Mate's just phoned me as his missus is in a flap. She's having her BMW 3 series compact MOT'd and the test centre are being arsey as not all the bulbs/LED's work in the high level brake light. IS this a fail or an advisory and would it be possible to unplug it as a temp fix as the part is on backorder from BMW and will be a week.

CheeRS people

 

iirc, all stop lights have to be fully functional, so just un-plugging it would not be enought, however, taking it out will be sufficient as its not on the car so cannot be tested!

 

If its fitted it has to be fully finctional

 

not realy being arsey just doing there job

 

i can not remember ya know!!there is a "grey area"on these!i am sure that if u can see its disconnected u can not fail it for it not working

 

I've managed to get a bit more of the story now and to be fair it does sound like they are doing what they are supposed to be. Sounds like my mate is getting shirty about having to open the purse strings. Garage has offered to sort the whole lot including the MOT for £150, £50 MOT, £50 part and an hours labour to fit it. Sounds pretty fair do's to me

 

Pull wiring off and it's a reflector, sorted.

 

At least 50% of it should work, so if it has 5 bulbs, 2 blown is acceptable and should be a pass, may get advisory for it though.

For example, my old mk3 mondeo with those ring of tail lights at the back are made up of 3 bulbs, one of them was not working and it passed

 

Manual doesn't quote any percentage, one bulb would be a pass.

 

Hardly out the way then - tell him to stop being a tight bastard and sort his wifes car out !

 

From the manual....

High level stop lamps

These are lamps usually fitted in the rear window or boot spoiler of a vehicle and may consist of a number of light sources .
The lamp is one unit, so as long as at least one of the light sources illuminates when the brake pedal is pressed the lamp is deemed to be working.

 

they must have seen you coming MILES away

£100 to fix a brake light

 

i remember getting something through about LEDs about a month ago so this info could be out of date.

 

SO WAS MOST OF GERMAN SS DURING THE WAR!!
EASY WAY OUT OF IT-
YOUR AN MOT TESTER THEN!!!

 

£100 as said to fix a brake light!!-lol
WHY LEAVE IT THERE-((((((((((((((((((((((((GIVE HIM A TIP,
MORE MONEY THAN SENSE

 

Just put some insulation tape over the high level brake light.If they carnt see it they carnt fail it.Its like if a car comes in for a mot and there are some wheel nuts missing its a fail.But if the owner puts a wheel trim over the nuts its a pass.

 

Yeah your right, got a bulletin through about high level brake lights sayin that any more that 50% of the bulbs blow is a fail like said earlier,

 

The things in the mot are just stupid sometimes.

 

My old 406 estate had the same thing, i just gaffa taped over it and it went through 3 mots at different places like that.

In fact the gaffer tape was still on it when i sold it LOL

 

It's not my car . The part has already been quoted from BMW as being £50 and an hours labour to remove the trim acces the unit remove and refit new unit and put trims back is quite fair and I think most garages would charge £40-50 for an hour of their labour time. If they were nearer to me and not desperate to sort the MOT I would obviously have offered to sort it for them