I've had total brake failure almost certainly due to wet brake fluid, so it can happen, but even if it couldn't, it causes corosion, so it wouldn't be an argument for not changing the fluid.

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So have i, total brake failure not realised until i was on a downhill slip road coming off the A1M at either Stevenage North or more likely Welwyn junctions, luckily i have never been one to leave braking till the last second so approach such junctions at sensible speeds, yes even in my younger days when i had my foolish moments too, thankfully the parking brake on Wartburg Knight was one of the best i've known and brought the car to a safe controlled stop, the brakes resumed normal working after a few minutes and i changed the fluid which saw no repeat.

You had a Wartburg? The East German 2-stroke estate car?

As a fan of un-loved Sovs I rather liked the look of them, but probably wouldn't have fancied the 2-stroke engine much.

Actually it was my sister's car and the saloon version, the later squared off body style in a rather nice dark red, i have an idea i'd borrowed it during the time after we'd just had the first child, my wife of the time obviously given up work, so we went for a while without a car, until i spotted a good old Landcrab up for sale for £80 needing a new clutch, which i duly fitted on our drive, and hand painted it with that dreadful Re-Paint to cover up the rust, was an excellent car.

The Wartburg was a better car than people might think, that 3 pot two stroke could really shift and a smooth runner benefiting from the free wheel device, give a Jag of the day a run for its money, i really liked it.

Edited by gordonbennet on 21/09/2019 at 15:34

I would suggest you ask the tester where in the Mot test manual does it show that he is able to remove the reservoir cap and put in an electronic fluid tester . This is a Visual test only of the brake fluid.

Have they started following the rules lately? Clearly a lot has changed.

When Morris Marina's roamed the Earth I had an MOT tester hit my welds with a BFH for quite a long time before he got tired. (*So tired in fact that he didn't notice a shiny nail sticking out of one of the tyres until I pointed it out to him. I was afraid it was going to blow out and go into his skull.)

Don't think he was supposed to do that either.

OTOH, assuming the fluid tester is accurate (which might be quite a large assumption) where's the harm?

It'd be more objective than most of the stuff they do.

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OP, seems you have a cast iron case. Let us know how it turns out.

I'd say only bring your cast iron case if you dont plan to use that testing centre, or any of its friends and family ever again.

Cast iron cracks easily and is quite difficult to weld.

Just to confirm.

Mechanic has serviced the car for me and taken it to separate MOT test centre for me for last six years as part of the deal. I trust him implicitly. MOT test centre is nothing to do with him so he is independent from it..

This year he took it to the MOT test centre, as he always has done, and they failed it on contaminated brake fluid, which they tested as part of the test.

As I said before, my point is, I didn't realise that they could take a sample of your brake fluid and test it as part of the MOT.

I have a feeling there's more to this than maybe the OP knows, did the car fail on the roller brake test or did the tester feel there was too much brake travel i wonder, and OP's mechanic consulted with the tester in a professional colleague/courtesy way about possible issues?

I simply can't see an MOT tester going to such time consuming lengths unless there was a good reason, and seeing the chap who works on the car was in the front line, and not a general member of the public, whether some discussion and an agreed look see took place that would not have been the case if the OP himself had taken the car in.

Wonder what was submitted as the official failure warning?

Edited by gordonbennet on 22/09/2019 at 11:05

My brake fluid reservoiur has some sort of gauze filter in the top of it, so you can't remove any.