I had a need to check some MOT details for my vehicle this morning and went to the DVSA web site to find the records. This in itself is pretty straightforward, but what I found puzzled me somewhat.
Last year, I had a problem with the TPMS system on the car after replacing a blow-out. The details of this were discussed on the forum at some length in this thread:
http://www.mazda6forums.co.uk/index.php?topic=2778.0In a nutshell; replacing a tyre with one which is not identical in both make and spec to the one opposite on the same axle causes the TPMS to persistently trigger false low pressure alarms. This cannot be rectified by resetting the system, as the fault reappears at some random time within a few hours, or sometimes days. Apart from suggesting that I throw away the new £200 tyre and replace it with one identical to the original, Mazda were of no help whatsoever and refuse to acknowledge that their TPMS system is not fit for purpose.
What baffled me about the DVSA report however, is the fact that when the car had its last MOT check, it was returned by the garage as having passed with no problems. The DVSA system says different. This shows that on the day of the test,
two certificates were issued, one a Fail and one a Pass. The Fail section cites the reason as :
Tyre pressure monitoring system warning lamp indicates a fault (4.1.D.4)I had informed the garage about this problem when I dropped the car off and they seemed quite relaxed about it as far as the test was concerned. They even said that they would try and find a way of resetting the system, so that it accepted the new tyre as its baseline for monitoring. As it happened, they were unsuccessful in doing this and the alarm still goes off at random times, even following resets.
The questions which remain about the MOT report are: Why does it show Pass and Fail certificate numbers, when I was only told that it had passed; and does the incorrect operation of the TPMS system constitute a reason for failing an MOT?