mot question

BrokenBiker · 2026-02-14T11:59:04+0000

2006 jeep grand cherokee. a mates car, he is useless at the best of times. maybe @indy4x would know a fix, but personally i think he is flogging a dead horse here.

so, he has the usual rainfall inside every time its wet, so every day lately...dash cluster, windows, radio and heater are all dead due to water ingress (so im told).

he isnt hugely worried about fixing it, he just wants an MOT which i dont think is possible given the state of it but the question is. if he were to remove the dash cluster and fit a gps based speedo, is it a falure for the dash not showing various lights when the ignition is turned on like ABS, Airbag, EML etc?

i havent seen the car for a fair while, but whenever he tells me a car is knackerd, it has usually been knackered for about 6 months and is worse than he lets on

Moose McAlpine · 2026-02-14T12:18:36+0000

BrokenBiker said:
is it a falure for the dash not showing various lights when the ignition is turned on like ABS, Airbag, EML etc?

Yes, they need to come on to show the lights work, then go off to show there are no faults present.

Guineafowl · 2026-02-14T12:30:44+0000

Fail for no main beam/fog tell-tales, as far as I can find out.

Not sure about the ABS/airbag/MIL - if they’re there, they have to work, I guess.

indy4x · 2026-02-14T12:44:26+0000

Defo sounds like he's flogging a dead horse

As others have said, unless you have a friendly MOT tested the warning lights have to work?

Getting it dried out may help, going to be difficult with the current weather but that would be a start

If it has a sunroof tape it up, seal the roof rails etc and see where that gets you. Could also be the windscreen!

Is the headlining wet?

BrokenBiker · 2026-02-14T12:56:44+0000

indy4x said:
Defo sounds like he's flogging a dead horse

As others have said, unless you have a friendly MOT tested the warning lights have to work?

Getting it dried out may help, going to be difficult with the current weather but that would be a start

If it has a sunroof tape it up, seal the roof rails etc and see where that gets you. Could also be the windscreen!

Is the headlining wet?

This is the same car I was talking about when I picked the press up, with the random understeering and iffy front diff.

Not sure if the headlining is wet but it's a sunroof and roof bar model, don't know how easy it is to get the lining out for a better look.

He says the windscreen seal is good. I've told him to get foam tape over the whole sunroof and loosen the roof bars and get as much silicone in there as he can then tighten them down again, get a dehumidifier in there and try and get it all dry and see what starts to work again, but for the dash cluster to fail completely I would imagine there is a fair bit of moisture in there.

I could probably wire up idiot lights for lights, dogs, indicators, low beam, oil light, eml etc without a great deal of effort but i really don't think it's worth it for the value of the vehicle.

Want it for parts?