| Thames Valley Member - Alan's SVA |
Here we are looking around Yeading our chosen SVA location.
This is what the place looks like, a torture chamber for Hood and owners alike!
There are many areas of close scrutiny, we may not have experienced them all or even remembered all that went on, on the two occasions. So this is our memories six months on.
We will go round the car I will show some of the points which caused us to fail the first time. But then we did have an inspector as well as the tester. The red text is where we failed, and the green information where questions have been asked on RHOCAR's Community site.
Dashboard
This is our dash. You can see the cigarette lighter just left of the gear stick. With the lighter in the socket. The lighter was an SVA failure, remove the lighter from the socket and we were go!
Seat Belt.
The seat belt for the left hand seat failed. The right hand strap touched the head restraint pillar. We were told to remove it and all would be OK. Hm it is un removable or rather the pillar is! Oh move the seat some then!
The triangular seat belt attachment plate failed SVA no 5 mm on the edge. We covered the edge with a silicone tube cut lengthwise and siliconed in place with some cable ties to ensure it stayed in place we passed.
Switches etc.
Behind the gear stick you can see the switches for the heated seats and the heater control panel. Good job we had a deep foam filled dashboard as that enabled the dash to pass. The items mounted flat on the surface would fail.
Wing mirrors
Mounted high to see over the rear mudguards and must be sprung loaded just incase they are knocked. The glass size is also specified. Get SVA compliant ones.
Windscreen support bracket
Note the edge trim on the rear of the windscreen support bracket above and below the radius on the bracket 5mm to blend to the screen frame and just the natural thickness radius for the rest of its edges.
Steering wheel
The Mountney steering wheel and boss as supplied in the 2B/04 kit an SVA pass but the fixing screw heads need filling in with silicone. It should be noted Richard (Robin Hood) said to use the original Sierra wheel as it gives a better exempt zone for the dashboard.
We had no problem with the steering wheel but many have had to use a padded cover. Someone had the boss rejected as it didn't collapse, but the column does
Windscreen area
The inspector tried hard with his sphere to fail the plastic windscreen jets, he failed not the car. Obviously the tax disc and side screens were not fitted for SVA nor was the soft top rail. Note the position of the mirrors to give lowdown close range rear vision, SVA tester man parked, looked and told the inspector he was not going to bother measuring as he could see all the lines.
Indicators
The side repeaters. Fill the indicator repeaters with silicone which is the universal permanent and durable material. Seven style vehicles are exempt from the SVA viewing angles for the side repeaters, so you can put them where you want.
Exhaust rear mount.
The picture needs no comment, most of the edge piping on the silencer has survived so we will use the same again knowing some testers will fail this solution.
Suspension padding.
| A: | In an effort to make sure the brake hoses were long enough we may have gone slightly too long. Since the hoses exit the caliper going upwards they can easily hit the wing brackets when the rear of the wheel is turned toward the body. We have put a piece of petrol hose over the brake hose and tied it in place to control the contact between the brake hose and the wing bracket. |
| B: | We used pipe lagging here. |
| C: | We used sheet foam to cover the track control arm. This was covered in gaffer tape. The SVA inspector made us put cable ties on it so it would stay in place. |
| D: | We had some self adhesive D section rubber we stuck on this edge. It fell off quickly. |
| E: | The little right angle brackets that locate the wing bracket need the front and rear edges covering the other edges count as under the car. Well our examiner and his inspector thought so. The curved edge of the wing bracket also needs some trim. |
| F: | The adjusting nuts on the mini McPherson's strut needs to be covered. We used more self adhesive rubber D section. This time with a cable tie through the middle. That probably why it hasn't;t fallen off yet. |
And with the padding on above. The indicators need the extension brackets to be within 400mm of the outermost point of the car.
Hole for exhaust manifold
Ok nothing sticks out and the sphere didn't catch the edge, but a failure. Simple solution to put edge trim on, we used some from Maplin, panel edging and we passed.
The arrowed washer above needs its edge covering. Our coverings fell off after about 2 weeks. The problem was the washer moved, it is only located by the inner size of the spring and the fit is not good. Thus the washer is free to move and more to the point it moves as the steering is moved.
Number plate
We made a P clip, the wiring being between the 2 layers. We should have made the leg which wraps the spare wheel support bar narrower because it did not quite follow the contour and ended as an SVA fail. Easily sorted by gilbows.
Fog Lights
Due to the angle of the mudguards these didn't face exactly along the road, there was some rise and left right offset in the beam. Failure. Simple solution to make the back of the fog lights angled and we passed.
Aero filler Cap
The SVA man pulled the mounting rubber away from the edge of the filler and said no 5mm radius, Failure! We stuck it in place with silicone sealer and passed. He also wanted to know where our petrol tank vent was, of course the vent is integral to the filler cap.
Boot lock
The SVA man didn't like it . Failure no 5mm radius to the edges. Simple solution to fit another which was less than 5mm high and had a 5 mm radius and we passed on both accounts. we now have the original fitted as it worked better.
VIN number
I spoke to Richard (Robin Hood) and requested the chassis number for my 2B/04. Richard told me to use the invoice number followed by 13 digits.
His reason for this was when the police come knocking on his door after finding a Robin Hood upside down in the ditch, he can quickly identify the builder.
SVA Forms.
Don't panic the forms are simple to fill in. Elwe or I will help with any questions.
DVLA Reading.
We didn't have a "make up inspection"!
8 weeks after requesting one, our SVA being put back 4 weeks due to staff training we went for SVA. 2 weeks later we passed SVA. The DVLA said they would have SVA do the make up inspection but forgot to ask them. Malcolm our tester said he had checked all the items needed for a make up inspection and if DVLA wanted they could phone him.
When I went into the DVLA with my MAC and money they said NO. The "man was out" try 14 day from now. I asked to speak to the manager, said words like what is their Charter and walked out with my tax disc and a form to get the number plates.
Insurance
You need special insurance cover for the drive to SVA. Most of the companies can provide this for about £30 a go. If you have build insurance you can convert / renew as road insurance. If you fail SVA you have only 30 days in which to pass or you will loose all the premium.
Our other Linked pages are:-
| Model | Robin Hood 2B/04 | Available December 2003 to April 2005 |
| Collection | 24th April 2004 | Kit with all Stainless Steal options |
| Engine | 2L Pinto SOHC P100 | Low compression to have supercharger fitted later. Cam belt broke in Bordeaux |
| SVA | June 20th 2005 | Yeading |
| Engine | 2L Pinto SOHC EFi | Lowered Plenum chamber (September 2005) |
| Suspension | Rear coilovers | November 2005 (kept bottoming @ takeoff) |
| Thames Valley Member - Alan's SVA |