Pedantic legal question

Purely out of interest... In itself, is it technically speaking illegal to disconnect the drive to the speedo/odo, if you have some other suitably accurate means of measuring your speed in your vehicle?

(Clearly if you were doing this with an attempt to defraud, by having the vehicle display a lower odo reading than was really the case, it would be illegal - but that's not what I'm asking.)

Reply to
Nick Dobb
Loading thread data ...

Sorry, 'intent', not 'attempt'.

Reply to
Nick Dobb

IANAL but I wouldn't thave thought so. It's not even a testable item.

Reply to
Conor

IIRC a speedo has to work to get a MOT.

Reply to
gazzafield

No.

Reply to
shazzbat

AFAIK there is no law that says a vehicles fitted speedo must work, as long as it has a device that shows it's speed in mph. Sat nav comes to mind. Mike.

Reply to
Mike G

I've had cars pass MoT with defective speedos.

Reply to
adder1969

It would appear that it is not. That seems a bit silly.

Reply to
gazzafield

Quite possibly. A customer of mine some years ago had a sherpa van whose speedo didn't work. Three years on the trot that I Know of, and no comment by the tester, despite the mileage being the same.

Steve

Reply to
shazzbat

Does it even have to have any speedo at all? One could think of a situation where you could estimate your own speed and as long as you weren't actually speeding would it matter?

Reply to
Mark Hewitt

Yes. It has to have a speedo[1]. The speedo has to work to a specified accuracy. It just isn't part of the MOT test. It's an anomaly, IMHO.

[1] All right, it has to have a speed measuring device, let's just call it a speedo.

Steve

Reply to
shazzbat

My car passed despite the speedo not working for some time.

Reply to
Malc

But they don't check it does...

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

they check it on the rolling road whilst doing the breaks

Reply to
aussie bongo

Not on my last MOT - I 'drove' the car while they tested the brakes.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

gazzafield (rufty_tufty snipped-for-privacy@nospam.saysI.ko) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

You don't.

Reply to
Adrian

gazzafield (rufty_tufty snipped-for-privacy@nospam.saysI.ko) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I've got perfectly legal vehicles without a speedo fitted - and they never have had one fitted.

Reply to
Adrian

aussie bongo ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.coDOTuk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

That's *BRAKES*. You're in trouble if they're breaks.

formatting link

You show us where in the tester's manual it describes the speedo test procedure and the fail criteria...

Reply to
Adrian

shazzbat ( snipped-for-privacy@spamlessness.fsnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Not all vehicles do.

Reply to
Adrian

I had a motorcycle with kph clocks; I removed the speedo cable and installed a bicycle computer - it worked fine, was very accurate and passed several MOTs like that. AFAIK speedos aren't tested as part of the MOT test anyway...

Q.

Reply to
Quincy

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.