MoT brake test - Weight guessing?

K

kiltyarse

New Member
Hiya,
Recently had to re-book my 2000TC in for MoT as the tester said the cars weight was needed for the brake tests, and could I bring the logbook with me next time. A week later I returned, having booked more time off work, with the V5 which doesn`t show the weight. One bloke in the garage thought it was strange that the weight wasn`t on there, while the older one didn`t see a huge problem. I queried how the test could be done previous to this without the weight, as they did it last year. Puzzled looks all round. Then the tester came in and said he`d test it as he would a 4x4, i.e. taking the car on the road and using the brakes there. It passed on the service brakes, but they failed it on the parking brake, due to the pads being `waffer thin`. Anyone else had this trouble? Tester reckons the weight has to exactly match what they have in their database, or the test can`t proceed, and details of previous tests carried out on the new system are deleted after the test (if the vehicle is more than 5 years old)!!?? ??? DRew
 
Hi Drew
I knew I had the weight somewhere! Give or take a couple of lbs its 2900lbs or 1315 kilo.
That is taken from a 2200 owners manual,and there wont be a lot,if any difference with your 2000tc
The info is in the owners manual under general data.
Dave
 
He was right to fail you for the parking brake.

I put a friends p6 through an mot and it passed. I had noticed that his rear brake pads were pretty low. They were good enough to pass but when I took them off the wear was bad and uneven. They had almost reached the max adjustment as well.

All sorted out with a new set of pads but besides the fact that they would have worn out before the next mot you really don't want to neglect the brakes.

In the car hand book it should list the weight. for a 2200tc with a full tank is 1,317kg (2,904lb) the 2000tc will be not be far off.

Colin
 
When I took my car in had the same issue, fortantly I had all the docs on me as I was going to get the road tax after the tax. (confident :) ) Anyway to cut a long story short depending on the age of the car they don't need to use the brake machine. All they need to do is an emergency stop and if at least three wheels skid its ok and they can press the magic 'void' button on the brake test tool. (so the MOT bloke said) Mine is a 73 car but she passed the test ok so no need for the 'magic' button. I was lucky to find an MOT station ran by a couple of classic nuts, they had taken the time to ring round to make sure they were up to speed on the car. :)
 
I've never had anybody mention weight to me in the past. Just press the pedal and watch the needles spin round, in fact quite often I've been the one pressing the pedal. I've often had comments about how powerfull the P6 brakes are too.

When I got my first p6 it failed on rear brakes, when I stripped them to sort it I found the pads were fitted the wrong way round, i.e. metal to disk, friction material to piston... needless to say it needed new discs as well !
 
They take the resistance of the wheels on the rolling road along with the weight and put the results into the DVLA computer system.

If the proportion of resistance to weight meets the criteria it passes, so the heavier the car the stronger the brakes need to be.

It has been like this for 3 years now ( since the new format certificates came out ) and really the vehicle weight should be in the system already. It was just older cars, P4's etc, that the system wasn't pre loaded with weights, so I'm surprised your P6 weight isn't in there already.
 
keanej said:
They take the resistance of the wheels on the rolling road along with the weight and put the results into the DVLA computer system.

If the proportion of resistance to weight meets the criteria it passes, so the heavier the car the stronger the brakes need to be.

It has been like this for 3 years now ( since the new format certificates came out ) and really the vehicle weight should be in the system already. It was just older cars, P4's etc, that the system wasn't pre loaded with weights, so I'm surprised your P6 weight isn't in there already.
Click to expand...
My car was on their system but the weight was not, we had to spend a few minuets going over the owner handbook to find the data. But as I said it seems depending on the age they can pass it still if they deem it to be good. From speaking to other people it seems that its all dependant on the tester and if they can be bothered to test the car correctly. Maybe this site could list P6 friendly MOT stations?
 
arthuy said:
He was right to fail you for the parking brake.

I put a friends p6 through an mot and it passed. I had noticed that his rear brake pads were pretty low. They were good enough to pass but when I took them off the wear was bad and uneven. They had almost reached the max adjustment as well.

All sorted out with a new set of pads but besides the fact that they would have worn out before the next mot you really don't want to neglect the brakes.

In the car hand book it should list the weight. for a 2200tc with a full tank is 1,317kg (2,904lb) the 2000tc will be not be far off.

Colin
Click to expand...
I`m glad it failed on the parking brake, I knew it would from their condition 2000 miles ago. It`s not that I was cheesed off about. It`s the farting about I had to do taking more time off work and letting them look all through my documents-and Rover workshop manual-only to find the weight, or general dimensions of the car aren`t in there! Then I discover, from some responses to this, and that they just took it on the road to test it, that my re-scheduling wasn`t completely necessary. It even got me to thinking that they`d over-booked tests that day, and found a good excuse to whittle the number down! I`ll be putting a few queries to them next week, and mentioning what I`ve found out here. :p
 
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