My IVA story

[metal matt]

So I had my IVA test yesterday in Cardiff and got a fail on some silly little things. The day started at 5.30am when I got up left home at 6 to get to Cardiff for 8am. The car was loaded up onto a car transporter from a friend the night before because I desidded I didn't fancy driving down the m4 without having my car tested and getting to Cardiff like an ice cube or wet.

So at arrival we unloaded the car and was ready to got at 8.30. First thing was to check the VIN number and build plates. Then a quick look in the boot and fuel tank. With that being all good it was straight onto the rollers and the speed test. Must say I've never seen a car doing 80mph standing still.
So this was my first fail the speedo was bang on at 35, 40 and 50 but 1 mph over at 60 and 70. A bit gutted but that is going to be the hardest to sort out with being able to check.

Next was onto the ball and sharp edges he grabbed the ball had a good walk and look around and put it back down he only painted out the I needed to make a cover to go over my ECU under the dash with a sharp edge. So that was fail number 2 but anuther easy fix. He then had a good look under ther bonnet asked a few questions and was happy.

Next was onto the ramps checked all the lights all good. Then ub we went he had a good look underneath had an good look around asked if I could press the brake peddle hard to check for any leaks. All good. We went down he asked me to jump out and the car went back up. He asked me to have a look underneath and there was 1 bolt on the lower suspension a little short not in the nylock. So that is number 3 but Easy fix longer bolt (big woops on me).

Next was the head lights thus was my next fail number 4. He couldn't make a pat turn out but he is happy with the lenses so suggested trying butter bulbs.

He then asked if I had driven it much. Not really so we went out side wied the car check the mirrors check the selfs centering all good and the wormed and beded the brakes in. Onto the brake test no problem all good then onto emissions and flew thru then onto noise and flew thru. And all done.

On loading the car back onto the truck he came out and asked if I had a leak and as a found a small pool of oils and the brack rollers. So had a look underneath and one of the back flexes were leaking. This comes over a fail number 5 but I also need to redo the brake test when I have my re test.

Oh one more he wasn't happy just having nylocks on my bias brake bar he would rather it if I could use locking wire. That make fail number 5 but another easy fix.

All in all no a bad experience and only a few things to sort out



https://haynes.co.uk/forums/showthre...=13262&page=15
https://www.flickr.com/photos/124541083@N02/

[alga]

Originally Posted by metal matt

So this was my first fail the speedo was bang on at 35, 40 and 50 but 1 mph over at 60 and 70. A bit gutted but that is going to be the hardest to sort out with being able to check.

Have you considered mounting rear tyres that are slightly bigger for the test?
The change in readings will be easy to calculate from the tyre dimensions.

[Ianr]

Having read the Locost entry you need slightly smaller wheel for the speedo to read correctly. What size tyres do you have fitted? I have 195/45 x 15 which gets my speedo (same as yours) reading optimistically. If you have bigger size fitted you could borrow mine for the test but getting them to you may be an issue

[metal matt]

Cheers guys
The size of my wheels are 205 50 16 but that is the smallest size wheel I can get over my hubs and I did think about buying thinner wall tyres but decided not to. I have a spare cluster and I took that apart on the weekend and it is easy to move the dial around on the speedo to read the correct speed. The one that I am struggling is with the headlight beam pattern. It looks like I might need t9o buy some new lenses.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/124541083@N02/
https://haynes.co.uk/forums/showthre...=13262&page=15

[jps]

Originally Posted by metal matt

speedo was bang on at 35, 40 and 50 but 1 mph over at 60 and 70.

Doesn't sound too bad at all! For the speedo - do you mean it was reading under - i.e. the car was doing 70 - but reading 69? I thought car speedos typically exaggerated anyway - i.e. the car would be doing 70 - but the speedo would read up to 10% over - i.e. up to 77...?

[metal matt]

No my speedo says 60 and the true speed is 61 meaning my speedo is under reading by 1 mph witch is not aloud but yes you can over read I.E if the speedo says 60 but you are doing 59


https://haynes.co.uk/forums/showthre...=13262&page=15
https://www.flickr.com/photos/124541083@N02/

[Rosco]

How about altering the tyre pressure if you only need a bit of a change?

[metal matt]

I have thought about that but there is no guaranty it will be enough when I go back up onto the rollers. I know it seems like an easy fix and a pain to take my dash back out but at least I know the speedo will be right. That is going to be my last job on the weekend

[metal matt]

Thanks for all the pointer. any way onto the head lights and I could not get them to shoe a beam pattern no matter what I did so had to bight the bullet and buy some new lenses and hopefully that will work out fine.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/124541083@N02/
https://haynes.co.uk/forums/showthre...=13262&page=15

[flyerncle]

The mot manual is available online and will show you the pattern you need,friendly local mot station should be able to help as there are new guidelines for pattern height as of now.