Ask a Shiter

[cort16]

I've seen a car having it's passenger seat taken out to pass and MOT but it depends on the relationship you have with your MOT station. I recon they could find away to be awkward even if it is by the book.

[HillmanImp]

I suppose I could ring them up and ask. Will do that prior to booking it.

[skattrd]

As my tame MOT tester says, "if it's not there they can't test it ..."

 

The passenger seat in my rally car is bolted to the floor and not adjustable in any way, it has passed several MOT's like that. As for not having one at all I can't say. If you want I could have a word with my local place

[Mr Livered]

I've never had this precise problem, but several times I've removed something that didn't work and gone through th test like that. As Skattrd (or rather his MoT tester) says, they only test what's there. So as long as it's not something that has to be there by law, like seatbelts/lights/etc, there's no problem. And of course there's no law specifying that a car must have seats for passengers.

[garbaldy]

http://www.motester.co.uk/mot-general-information/mot-information-for-motorists/mot-test-checks-list-continued

 

MOT Test of Seats

 

• The driver's and the front passenger's seats must be secure.
• The driver's seat fore and aft adjustment mechanism must function as intended.
• All seat backs must be securable in the upright position.

Does this mean I have to have a seat? Or if there is one, does it just need to be secure if it is actually there?

Would point one actually be interprited to mean both front seats should be fitted and point two that only the drivers seat needs to move ok.

[worldofceri]

The fore/aft mechanism has never worked properly on my VW.  My wife is just-about tall enough and I am just-about short enough for us to both be able to drive it.  Is this a new thing, I wonder, or only applicable to newer cars?  I've just booked it it's first mot in about even years as well.  Also, the passenger seat is a bit wobbly.  Perhaps I should take it out.

[barefoot]

The drivers seat on the scirocco has failed to tip forward, this was an advisory last year and not mentioned this.

In the past, my 1990 Trabbi had no rear seat belts so I just used to take the back seat out for the test.

[overrun]

Do wot?

Chuckied up mugs with soul-destroying bland-boxes, of course.

[willswitchengage]

So, I buy a BX which is superb in every way other than it doesn't work. Slow cranked alot when I got it, then after a few days of not driving it didn't start at all (cranked slower and slower then fizzled out). Jump started it and it worked fine, yay. Put in a new battery, it started fine, again yay. Tested it and the alternator was putting across a healthy 14V so ruled that out as a fault. However, after not driving for six days, tested the battery and it's now gone down to 11.7V, it's slow cranking and not starting. Back to square one.

 

What's happened/likely remedy?

 

  

[Pillock]

Something draining the juice out of the battery... does it have any aftermarket electrical goodies? Alarms or stereos or stuff?

Next time you leave it for a couple of days, disconnect the battery. If when you come back to it and hook it up it starts, then something is draining. It'll be an arse to find what it is, however - you can try pulling a few fuses out every time you leave it until you work out which circuit it is, but that's going to take months.

[skattrd]

WHS - something is draining the battery by the sounds of it.

[Richard]

Something draining the juice out of the battery... does it have any aftermarket electrical goodies? Alarms or stereos or stuff?

Next time you leave it for a couple of days, disconnect the battery. If when you come back to it and hook it up it starts, then something is draining. It'll be an arse to find what it is, however - you can try pulling a few fuses out every time you leave it until you work out which circuit it is, but that's going to take months.

 

There is a quicker way. When you pull a fuse connect an ammeter across the terminals, the current draw should be close to zero on all fuses.

[Pillock]

Oh yeah! That's way better than my way, my way was shit

[willswitchengage]

Okay, so, took it for a test drive after jump starting. Noticed that the glovebox light was stuck on (genius) so hopefully that's the now-rectified draining issue.

 

However, when the engine's warm and running the alternator is putting across 13.6V, doesn't vary across the rev range. Is that too low?

 

Engine off, battery on 12.2V. Left for an hour, battery now on 11.75V. Is this still draining or will a battery "naturally" settle down to that lower voltage?

 

Cheers

[willswitchengage]

Okay so update, turns out it's putting out 13.5V across the terminals with nothing on, put on some lights and that it's only 12.9V 

[Pete-M]

Run a jump lead from the earth terminal of the battery to a decent earth on the body, then measure volts again. Does it change? Bad earth if it does.

[wuvvum]

Another electrical question.

 

With winter fast approaching, I thought it might be an idea to have a functioning heater / demister fan in the Vectra.  I think it's the regulator / speed control module / whatever the fuck it's called that has packed up rather than the motor itself.  Problem is, the cheapest module I can find on the Bay is £92.

 

With a normal car my approach in such a situation would be to find wherever the blower motor is hidden and then run a live through a flick switch directly to the live terminal of the motor.  If I were feeling adventurous I might even use a 3-position switch with a resistor one side to give me a 2-speed fan.

 

If I use this approach on the Vectra, is it going to make the CANbus shit itself?  If so, what form is the electrical toys-out-of-pram-throwing likely to take? 

[outlaw118]

I'm no sparky, but my guess would be PROBABLY. (Not much help am I?)

 

My stoopid-ish question, I'm considering putting the original stereo back in the Capri, but I have a couple of points to check first.

1) How do I find out what should have been in there? It's a 1985 Laser, but any Capri unit will do, IIRC the 2.8i had a snazzy digital jobbie. I've got a load of brochures but none that I can find for the period between 1983 and 1989!

2) I'd like to keep it looking stock, but have modern gubbins put in, like mp3 and / or a cd driver. I'm sure Trigger has something like this in his Cortina, but I may be mistooken. Does anyone know owt?

 

Anyone got any ideas? Ta!

[bub2006]

From what I know wuvvum anything out the ordinary or what shouldn't be there throws multiple computers and sensors into hissy fit mode. When I had an 03 plate vectra I looked into electric back Windows and front dogs but was a no go. Even fitting a towbar requires the brain to know its fitted. Wiring loom from towbar plugs into the fuse box in boot that needs activating. I enquired at numerous tow bar gutters.

[bub2006]

Tow bar fitters even.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I'm no sparky, but my guess would be PROBABLY. (Not much help am I?)

 

My stoopid-ish question, I'm considering putting the original stereo back in the Capri, but I have a couple of points to check first.

1) How do I find out what should have been in there? It's a 1985 Laser, but any Capri unit will do, IIRC the 2.8i had a snazzy digital jobbie. I've got a load of brochures but none that I can find for the period between 1983 and 1989!

2) I'd like to keep it looking stock, but have modern gubbins put in, like mp3 and / or a cd driver. I'm sure Trigger has something like this in his Cortina, but I may be mistooken. Does anyone know owt?

 

Anyone got any ideas? Ta!

 

Capri Laser had the RST 21P push button mono radio with stereo cassette player and four speakers, as seen here modelled by Escort GL:

 

 

The snazzy digital one from the 2.8i was the ESRT 32PS, they go for big money now. 

 

You can have old radios adapted for modern use quite easily, ebay's full of old radios with long headphone cables hanging out the back. 

[robinmasters]

... I looked into electric back Windows and front dogs but was a no go....

 

 

Rear dogs go in fine.

 

[bub2006]

Predictive text on phone. Should say fogs

[HillmanImp]

Ta for the tips on the seats. I am probably going to try to mend the seat bracket as best I can anyhow but if it doesn't work I will have to take it without the seat. However there are a few other things I need to sort first.

 

I suspect that this is an MOT fail......

 

[Negative Creep]

Can I sell a car with only the V5 tear off form (which is filled out in my name)?

[nigel bickle]

You CAN sell a car with only the tear off slip, yes. You CAN sell a car with no paperwork at all.

 

However, you may find your buyer views it a bit suspiciously.

[Station]

I don't have the logbook for my Impreza (yet) and I want to offload it ASAP. Previous owner says he has HPi check (is this a printout or something?). With a HPi document accompaniment, would this be OK selling without a V5, or does the 'buyer' have other reasons not to buy without the V5?? I also have a 'dealer's receipt' that I got from seller (in August/July).

[Rocket88]

Okay so update, turns out it's putting out 13.5V across the terminals with nothing on, put on some lights and that it's only 12.9V 

 

 

 

Should be getting about 14.2V

[Mr Lobster]

Any car audio experts in da house?

 

FM works fine. Switch to MW and it works for anything between 1 - 10 seconds before going all interfereancy and seemingly loosing the signal. Switching on and off restores the reception but only for a second or two.

 

In the meantime I'm having to listen to Radio 2 and a combination of Jeremy Vine and Steve Wright is slowly causing mental health issues.

[meshking]

How difficult is it to remove the distributor cap on a Disco II v8?

 

Colleague has a lpg'd beast that spins over but no spark. This got steadily worse over the space of a few days to the point where it won't start at all now. That leads me to think it might be an old school fault rather than an ecu failure.

 

Any thoughts?