Morris Minor Owners Club

At last I have managed to get Tapitha through the MOT so now back on the road after SORN since end March. New regulations are now in force for the handbrake. Technically according to the computer calculations my handbrake didn't reach the required efficiency. However each wheel locked when the brake was applied. As the tester said you can't improve on a locked wheel! My Ford Focus handbrake won't hold the car on a steep slope but that seems to be OK! Also for MOT I removed the towbar as the lighting doesn't work. The tester said I didn't need to do that as only 13 pin sockets are tested. I think I will have to buy a 1950s Minor as I get more confused with MOT rules every year!
Cheers,
Mike

Well done! I was driving my TR7 early this morning and it made me wonder if it will pass MOT - since the speedo lighting is just an extremely faint green glow - enough to light the dial when it's dark, but impossible to see in daylight......

My gaud and I thought our emissions (California smog) regulations were tough.

see
http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_660.htm
regarding the MOT and tow bars.
Lots of other MOT info on the other pages.

This is why it is essential to find a local classic friendly testing station as many garages and modern mechanics are ignorant or even hostile to classic cars. Again, join your local branch and ask around. A good Mot station will sensibly interpret the rules to both ensure your car is safe and passes the MOT!

I didn't realise they checked tow bar lighting if fitted

Only 13 pin...

If a 7 pin socket has the lid missing/spring broken or the 2 prings broken (which all retain the plug in the socket) then they can fail it.

Having a towball without electrics (according to my tester) is a reason for failure

See section 1.9 of the above link relating to electrics.

Please don't rely on third-party sites like the one philthehill suggests, as it's plain wrong in places.

Go to http://www.motinfo.gov.uk/htdocs/

and download or browse "Inspection Manual for Classes 3, 4, 5 and 7 Vehicles". This is the genuine article, that testers use, and incorporates, for instance, their last-minute change of mind on SRS warning lights.

Kevin

The web site with link that I posted looks on the face of it to be a creditable web site so please tell us what is wrong because we need to know as myself and other people may consider the information displayed to be correct and act accordingly upon it.
Does the link you have quoted above give the latest edition because the link to the guide only gives the latest Edition as Edition 6 of 2004 and when looking at the link I cannot see any subsequent updates unless they are included in a separate document. The testers manual latest edition is 2011 ISBN:978-0-9549352-5-2. I will look again and see if I can find any later updates. If you can point me and any others reading these posts in the right direction it would be good.

Only websites ending in ".gov.uk" as Kevin provides are official, genuine UK Govt. documents/policies/guidelines.

philthehill: the page I linked to is a bit confusing, certainly. The "Guide" isn't relevant to mere mortals - it's the Inspection Manuals that we need to keep an eye on, because testers do get used to testing modern stuff and sometimes need reminding what the book actually says about older cars.

They further confuse matter by this "Fourth Edition" business, but if you look at the foot of each page you'll see Issue Dates for each page, with a bar in the margin against any changes.

A specific example of where the motuk version is wrong is in section 5.4, where motuk gives "A Supplementary Restraint System (SRS) malfunction indicator lamp inoperative" as a Reason for Rejection: this was going to be the case until just before the SRS MIL was brought into the test in April this year, then at the last minute they changed their mind (heaven knows why) and removed it. So all you have to do is take the bulb out if your MIL is on, and it's "pass and advise" instead of fail. I'm not recommending this, as it leaves your airbag non-functional, but it's there. You can read all sorts of background stuff on the VOSA website, including their magazine "Matters of Testing" and their official notifications of changes to the rules.

But once you find one error, it leaves you with little confidence in the rest. At one time - perhaps still - the motuk site could so mess up the formatting that it wasn't always clear what the RfRs referred to. Anyway - why bother with it when the pukka version is free to download?

Kevin

Kevin
Many thanks for the explanation.
You are absolutely right in that it is better to get the correct information from the .gov.uk site but I just found the motuk site an easier read and I certainly did not suspect that any of the information contained within it would not to be up to date.
We live and learn.
Phil

Matt wrote:Only 13 pin...

If a 7 pin socket has the lid missing/spring broken or the 2 prings broken (which all retain the plug in the socket) then they can fail it.

Having a towball without electrics (according to my tester) is a reason for failure

Hmm, obviously a different interpretation of the rules - when I had my van tested it was rightly picked up on a broken 7 pin socket (I had a moment hitching up a heavily loaded trailer on uneven grass at Cornbury Park and clobbered the socket with the draawbar of the trailer ) but he said I could either replace it or just remove the socket and electrics and he would pass it.... Obvioulsy I replaced it but it suggests that a towbar with no electrics is testable. Maybe he was wrong, it seemed odd.

Iain mine had no electrics and it passed and he said no electrics he cant test them and the tow bar was an adornment

But if a tow bar is fitted - it's mounting points must be secure, and no rot within 300mm of course....

Surely a tow bar with no electrics should be perfectly acceptable. My one of my series landrovers had one at both front and rear for years - not for towing trailers, but to attach winch cables to when dragging it out of bomb holes on "pay'n'play" offroad sites (or to use when towing others out).

Front ones obviously ok, but i suppose if questioned you'd explain thats its a 'recovery towing point' rather than a trailer tow point, though I suspect yuo can get away with plenty of odd things on Land Rovers
Otherwise known as common sense I expect....