MOT exempt and dangerous
I have yet to find anyone who thinks that exempting old Land Rovers from the annual MOT test is a good idea. The majority of my Series customers continue to put their vehicle in for test every year regardless of what the law says, but occasionally I come across a vehicle that hasn’t been tested for a while. The theory behind the exemption is that ‘historic’ vehicles are maintained to a high standard, so the MOT test would not pick up any faults that the owner has not dealt with. I’m not sure that is quite how things happen in the real world.
I had an early Series III turn up at the workshop: it was last tested 18 months ago and has been in almost daily use since. It came in for some engine work, but when I tried road testing it after the repairs I found that the brake pedal went almost to the floor, and when the brakes finally started to bite they pulled sharply to one side. On removing the rear drums I found that one of them was full of oil. It had clearly been in that state for a while. The shoes were worn down almost to the backing metal, to the point where the adjusters were no longer effective. Even without the oil leak, the braking efficiency must have been marginal at the last MOT test.
Far too many people rely on the annual MOT test to tell them what maintenance work their vehicle needs. Without annual testing, these vehicles are running around entirely un-maintained. If you are going to take advantage of the MOT exemption, please pull your brake drums off at least once a year and have a look inside. A lot can go wrong with an old Land Rover in 12 months.