driver’s seat, which would be impossible anyway as your floor is probably wood. It is, however’ stamped on the front near-side chassis leg, in front of the steering rack on some (probably today unreadable due to muck, corrosion, and poor access).
Check the lights work, white sidelights to the front and red to the rear, red brake lights to the rear, headlamps white with dip and main beam. Your car will NOT have a dashboard main-beam light visible from the driver’s seat (as per MoT regs). These main beam lights were not law until 1956. You may well have semaphore-trafficators which must work, and some ‘export’ MGs had white front and red rear flashing indicators that used the sidelights and brake lights with an ‘interrupter’. After 1956 flashers had to be amber coloured and flash between 60 to 120 times a minute. Would you believe this does not apply to your early MG? But common sense says the same flashing is logical. Many pre-1956 MGs now have white front and red rear flashers with the semaphores fitted with flashing LED bulbs in them, acting as a repeater. There are no regulations saying you can or cannot do this though if you do find yourself in court insist the car was originally so fitted (for the red/white flashers) as an ‘export’ model (for the USA). If your flashers are too slow, you may start the engine to get the dynamo to boost the battery if its low on charge.
The main-beam and dip must be within a set area. Park your car facing a wall close-up. Mark off the headlamp beam centre. Back up about 20 metres and adjust the main beam to be just under the marks. Modern cars are set up with an accurate beam testing machine; many pre-1956 MGs lamps are out on a wing support so easy to adjust.
Your number plate must be clean and undamaged and readable, grey numbers on a slightly greyer backing will fail. White, silver or grey numerals on a black background is the rule. Numerals must conform to the correct font for that year, attempts to personalise them will be a failure. Stop and tail lights must be symmetrical, there must be two stop lights for post 1971 vehicles. Cracked lenses that let a white light to the rear will fail. Rear number plate lights must work (often rusted up and dirty). Post 1954 cars will have rear reflectors, often cast into the rear light lens. But pre-1954 cars, even today, often have no rear reflectors. It was a regulations that applied to all vehicles, even those made before the ruling. Many younger MG owners assume their rear light lens has a rear reflector in it, this is not the case. Check them now.
When the officer asks you to switch on your four-way hazard lights, you are going to have to educate him/her that that regulation does not apply to your car. Hazard lights apply to post 1986 cars. They are not fitted (unless you’ve fitted them yourself) to your early MG. If you do fit flashing indicators to your car you must also fit an interior indication lamp on the dash. Semaphores do NOT require any interior indication lamp. When they comment that your interior mirror has no frame round it, it’s just a bit of glass between two clamps, again it’s time to tell them that particular rule did not arrive until 1956. Some cars have rear reversing lamps either in one of the ‘D’ lamps or as an after-market accessory. If fitted it must work but if you completely disconnect it it will pass. Should you be a bit odd and remove all the lights from your pride and joy, you can still be road legal but NOT use your car at night. You may still require brake lights though (I cannot find a regulation to say one way or the other).
Windscreen’s need to be undamaged where the wipers sweep the glass. Any small damage here must be within a 10mm diameter circle directly in front of the driver’s eye-line and 40mm outside it. Laminated screens must not be de-laminating sufficiently to interfere with the view ahead as above (the water gets between the two layers of glass and turns it all misty).
If your windscreen can open, you need not fit windscreen washers. Like the rear reflector rule this is another that applies to all cars prior to the ruling. If the screen does not or cannot open, you need windscreen washers. Wiper blades must be in good condition, though you may need to educate that officer how your Y Type wipers can be solo or as a pair. Horn must be clear and strident and a continuous note. Twin-tone horns may not be fitted to post Aug 1973 cars. Bells, gongs or sirens are illegal. Dashboard lights are a recent addition to the MoT, so ensure yours work The speedometer must work and undamaged. It must illuminate when the lights are switched on.
Air bags are not fitted to your car, but you may have seat belts fitted as an afterthought. Whilst the car does not require them by law, they must conform to the rules if fitted, ie they must clip together easily and re-wind if of that type. All lights of the Lighting Regulations must work, ie sidelights, headlights, brake-lights and semaphore-trafficators or flashers if fitted. Its worth carrying a spare set of bulbs as lights that do not work can attract a ticket even in the daytime. Offering to fit a new bulb there and then may be accepted.
Tyres must be of the correct size for the rimes, and either tubeless or tubed radials, or cross-ply, not mixed on the same axle. Most certainly no cross-plies on the rear and radials on the front mixture, an ideal recipe for an uncontrolled spin on wet roads. Treads must have 1.6mm left (there are wear indicators on modern tyres to assist, between the treads) on the middle 75% of the road contact area. Old tyres crack on the side-walls caused by the sun, if the inner structure is visible it’s a failure, as are cuts more than 25mm long that also show the structure. Wheel rims must be undamaged (often easily fixed with the ball end of a ball-pein hammer) and wheels not buckled. Bulges will be a failure. As a point of interest the officer can give you a ticket for every tyre that is not correctly pressurised as well as if its bald. It’s worth having the hand-book handy to show the tyre pressures in Old British Imperial figures (psi), ‘bars’ mean little to we old car owners (a ‘bar’ is one atmosphere, 14.7psi).
If you have a tow bar fitted, it will be checked even if the ball is not fitted, as well as the tow bar mountings for security and corrosion.
The police officer having now satisfied his or her self of the cars exterior safety may well carry out a few simple inner checks, like the steering and seat mountings. There are a few traps here for the unwary. First there is the steering wheel itself. Any damage or wear on the surface of your steering wheel, that can catch your hand and impair movement, is a failure. Many plastic rims on steering wheels I see on old MGs at shows have such damage, to cure those deep cracks in the rim fill them with P38 and colour it to match once you’ve rubbed it smooth. Ensure your adjustable steering column ‘locks’ properly; if the wheel can be pulled up and down out of the dash with it ‘locked’, it will fail. Check the wear on the column shaft by trying to move the wheel sideways, and ensure its fixings to the dash/firewall are solid. Some play in the top ‘felt bush’ is permissible. If you have rack-and-pinion steering you are permitted 13mm play at the wheel’s rim, if you have a steering box this is 75mm due to the number of joints in such a system. This is carried out with the front wheels in the straight-ahead position. Your MG will not have a steering lock, you may need to point this out when the officer seems to be looking about the column.
Light switches will be checked for operation as will the wipers, due to many older MGs not having and ID on the switch knobs the officer may need help. The hand brake will be tested, it will be applied and the car pushed to see if it works (in olden days this was often a failure on the Austin A30-35 model due to its having hydraulic-mechanical brakes). If yours is a sports T Type you may have to show how its fly-off button works. The brake pedal will be depressed and held there, to check for worn seals in the master cylinder. Door locks and window winders will be checked for correct operation. Doors that bounce open again when slammed will fail. Bonnets must have a security lock but as the MGs have two locks per side they qualify. Seat belt mountings, if fitted, will be checked for security, as will the battery in its box. Seat belt webbing will be checked for wear and damage. Pedal rubber covers will be checked for wear and fitting, it’s possible to fail here. Bodywork will be examined for any sharp edges that could cause injury to others as will cracked light lenses. It’s highly unlikely the officer will look under the car, but if he finds things wrong it may well be removed to have a much closer examination in a Police Workshop for road-worthiness.
Oil leaks are a perennial problem on cars with pre-1960s engineering. Decent examiners will accept the fact the engine can and will leak at its rear (and sometime front) crankshaft seals; providing it is not excessive. Leaks from any brake pipes is serious and needs urgent attention. Door’s will be checked for correct closing, latching securely. The pillar the door is mounted on will be examined for corrosion and security. The handbrake will be tried by applying it and giving the car a push (a common failure points years ago). The bonnet will be opened and wiring examined for damage and security, as well as the fuel system and pipes for any leaks.
Should you have the car impounded because the law suspects it’s not safe on the road, in a workshop up on a lift the structure will be inspected. No serious corrosion is permitted within 30cm of a steering, suspension or load bearing area. On our old MGs that means the chassis must be sound. Wheel bearings, king pins, steering rack, and tyres will all be checked. Any chassis repairs will have to be continuously welded all round, no tacking or rivets permitted. Front wheels will be steered lock to lock to check for fouling, especially the brake hoses. Rack and pinion boots will need to be sound and not torn and leaking, as will the little rubber boots on the ball joints. Excessive king pin and wheel bearing wear will fail, as will tyre wear due to out of adjustment tracking. All springs will be examined for broken leaves or cracked coils (a common fault on the lowest coil on the little MGs of 1947-55 fame). Rear axle ‘U’ bolts will be checked for security and tightness, if loose the axle can move about on the spring causing the ‘U’ bolt to wear into the casing. Each wheel will be lifted to check those king pins and spun for a bearing check and if the brakes are binding. All suspension nuts will be checked that they are of the self-locking type or are fitted with split-pins. Two nuts locking each other is acceptable. Oil leaks onto rubber suspension bearings will fail, not usually a problem on our cars but is on cars with engines mounted over the front wheels.
Dampers will be bounced to check they work and for any leaks. The exhaust will be examined for leaks and corrosion as well as its mountings being safe. The tail pipe must be far enough out to not permit fumes to enter the car. Fuel and brake pipes must be secure to the body/chassis under the car. Pipes must not be seriously corroded and hoses not cracked or chaffed. Engine and gearbox mounting must be serviceable, and not spongy due to oil and old age. No excessive movement is permitted of the engine so check your car’s engine steady. If any brake fluid is seen at the bottom of the brake back-plates, that is a failure as a wheel cylinder is leaking. The rear axle half-shaft seals can also leak on the brakes, showing up as a damp patch on the lower edge of the back plate. Later axles have a drain hole between the two lower back plate mounting bolts.
Excessive smoke from the exhaust will fail the car. Try the brakes yourself on an empty road with your hands just off the steering wheel, to see how the car pulls up. If it veers to one side, either you have a soft tyre that side or brake fluid soaked brake linings the other side or a seized cylinder on one side . Either way it will need looking at. Tyre wear and low pressures are an easy thing for an officer to begin to be suspicious that car is not being maintained to MoT standards. If you do MoT your car, or buy one with a certificate, remember its only ‘valid’ whilst the car was at the garage, any time after things can go wrong.
Unlike today’s cars where nearly everything comes up on a digital display in front of the driver, your old MG requires a regular walk round and checking over, often every time you go out.
N.C.