I dropped mine off at the garage this morning for its MOT. I must confess I haven't driven it more than 150 miles or so since October, and even though I didn't bother to do anything bar leave it in the garage, It still started up fine this morning and all the bits and pieces worked as they should, so I didn't give it a second thought when I left it at the garage for its test.

But when I went to collect it, I was regaled with a strange little tale. They checked the car over and all seemed fine, so they took it down to the testing station whereupon as soon as they got it onto the rollers to test the brakes, they couldn't get the brakes to give a balance within tolerance across the rear axle. They were wondering why this was and what could be the cause, when the engine cut out and absolutely refused to restart. There was a reasonable amount of fuel in the tank, but remembering that I had told them it hadn't had much use lately they decided to chuck a fresh gallon of fuel in anyway, just in case.

As soon as they did that, not only did the car start immediately, but as soon as they tested the brakes again they got the correct balance reading and it passed the test. Go figure, as they say.

So I drove home absolutely promising to give it a decent outing at least once a fortnight. It was probably sulking at being neglected over winter, even though it had a nice warm dry garage to sleep in.

Tim H.
1986 4/4 VVTi Sport, 2002 LR Defender, 2022 Mini Cooper SE