SVA On Wednesday

[rocketmut]

Good luck guys, shades a sheepskin and a big grin is all you'll need.

[Arthur289]

Good luck to both of you, the SVA seems years away to me

[nearly thers]

Well What an interesting day! The rain held off!

Started a 6:30am when she fired into life and drove to my local garage to fill up. This was the longest journey the car had done to date. Went to restart and the battery gave up!!!! Panic!!! The Wife and a helpful punter on the forecourt gave a push and luckily she fired up again.

A wonderful drive through the New Forest at -2 degrees, engine was misfiring a bit on the right bank. Get to the garage near the test centre and stop to fill up, expecting that the battery is now good......hmmm Who was I kidding. Luckily a guy with some jump leads helped me out. Tip number one take some with you! Tip number two, jump leads on a filling station forecourt might not make you too popular, push it to one side.

Finally got to test centre and kept her running outside while I checked in. Examiner was out in 2 minutes and agreed with me to do as much as we could while we had it running and see what happens. He was as helpful as anyone could possibly be, and that is no lie. Speedo test, noise (96.1db a lot to be said for a V12) then onto the ramps.

He was hapily impressed with the underside of the car and praised me for the build which gave me back some of my confidence after a bad start to the day. Lights were all going well until we tested the full beam and the headlights went into some dipped frenzy! It's never done this before but of course it was a failure unless I could sort it there. Needless to say I couldn't (I think it may well be linked to a flat battery).

A big thanks to the guy who was getting his Mustang tested who had an awesome battery for jump starting, saved my bacon today. Managed to complete all the test and the failures are as detailed below. Nothing that is worrying me too much. One point the examiner and I had a chat about was the seat belt anchorage markings. I know there has been a lot of threads about this one and at one point we were talking a possible failure today. Mine are UNF threads hence no 8.8 markings. They were supplied with the harnesses from willans so I know they are the correct ones. We looked at the manual together and he still would have liked to have seen something from Willans give their specification. After tea break he came back and said after talking with his colleague he was willing to accept them as I showed they had been supplied with the harnesses etc and that they had to be the correct ones. I think this showed a level of sensible experience and comon sense and I can only commend them on their decision.

Failures:

No Full Beam
Wipers only operating at 30 sweeps a minute. (regulation 45)
Handbrake lever radius below 3.2mm ( Jaguar XJS handle 1977 plastic cover)
Edging strip required around part of door shuts adjacent to dashboard. (easy fix could have been done there)
Skid test (brakes need bedding in, passed o.k on the rolling road)

All in all I can only say that after all the bad press I have read about Southampton (Northam) test centre I can only say it was professional, friendly & helpful. Given all the problems I had getting the car there today, they wanted to pass it not fail it. I felt much more relaxed once it all got going and this was mainly down to the nature of the examiner.

Hopefully most of the problems will be sorted when I find the electrical snag, think this would explain not only the full beam but possibly the wipers too.

Big thanks to the wife who also put up with a lot of stress in the last week and especially today. Thanks to you guys who have helped with your tips over the years too. Hopefully get it retested next week if I get a weekend of good results.

Neil

P.S. The drive home on a sunny day was great!!!!

[Andy S]

Neil, in one way I am glad for you that the weather held out.
Shame about the fail but as you say probably most of them are linked, possibly a short or dodgy earth, I am sure you will uncover it.
Also nice to hear about the examiner being realistic and to a large extent helpful,

Lets hope you get it sorted for the retest get some miles and smiles on the old girl then join us in the cob at Le mans classic........you know you want to really.

[chedz]

Unlucky Neil, nothing too bad at all to sort out and you get to drive it there and back again!!

Good luck finding your electrical fault and with the retest!!

G.

[sprocket]

Neil,

Bad luck mate, Nothing too drastic though. I bet the drive home was more relaxing and enjoyable! I was talking to a friend today who assured me that the examiners are a happy and helpful bunch.

I failed my MOT yesterday on handbrake-not good enough, fog light-not working and hazards-left side not working.

All fixed now, retest tomorrow then SVA on monday!

What IS involved in a skid test? Also, did you have the hood/tonneau studs fitted to the body?

Good luck for the retest Neil.

[AlexB]

A shame that you failed, but lets hope it leads to a more reliable car down the line - fix the bug, and you'll be sorted.

Good work, and good luck with the next test.

[dolphinboy400]

unlucky today neil hopefully get your problems sorted easily enough and back for a retest.
I'd love to come and be nosy some time as i'm not far and reguarly in christchurch as my mum and dad live there
all the best for your retest!

[dave]

Bad luck there Neil.
The handbrake is in an exempt zone on a Dax, so shouldn't fail on any radius issues.

The car should not need a skid test , or any other braking test if it has been able to complete the brake roller test. Did the examiner use the "decelerometer" or just see if he could skid the car?

Did the tester actually spray water on the windscreen in order to test the wiper speed? If not, he cocked up there too.

Good luck with the re test.

[Toddy]

Must agree with DB there on the handbrake, my examiner commented on the DAX handbrake which is probably sharper than the Jag one, he even went and got his book to check before passing it, as it folds down out of the way.

No skid test on my SVA ? Did have decelerommeter used on MOT though