Doh! MOT Tests

[Paul]

Took my car for an MOT today, first garage said they couldnt pass it because of the beam pattern for the headlights, 2nd Garage wouldn't test it because it was too low to drive onto their ramps.

I'll try some more garages tomorrow!

[adrianp]

Don't worry,

You aren't the only one to have problems with the headlights...

The place I use for all my cars started to say that they wouldn't test it because of the lights,

I just told them to test it anyway so that I would know if anything else needed doing and then after it was fixed (if anything wrong)

I was going to take it down to see Steve M in Kent and get his dealership to do it instead...

But after they heard that, they did the test and since there was nothing actually wrong with the car they wrote out a certificate for me anyway..

keep trying, you'll find somewhere soon

Adrian.
:bounce:

[Adam]

I had that problem to but it was easily rectified.

What you do is:

Drive the car in front of the wall turn on the lights and see which light is off.

Step 1: Unscrew the light, take a nice big hammer and go happy on the bracket (not too happy). Then put the light back in and see if it is straight.

If your not happy with the other light then repeat step1.

Easy, cheap and a lot of fun.

Good luck,
Adam

[adrianp]

Hi Adam,

It isn't the fact that the beams are out of alignment..

It's actually the beam pattern that is different on the Beat to normal UK cars.

On a normal UK car, the headlamp beam raises up on the left sides of the lenses so that it lights up the road signs better but on Japanese cars the beam pattern is straight instead.

Also Japanese car lights aren't 'E' marked which also "Should" be an MOT failure...

Hope this explains what we meant.

Adrian.
:bounce:

[Adam]

Scrap that advice then.

Thanks for clearing that one Steve. If they told me that in the garage, I would be out there hammer happy in no time.

[Paul]

Took it to a main dealer and it sailed throo!:)

[tinytim]

Straight beam pattern should be no reason for an mot failure. It's been a while since I was doing them but I thought the fail criteria is still for the beam rise above the pattern line.
I'll check.

The E mark, or lack of it, should also be no reason for a fail if you have the single vehicle test cert that must have been done to register the vehicle.

Can't get it on the ramps,,,,,can't argue with that. Although the test station is obliged to test all cars on the uk roads.

[tinytim]

Sorry it's been a while since I offered to find out about this but here is the answer.

Simple answer:
Straight beam set is not a problem, the light should be examined as a British American light (as per MOT section 1.6 diagram 3).

A bit more:
For the Beat the only thing to worry about is that the lights work properly and are aimed correctly. The MOT requires the Right hand edge and the upper edge of the "hot spot" (the most intence light or centre of beam) to fall inside a predetermined area.

For the argumentitive:
Should the test station decide to fail the light because it has no raised portion it may be nice to know that the wording for this fail criteria is "The raised portion of the (beam) image is to the right/offside of the centre line." so one could argue that as there is no raised portion, the raised portion cannot possibly be to the right so it cannot fail.

I would say that if you end up using the final parragraph then you may want to go to another test station anyway.

For those who want to do there own MOT (or feel they've been ripped off) here is a useful link. It is the MOT test. Click the link then click "READ"

http://clicks.uknetguide.co.uk/Click/OpenSite.asp?SI=UKCG&GID=604&GCID=18

Happy testing
Tim

[tinytim]

Forgot about this part but again it does not matter this is only for European type beams and our Beats are Brit American so the E mark is not required either

[adrianp]

Nice one Tim,

Lots of usefull information there that should help owners when it comes to that time of year again.

The link is very usefull, not just for beats but for all cars that we own.

Hopefully once a garage has done one Beat then there should be no problems going back the next year (hopefully...)

Thanks

Adrian.
:bounce:

[Andy V]

These archives are ever so useful.

Our Beat is due her first MOT in our ownership on Tuesday morning so I've noted (and printed) the info about the British American headlamp type in case it becomes necessary (I hope not!).

I've had a quick check round of the obvious things but otherwise its a case of 'fingers crossed' on the day.

One question though - where is the VIN number displayed? Can't say I've noticed it before - though I will have a more detailed search for it on Monday afternoon after work....

[Paul w]

under the bonnet on firewall

PW

[jcs]

Thanks Paul,

I was just about to look for mine as I can't find the V5 for Chris' Beat and need to do a transfer of name.

And, of course, it's not a VIN plate but rather it's stamped on the bulkhead panel, format:

PP1 1011541

Sorry you couldn't make it to Billing. Would have been nice to see whichever of your Beats you might have chosen to turn up in!

John