As a car owner, you must be aware of MOT. Generally, vehicles over three years old are legally required to take an annual inspection test to ensure if they are still roadworthy or not. This elaborate inspection is what we call MOT (Ministry of Transport).

How MOT function?

  • As and when your car surpasses its third anniversary, it will have its first MOT.
  • And after that, every year your car will have to take the MOT exam, the same date as your first MOT exam.
  • Once you clear the exam, you will be provided with an MOT clearance certificate that will mark its expiry date.
  • That date of expiry is when you will renew your certificate by taking another exam.
  • You can also have your vehicle verified a month before it expires to avoid the hassles of a post-expiry MOT test.
  • If you happen to drag around your car without a properly issued APK Keuring Leeuwarden, you will be liable for fines.

Here’s a list of parameters that the MOT test takes into consideration.

Brakes Safety

If you wish to ace your MOT test, then you should ensure that your brakes are in perfect working condition. Brakes the most essential safety equipment in a car and hence their functioning matters the most during your car’s MOT.

  • The examiner will typically place the car on rollers to verify if the brakes decelerate it efficiently. And conduct certain tests to check whether your car’s brakes are correctly balanced or not.
  • The correct balance of brakes is determined by whether they stop in a straight line or not.
  • Your car’s handbrakes will be checked across steep slopes to determine if they remain intact during the parking.
  • The pedal rubbers on your brakes must be new and not worn out.

Rusts and sharp scratches on your car’s bodywork

Sharp dents or rusts across your car’s bodywork can raise red flags during the MOT.

  • Extreme dents or sharp edges in a car’s structures can pose an injury threat to bystanders and pedestrians and are therefore not tolerated during the MOT certification.
  • Rusting is yet another MOT issue. Rusts across essential parts of a car such as brakes or steering wheels could raise safety concerns and hence are a no-no in the MOT realms.

The legality of your car’s emissions

For fuel-based vehicles, the utmost issue is clearing the exhaust and emission portion of the MOT.

  • Special instruments are used to conduct emission tests on your vehicle.
  • This test is used to confirm whether your car’s emission falls under the system’s legal range.
  • The limit of emissions strictly varies across car types and age.
  • The standards of emissions and exhaust also pay attention to your tailpipe. Any type of sound or smoke can hinder your progress in the APK Utrecht.
  • Moreover, in order to pass the MOT test, your fuel filler cabinets and exhaust systems should be securely fastened. This is because unsecured caps give an impression of leaks.

Your car’s lights

In order to be acclaimed as a fully functional car under the MOT standards, your car’s lights must be operational.

  • Be it headlights, indicators, taillights, brake lights, sidelights etc. must glow and indicate their presence on the driver’s dashboard.
  • Also, there are certain conditions where cars are required to install two red reflectors on the rear end to show off their presence.
  • Moreover, the examiner can also check your headlights’ alignment and adjust according to the norms then and there.

Seatbelts

Taking every safety issue into account, it would not be wrong to say that seat belts are a legal requirement in a car.

  • Cars that lack seat belts will instantly fail their MOT.

  • Your seat belts must be inertia bound and retract properly.