Brock Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 My 05 plated Hymer A class has failed its MOT because the front lights do not send out a sufficient length of beam. I've never been happy with the lights on the van. I've always struggled to see in the dark but I put this down to growing old and the quality of bulbs. Upgrading the bulbs and a new pair of glasses helped a bit. Van passed its MOT last year and so one would presume the beam was OK. Not necessarily so. The MOT testing station staff said that from the oxidisation of the adjustment screws, the beam seems to have been set the same from build. The headlights were also well fixed so were unlikely to have moved. They fixed it for a fiver and I didn't have to pay another fee, so I am road legal again. In the time I was there, they failed 3 other vehciles and passed 5. Interesting to note that I have used commercial vehicle testting stations twice and my vans failed each time. I've used predominently car testing stations 6 times and had 100% pass rate. Coincidence? I took to van to Walsh Auto Engineering Ltd in Birkenhead. You just drive up and they tell you which lane to park in. Leave the keys in the van and they do the rest whilst you sit in their reception. Quick service providing you don't catch them when it's a tea break or lunch time. Then they operate with fewer lanes. Seemed to be able to do 6 vehicles at a time and no problems with motorhomes (I'm less less sure about RVs) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith T Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 At a slight tangent, as it referes to my car and not the motorhome,I have just haad the MOT and the car a Nissan is now 5 yrs old. The MOT was done at the same time as the annual service (I only do about 5k miles pa and overall the current mileage is 23k) and it was done by the local autharised Nissan dealer. Their result, - pass MOT but with an 'advisory' that teh front brakes pads were worn by 70%. No other matters from service or MOT. Surprised by this result, as personally I thought they may have commented on the tyres (originals and 5yrs old) which I thought were showing wear, I went to ATS locally, and asked them to check. Their result - Brake pads OK, max wear of 50% (checked by them against Nissan specification), but not need replacment......however, tyres OK( just) but front treads wearing and would be OK only for about 1k miles, all 4 showing signs of cracking between treads. Their comments on the tyres concurred with my visual check......and not simply because they sell tyres! One further point was that their quote to do the brake pas if and when required as 50% of the Dealer price when they already had the wheels off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dancer Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 By 'sufficient length of beam' I presume you mean the lights were set too low and hit the road just in front of the vehicle, not 25 to 30 metres away, on dip.Be aware that loading the vehicle for trips / holidays may lower the back end and thus cause the light beam to raise considerably causing other drivers to be dazzled.Worth double checking when loaded. Along with the weigh bridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Sounds like somone trying to make a quick few quid to my cynical mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Brock Not strictly on topic, but... Years ago, somebody (almost certainly a Brownhills salesman) told me that Hymer A-Class motorhomes with the four dinky little round Hella headlights had a beam-adjustment capability operated from a dashboard control. Is this true, please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanderer Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 A couple of years ago took our Rapido A-Class in for its 3rd MOT and it failed because the tester said the headlights were continental ones and would need replacing. I argued that this was the 3rd MOT, the lights had never been touched and it had passed before. He got quite angry and said that he knew his job and the headlights were illegal and would have to be replaced. Remebering reading that the headlights were adjustable, I called a Rapido dealer who agreed and I then passed the phone to the tester to be told how to adjust them. Left the van with them till next day, went back to be all told all done and the tester was as 'nice a pie' and chatted for ages! But how had it passed twice if the beams were set for continental use?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Posted March 7, 2009 Author Share Posted March 7, 2009 Derek Yes, my Hymer (and my previous Arto) have a wheel on the dashboard that enables me to adjust the lights to reflect the load. The lights failed on all the settings. I change the load setting when I am touring but for the rest of the time, the van runs almost empty at just under 3 ton. Peter I'm sure you are sceptical and not cynical. You may be right about somebody wanting to make a few quid. However, a till receipt for £5 means it will probably go through the accounts and given the number of MOTs the station does (all the local Council vehicles, most of the commercial vehicles from the local trading estates), I doubt they need my fiver. Whilst I was there, they turned around five or 6 MOTs in less than an hour so they must have a good turnover. Apart from 'instant fixes' customers are referred to several other local garages. They could have charged me an extra £20 retest fee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainbow-Chasers Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 People can fit bulbs in upside down - and it is a common failure in mot's! Always on car where it is difficult to change them such as some 4x4's, cars with tight engine bays and some vans/motorhomes. With a hymer, you will often have to lie on your back and feel for it. In which case, that would cause a problem with the beam pattern as they are only meant to fit in one way - which means the bulb will tilt downwards. Sounds like the garage were being fair charging you the cost of two bulbs - even if it was realigning you old ones - the time it takes a mechanic to check and realign could be twenty minutes/half hour. Nicer the say chuck us a fiver, rather than bill £20 for 30 mins labour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W3526602 Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Hi, The high cost of MOT and the minimum time to do it are intended to allow the garage to do minor adjustments ........ or so I'm told. There should be a notice board in the MOT waiting area, explaining what can, or cannot, be taken away, repaired and brought back without a full retest. Sometimes its cheaper to let the MOT garage repair something minor, than pay for a retest. On the same notice, I THINK I saw a reference to testing motorhomes, that seemed to imply the maximum weight they could test was ALW not MAM. Anybody confirm? 602 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry1956 Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 I know its not a motorhome, but last week took our smart in for its 1st MOT, and it did not pass, reason needed new brake discs and a headlight ajustment, I had a look at the brake discs and all I could see was surface rust around the rim, a result of a week of rain, went home used a bit of wet and dry to clear the rust, and booked the smart in the next day, As I was waiting for the end of test a delivery chap came in to the gargae with arms full of boxes of brake discs, My smart passed and when I told them I had not torched the light at all, and just removed a bit of rust around the rim of the discs, their reaction was on of don,t care. I wonder how many more people are having their cars fail due to garages needing the work. I think MOT,s should be done as in france, no MOT station under takes the work if the car etc fails, so they have no interest in making a good car fail, as they don,t get any benifit. michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Rainbow-Chasers As far as I'm aware, when an automotive light-bulb's orientation is critical, the bulb-holder will always have been designed specifically to prevent the bulb being oriented incorrectly when it is inserted into the holder. Obviously, when a bulb is symmetrical and its orientation in the holder is unimportant (eg. with a bayonet-fitting reversing-light bulb), then the bulb could be fitted in two different ways, but that's another matter. I suppose, if one were a complete dolt, it might be possible to jam a bulb into its holder wrongly, even though the bulb-holder would be making every effort to prevent this happening, but I'm startled to learn that such a cack-handed practice is regularly detected at MOT-test time. W3526602 All private 'motor caravans', classified as such on their V5C Registration Certificates, are subject to a Class 4 (car) MOT-test. Vehicle weight - whether MAM, ALW, or whatever - is not a regulatory factor, though many MOT-test stations accustomed to dealing with your average size/weight cars may not be equipped to cope with large/heavy motorhomes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patricia Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 terry1956 - 2009-03-18 10:07 AM I think MOT,s should be done as in france, no MOT station under takes the work if the car etc fails, so they have no interest in making a good car fail, as they don,t get any benifit. michael Just a short addition to this post. The MOT in France has just got more stringent with 8 more areas mechanics will have to examine including shock absorbers, brake pedals and fluid, headlamp etc. So I may find my car won't pass next time because I only have stickers on. Also before I went for the test in 2008 my local mechanic wanted me to have 2 new tyres because although the tread was fine and they were the same type they were by different manufacturers! I left them and the car passed but maybe not next time. The price of the MOT will go up again of course and I already paid more last year than for the previous test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmbeedee Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Many years ago I had a Cooper S which had been fitted by a previous owner with French Cibie headlamps. These used a normal European style bulb - (pre halogen back then but same baseplate as currently used) - but had an unusual, & to me very useful feature if you ventured "forrin". The retainer for the location tab on the bulb could be rotated slightly, to one of two positions. In one position the headlamps dipped to the left, but in the other position they dipped to the right. You had to remove the bulb to rotate the locator, & you could only insert the bulb when in one or other of the two positions, "in between" was not possible, so pretty well foolproof. Never seen this since & not sure if Cibie are still in existence, but a much better solution IMHO than putting stickers on the headlamp lens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry1956 Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Hi, I know that the new mot takes in a bit more, last year our hymer horn stopped working right when the man wanted to test it, I just sat in the drivers seat making horn noises. It pased with a lauge and a bottle of wine, this year I have my 4x4 on its 1st mot, I will be returning to the same place with the bottle, it helps a lot in france if you know the people and return, they like that. michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 emmbeedee I think the 2-position bulb arrangement may have quite common with early Cibié headlamp units as I'm sure I encountered it in the 1970s. I used to fit Cibié replacement lights to many of my cars in the 1980s (usually with illegally powerful bulbs), but the bulbs were halogen type and one-position only. Some modern cars (eg. my neighbour's Astra) have a headlamp bulb-holder that can be moved to modify the dipped-beam for driving outside the UK, but, according to the Astra's handbook, the beam produced was still not a genuine asymmetrical one - presumably just good enough not to dazzle 'foreign' drivers. The small circular Hella units fitted to many A-class motorhomes can also be tweaked from left- to right-dipping, but I don't know how this process affects the pattern. The Cibié brand is still about. See http://www.cars-gb.com/cibie_m.htm but now seems to be part of the Valeo Group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmbeedee Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 Thanks for that Derek. Amazing to see they still make the old Oscar, had those on my "S" when I was rallying it, 40 years or more ago! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.