Hiya guys,

The Focus has it's first MOT coming up soon and I'm just wanting some advice to hopefully save us some cash for mods!

What sort of things should I be checking/replacing before to give my car the best shot at passing firs time round?

I serviced the car recently changing the oil, oil filter, spark plugs and tomorrow I will be changing the pollen and air filter.

Just after some tips so I don't miss out anything. I'm not very technical so stuff like brakes etc I may need to do some reading up on.

Cheers :)

Hi there is only so much you can do yourself such as check/make sure your tyres are legal,check and make sure all your exterior bulbs work(headlights,rear lights etc),make sure you have\top up your screen wash,check your wiper blades to mention a few.Things like brakes,suspension,exhaust you could ask your garage to check each time you go for a service etc.Hope this helps.

and dont forget to do the italian tune up on your way to the mot station.

and dont forget to do the italian tune up on your way to the mot station.

Gone over my head that mate...

Looking at getting the MOT booked in for Wednesday....eeeek!

Rev the nips off it.

Got failed today on nearside & offside lamp aim too low and also the tread on both rear tyres :( Will be getting some new tyres put on the rears either tomorrow or Saturday and the garage I had the MOT at said they would sort the headlights out when I go in for a retest.

I normally check over my car before mot - tyres, brakes, exhaust, bushes, springs, bulbs, wipers and so on. basically i check everything for wear, play, corrosion and generally that it still works!

this year i had a track rod end and ball joint to replace - that i had spotted before xmas. so after replacing them with genuine ford bits and had just had 2 new front tyres i thought sod it and put it in for its test...FAILED. turns out i had a noisy rear wheel bearing and 2 rusty brake pipes! OOPS! still had 2 weeks before the test expired though so plenty time to fix it

I didnt even notice the bearing, no noise when driving - nothing. but when i jacked the car up and spun the wheel it was very noisy! strange, even more so that i have replaced it and there is still no difference when driving

However i have now sorted the car and had it retested today.

What im getting at here is, you can check over most things but sometimes its best just to put it in for its test and let them pick up on whatever it needs and worry about it later.

Indeed, you're right mate.

Expensive month for me this time :(