Despite all of the recent issues, I did manage to present a car for the test today. I had Paul as my examiner, and he was great.

The fail list is as follows:

- front indicators not bright enough (easy fix)
- Interior mirror not permanently fixed (its the Halfords type. I will change for the Raceline type I have already)
- Rear reflectors needed blunting (Paul suggested emery paper on the edge)
- Front hub had a small sharp edge
- Front lower bishbone bolt not fully through nyloc (need to remove the washer)
- Leak on brake pressure sensor
- Rear brakes locked before (will sway the brake pipes around - as I have locked my bias bar!)
- Excess noise (102.3db)
- Failed emsissions (CO at fast idle, 10%, CO at normal idle, 9.6% with lambda of 0.67!)

Overall, I think it looks ok, with the exception of noise/emissions which look slike I need a new manifold/backbox/cat arrangement.

The best bit was the grin from driving the last few miles home (trailered most of the way). Oh my god its fast, depsite running as rough as a badgers ass!

ps Alex - you owe me a beer! No fog light or dashboard problems!

sounds ok to me...well done, got my sva at brum on the 27th, so you found brum to be ok??

hahahahahaha beers on me then at the next meet in exchange for Carbon fibre rolls and sheeting!

not a bad fail there at all mate, we knew that it would fail on noise and emissions so no surprise there! and all the other stuff you can fix in a day, just go through them one by one and tick them off.

at least you were able to present it and get your 6 months lee way,rather than having to IVA it.

congrats of a good fail then, bet you loved the little drive back!

tony the guys at the brum SVA are sound, stop worrying, how you getting on finishing off the build?

[Edited on 31/3/09 by omega0684]

Brum was great. Very helpful and polite. A much less worrying test than I expected!

Thats a damn good result mate after the troubles youve had recently and the list is only small so shouldn't be too bad to sort.

oh and tim make sure you bring some of your misses chocolate short bread to the meet! that stuff is class!

Well done, especially after all the issues.

Wouldn't it be better to fit a longer bolt to the front wishbone rather than bodge it by "removing the washer"?

If you put the washer there in the first place it must be for a reason!

Cheers,
James

Unless I've missed some previous info on this, your emissions aren't dues to a cat/exhaust fault - it's just running massively rich. A cat will bring the CO down from 1 or 2 percent to near zero, but no car should be running at 10% and a cat won't sort that out!

Lambda of 0.67 meaning you've got an air/fuel ratio of about 9.8:1 - you're looking for 14.7:1.

Are your reflectors stuck on with a sort of double sided foam? I took mine off, removed the foam, sanded the rear rim a bit to thin them down and glued them on direct. The "sharp" edge is then less than the critical height and you don't have to worry. A nicer looking alternative to sanding the edge evenly all round.

Careful on swapping the brake pipes over, unless you have a matching pair of identical bore size master cylinders.

Most cars have odd sized master cylinders for the front and rear brakes.
The front and rear caliper piston sizes are probably different, so this may not resolve your problem.

Easier to move the bar, and re lock it.
Then you know you are right.

Brakes are Mission Critical Components, and may put your life (and others) at risk if you get it wrong.

Think VERY carefully before proceeding on this one.

Hard luck, but good to see you got there.

If your taking the washer out then it needs to be the one under the bolt head not the nut and if your doing that you might as well replace the bolt.

Unlock and redo the bias bar unless you've got unequal masters the wrong way around (should be small to the front).

Emmisions is your mixture not the cat. No cat will cope with 10%CO.

6months to sort it though and it won't take that.

adrian

ps.
"The "sharp" edge is then less than the critical height and you don't have to worry. "
Not true. If it protrudes less than 5mm then it must be BLUNTED.

[Edited on 31/3/09 by adithorp]

I was planning on fitting a longer bolt. I'm annoyed it passed me by in the first place. The examiner suggested removing the washer, but as said, it is just as easy to change the bolt.

In terms of swapping M/Cs, my front and backs are both 0.75s. I thought I had figured out the balance bar, and moved it to one extreme and locked it. It looks like I moved it the wrong way! If I swap my break lines over, it should reverse it which one locks first. Similarly, it wont have helped that my brakes are new, and the discs need a bit of bedding in.

My emissions I appreciate are not simply due to a cat. I started to play with my wideband yesterday, but the engine had a fit, and wouldn't start/idle, so I left it alone pretty sharpish! I am concerned however, as I was idling with anything upto a 75% trim on the idle fuel, and still, I seemed to be running rich. I am reluctant to tune it much further without some professional help. Any suggestions for places near Evesham/Cheltenham/Brum that I could take it to to sort the emissions?

The reason I figure I need to remake the exhaust, is that I can't see a way of making my current cat/backbox any quieter. It is freshly packed with e-glass, and I had lagged the engine bay. As such, I figure it is new larger backbox time (I have an R1 can on standby).

Anyway, thanks for all the support. I genuinely didn't expect to be tested today. The tester said they are expecting some pretty ropey cars to turn up tp SVA in the next few weeks, but he said mine wasn't one of them! Thanks again to all those who have helped/encouraged/given support. As ever, it is appreciated.

Tim

[Edited on 31/3/09 by twybrow]