MOT and HID

[RichDavies82]

I’m looking at getting the van MOT’d in the coming days and wondered if I should change the HID’s I’ve fitted back to the original H7’s. Any advice?

 

[dubber36]

I'm going to when the time comes. It will only take a few minutes as you can leave all the ballasts etc in place. Just tape over the holes where the wires pass through.

You're not bothering with the 6 month MOT exemption then?

 

[RichDavies82]

I thought about but it’s an excuse to a) leave the house and b) drive the van. I’m nervous about driving it and getting stopped. I know the exemption should prevent this but I imagine the plod haven’t got too much on at the minute!

 

[DarrenTT]

I’ve heard some people have been having issues getting road tax without the mot. I had mine done last Saturday as 1, need car for work and 2, it gave the local garage something to do.

 

[dubber36]

I'm going to test this out. The MOT on my Mk2 Golf expired on 4th April and I'm going to tax it on 1st May

 

[Big.mac]

I had my THQ V3’s alignment adjusted by my local garage last week. They are fitted with HIDs. I’d previously discussed with them whether these would fail an MoT (before I fitted the lights and was deciding what bulbs to use) and was told HIDs would fail and it was obvious when HIDs were fitted. Anyways, he adjusted them, I asked if it would pass an MoT, he said yes, I asked, ‘what, even with those HIDs in there?, he looked again and said he couldn’t tell it had HIDs so yes It would pass.
My van isn’t due an MoT so its easy for me to say this, if i was taking it to be tested for real, I’d do a bulb swap to the standard H7’s and swap them back afterwards. It doesn’t take long and saves the hassle of a failed MoT.

 

[Loz]

Do you have HID in both the dip and high beam or just the High beam?

 

[Big.mac]

Do you have HID in both the dip and high beam or just the High beam?

Just in the dip. Regular H1 halogens in the main.

 

[dubber36]

I think that the only tell tale sign that you have a well installed set of 4300K-5000K HIDS is the slight delay in getting to full brightness.

If the lights are left on Auto, the chances are they will be on throughout the first parts of the test where the lights are checked, so it won't be noticed. However, many places turn the lights off when they drive into the building to save having them on all the time.

As I said earlier, mine will get swapped, but that's not for another 2 years.