Its that time of year again, where one of my cars goes for the dreaded MOT. Naturally, it fails (well bound to), but I’ve checked the status online and this is a very interesting thing about the car. For the record, its a Renault Espace MK3, at last look, around one of 374 left on the road.. well, the variant I have anyway (Renault Espace Mk3 Privilege 2.2 DCi – and yes its a diesel.), I have another which is different (Renault Espace Mk3 Privilege V6 Auto – Petrol) but this blog post talks about some of the oddities which isn’t down to the garage, MOT or manufacturer, but how complex cars in general are getting.
In November, the V6 Espace went for its MOT, I think it failed on a few items, but they were fixed. One it should of failed on, but didn’t is the SRS light. Now this IS why I wrote the blog post. These Espaces have early electronic dashboards and very interesting ones especially for its age. It sits in the centre of the car so your kids (if I had any) and your wife (if I had even a girlfriend, its just me) can see what the car is doing or when I had a girlfriend, fiddle with the radio and she loved hogging the radio while they can see that you are taking the speed limit with a pinch of salt. 70mph? Plus the new VAT rate! Thats beside the point. I do as much as possible try to keep to the limits mainly because I don’t want to loose my licence of have a smack, I’m trying to look after my old girls.
The DCi Espace funny enough, passed as well on that part, but going through the history, I noticed this:
“Supplementary Restraint System warning lamp does not illuminate”
Now, to remember all car warning lamp combos is a bit hard, especially on the fly when you test hundreds of cars every week. The correct operation is:
- If the lamp illuminates followed by the word “Service”, fail.
- If the lamp isn’t lit and the dashboard then shows “OK” after the glow plug light, pass.
But, the MOT manual throws a good one:
From this link: http://www.ukmot.com/manual/5.4/Supplementary-Restraint-Systems-(SRS)
“Method of inspection:
….
2. Turn on the ignition and check the presence and operation of any Supplementary Restraint System SRS malfunction indictor lamps MIL.”
So, work that one out. The MIL works and it also doesn’t. I know one garage who is familiar with these vehicles and follows the rule correctly (it doesn’t help that the guy is an ex Renault Master Technician.) and it proves you can have a car nearly unique but doesn’t follow the rules. In that case, you are in the position I mentioned, “Do I pass or fail it? The manual says this, but it does that.” The problem is that cars are now really complex and that means so does testing them.