Just got back home after a very long day with my IVA test at Carlisle. Apologies for length of post !
Horrendous weather towing the car there, hail, rain, high winds. Seats were full of water and hail when we got there (early as it turned out).

Tester Andrew was great, at first I thought he was being a bit off as it was straight to business, I wanted to warm the car up a bit but it went straight in the lane. for the speedo test ! Was hoping to be able to adjust the Koso but was despatched to the waiting room to observe.

Turned out his oppo who was there assisting was assessing him doing the inspection so it was a bit frosty to start with. Once we got going a bit (and it had failed the emissions ;-( ) he lightened up and we got talking to his assessor things got much better. Both gave great advice and were up to discuss the regs, the manual and happy to explain why things were a fail and what they wanted to see.

Test took about 2 1/2 hours.

So fail list:

Emissions: - Fast idle CO and Lambda were up and down but passed each on one of the two tries. HC ppm was way off at best 575 (target 200) so this is an issue.He thought I might have a slight misfire. I don't think the CAT was hot enough. figure seemed to get better as he tried again. Idle test the CO was 2.09 (target 0.5% so not sure wtf is going on there)

Steering: Stupidly the new universal joint from column to rack had loosened since we last checked it so a small amount of play in it. This was our oversight and whilst on the ramp at the end he let us see if it would tighten. It did but it was already on the sheet.

Interior radii: - Couple of silly bits, tunnel trim had moved and did not line up hence a sharp corner was showing. All easily fixed.

Speedo: fine at lower speeds but was fluctuating so need to check sensor gap. He said will not be a problem at retest as he will take the time to get it working ;-)

Indicators: For some yet unknown reason after said downpour the left hand front and wing repeater indictors went into a weird flash rate when the sidelights were on. Fine on their own though. Maybe earth issue.........to be investigated.

External projections: seat edges due to U-trim had a good soaking and getting in and out was dropping off the seats....better glue required. Fell foul of the lack of windscreen and VW light switch and a cover i made for the Koso were not radiused. Area not exempt behind the wheel. Easy fixes with advice from tester.

Put an earth strap on the petrol tank 2 nights ago following a thread on here and reading the manual again.......but cut it more than 300mm in length and did not secure the wire to anything !!!! he told me to remove it as the straps over to my tank were bolted to the chassis with no rubber under them so were a sufficient earth.

HELP: Bigger issues to be discussed......I need a new diff (I think). So speedo was not 100% but on a dual cariageway on the way home at approx 60mph I was doing 8000 rpm+. I reckon it would do 75 or 80 flat out. I was at 9000 rpm and VW Polos were overtaking me on the way home ??????? I have a 3.62 sierra 7" diff so I think and the tab has 362 on it so wtf? Kept going for another gear that wasn't there. Very strange. Need to verify with a sat nav but needs addressing.

Oh and got pulled by the worlds friendliest Traffic copper on the way back due to lack of plates. Quickly sorted out was I explained and showed VOSA appointment letter and Insurance and spent 10 minutes talking about the car.

Just so glad its now tested and got a list to get working on. Emissions is still the biggest worry.

Beer.Bed.

Rich

My SVA a couple of years ago was at Carlisle also and I agree that Andrew is a good guy. Not like some of the arsy types sometimes commented on here. Mine took, all in, about two and a half hours. I failed on the speedo (amongst a few others) despite having an Escort gearbox, Escort speedo unit and Escort sized wheels and tyres? Had to fit different profile tyres to get it through.
All the best with the remedial work. Look forward to seeing you out on the roads. Bring it to Hartside sometime when someone organises another run there. That would be a nice run out for you. How about coming to the Border City Steam Rally in Carlisle on Saturday for a crack? I will be there with mine.

Myke.

some questons .........

What is your rear wheel size?
What engine do you have?
What gearbox are you using (what gear are you in when cruising)

- trying to figure out if the rev counter or speedo could be wrong or if you have a problem

Mike,

Kawasaki ZX9 B4 engine

15" wheels with 195/50/15 tyres.

Koso dash. Rev counter seems OK but tester bypassed rev reading when doing the emissions so could not see a readout.

Speedo is defintely a bit off at speed but when in traffic and despite my first time driving it long distance at that speed and with a helmet on I was following a car on the A6 at Shap and I got to 9500 rpm in 6th and he disappeared into the distance. So either someone has changed my gears / the diff is not what I thought/rev counter is off but engine certainly sounds like its revving its socks off.

Very strange. I heared people talking of 7k on the motorway but I was crusing in 6th with a traffic car behind me at 8500rpm speedo said 58mph and we were being overtaken!!!

Edited to add: maybe I am just not used to it but A road driving at a very reasonable speed pulling those (indicated) revs just seemed wrong.

Rich

[Edited on 24/5/11 by rb968]

sounds like your diff may not be the 3.62 as you wold be around 10mph for every 1000 rpm on those tyres. so 70mph at 7000 rpm ish. you may have the next one up 3.92 or something like that (not exactly sure on ratios)

Mmmmm....

[img]
Diff calc [/img]

Hi pleased theres another one running in Cumbria we have built 4 last one has blade engine and gets over 100 on seirra diff sounds like something wrong there keep in touch will have a think Andrew is good guy will help you all he can very straight but fair look forward to seeing you up Hartside Cheers Ali

'Just got back home after a very long day with my IVA test at Carlisle. Apologies for length of post !'
I've got to go through that at Carlisle one of these days (years). I'm sure any of us yet to go through an IVA would read whole books on the subject particularly on fail points, so I wouldn't worry about the length of post.

Have you definatly got your koso set to read the correct number of revs? i know when i first drove my bec i was changing up at 8k as it sounded like it was reving it's nuts off
other thing to try is to mark the tyre and diff, push the car one turn of the wheels and count the turns of the prop should prove what diff ratio you have

Thinking about it again last night and thats the most obvious failure. I will go through the koso manual again tonight and check the settings.

If its out by a percentage then that would explain it. I recall it asks if its 2 stroke or 4 stroke and number of cylinders I think so will need to check it. Passed noise test at 94db @ 7500rpm so either way thats sorted !!

Will check the diff ratio as well.

More worried about how to get the HC down on the emissions. Have balanced the carbs and used a autotune to set the mixture, sealed the exhaust with a gallon of hi temp sealant and new gaskets.

Rich