Well the journey to the test station this morning al be it only 4 miles with no windscreen was a bit chilly to say the least.
The examiner was very nice he introduced himself and explained that no Kitcar has ever passed first time at the Taunton station.
We then went on to do the test and had some minor and a couple more serious issues which ended up with getting a failure.
Listed below are the points:
1. Park brake handle not 2.5mm radius
2. Rear foglamp loose on bracket
3. various items not meeting radius requirments on front suspension
4. Bonnet catches (Marlin supplied SVA compliant Stainless steel) dont meet required radius
5. No collapsable feature or sufficient angle in steering column
6. Front indicators more than 400mm from edge of car and held on with nyloc nuts which havent enough thread showing through them.
7. a few wiring protection issues.
8. both front brake hoses foul wheel on full lock
9. Rear axle design weights (Supplied by Marlin) too light
10. VIN number too long has to be between 10 and 17 digits.(Mine as stamped on car by Marlin is 18 digits)
Fixes
1. Refit original E30 handbrake handle.
2. Tighten bracket
3. cover all sharp edges including nuts with rubber hose held on with cable ties
4. cover catches with rubber hose
5. Take off donor car wheel fit Momo wheel with colapsable boss and cover the sharp edges on wheel
6. make up extension brackets for indicators and replace nuts with non nyloc
7. sleeve wiring and add more clips.
8. adjust position of brake hoses.
9. get correct weights from Marlin I will advise you guys of the results here.
10. Speak with Terry to confirm number is correct and adjust.
There was a couple of other issues sorted at the test centre
1. Headlamp alignment
2. Dip & Mainbeam wrong way round
3. Speaker wires in boot needed clipping back
4. Standard Marlin seats didnt meet requirement for seatbelt leverage.
This basically calculated by a set square a spirit level and a bit of string said the seat back was too low against the height of the seat sqaub(resolved this by removing seat sqaub cushion)
It was quite exileration watching the car doing 70 mph on the rolling road and it sounded wonderfull talking of which the exhaust noise test was 85db with the Marlin twin exhaust system.
OK should all take best part of a day to sort then book 15 minute retest and im on the road.
The car did drive very well apart from the steering which was awfull until i stopped off at a garage on the way home and had the steering alignment done which was miles out now its great.
Bad luck Stuart but well done for doing such a good job so as not to have any major,major issues to sort out. I dont really follow the point about the steering column. Are they saying the BMW one is not good enough?
No what they are saying is that the angle of the long shaft in engine compartment and the angle of the steering column inside the car is too straight so needs a colpasable section. The angle needs to be between 10 & 35 degrees mines more like 5 degrees.
OK. I see now. ( a bit slow sometimes!). It doesnt bode well for me if Taunton have failed every car so far. I probably live even closer to that testing station than you. Perhaps I should just put my car in as it is and let them tell me what to do to pass!
Thanks for the report! I'm glad they are all quickly fixable things. I will put the momo wheel on mine and cover the edges for my test. Little worring about the chassis number, need to check mine.
Sva
I'm glad they are all quickly fixable things. I will put the momo wheel on mine and cover the edges for my test. Little worring about the chassis number, need to check mine.
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