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Hi,
I have an 07 plate Ford S-Max which we bought new. Now that the kids are older it is mainly used for transporting my bike, tip runs and so on.
The MOT is due in March and passenger side rear door central locking is no longer working. This does not worry me overmuch as it very rarely has more than three people in it and the door can be opened from the inside using the lever.
My question is would this be an MOT failure? - the fix does not seem obvious or easier and, due to financial pressures, I would prefer not spending several hundred quid to get it fixed at a garage.
If you can open it and close it then it’s fine. Doesn’t need to lock automatically
As long as you can unlock it from the inside and open it then it's fine. Safety issue if you need to get out in a hurry and cannot.
Not sure how child locks fit into the above though...
Ah seems it's just front doors according to this site
https://www.mot-test.net/mock-test/doors/
It's to do with whether it opens and closes, nothing to do with if it locks or not.
My old 306 failed on that, had to slam the door a few times to get it to stay shut.
Replacement (non central locking) latch from a scrappy for a fiver sorted that, three doors done on the central locking, remember to do the other one manually.
PS Fairly easy fix too, door card off, lock held on with a couple of bolts, a plug and play wire for the CL, which didn't have anywhere to plug into on my replacement. Hardest bit was getting the locks in and out past all the window winding gubbins
I had a mark 4 golf which I sold to friends. One of the rear doors stopped unlocking and they never got it fixed and it went through numerous MOT's. Unless the rules have changed it should be fine.
It was 'interesting' when 3 of us went snowboarding for a week. Filling the car with snowboard bags, luggage and 3 bodies when the single seat in the back was not the door that worked made getting in and out fun. Luckily we were only going to the airport rather than driving all the way!
I've had a car MOT'd that wouldn't open from the outside (handle was missing entirely). I did mention to the tester it was on order (mid covid so everything was a PITA to get hold of). Central locking definitely wouldn't be a failure, inside handles aren't a failure (could have child locks on), and exterior isn't a fail (door could be locked). If it was actually an emergency someone would get in through the window!
All possible scenarios for MOT doom:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-inspection-manual-for-private-passenger-and-light-commercial-vehicles
It does say passenger doors, but there is somewhere a definition of "passenger" IIRC and I can't remember what it is specifically, maybe not rear doors.
Driver and passenger doors must open from the outside using the relevant control.
Driver and front passenger doors must also open from the inside using the relevant control.
Is all that matters. And that's a verbatim quote from the testers handbook.
The rear doors could be welded shut for all the tester could care.
Thanks to everyone that responded - most appreciated 🙂
From experience I understand the door loom connections are not that robust. It may be a chafed wire that some heat shrink and solder would quickly resolve.
My local trusty independent garage very easily solved an airbag warning on ours due to this.