Wheel bolts

Why would an MOT place be doing up the wheel bolts? They are not allowed to dismantle anything.

General engineering principle is you allow a thread depth of the diameter plus 50% for a tapped hole. However, your temporary arrangement will be fine under the conditions you have described.

Chris

Crikey, I wouldn't feel safe with only 10mm of thread engaged on wheelbolts

You are both correct (unusually in the Tiscali Idiots case) but in this specific case it is absolutely fine.

The suspension is unaltered from stock. The new wheels are OEM rims and the tyres are one of the sizes which were optionally fitted by the manufacturer to this exact model and trim spec (they even appear on the tyre pressure sticker on the door). The only difference is that the rims are from the later E46 not the E36 and consequently have 5mm more inwards offset - so the spacers are actually moving the tyre surface back to the correct position relative to the car and suspension.

But don't let that bother you 'Roger', I'm sure you know best as always.

Bullshit. They rub very slightly when on full lock and turning hard. And according to the document posted further down by Reg it's a warn not a fail and some Volvo's even do this from the factory. Are you saying Volvo are producing 'accidents waiting to happen' now? That would be a bit of a shift in policy...

When I bought it lock stops were fitted which reduced the steering travel so avoiding the rub but making it steer like a supertanker. I've removed these and rectified the issue by putting the suspension geometry *back* to standard.

That's what the spacers are for.. the only remaining issue is getting correctly sized wheel bolts, which I will be doing but can't obtain in time for the MOT.

Incorrect assumptions, as usual. Got to be true to yourself though, eh, 'Roger'?

Thanks for that Reg. Very useful.

I actually popped in to the test centre today since it's only over the road from work and asked them about it. They confirmed that they wouldn't be taking the wheels off (I wasn't sure - surely that means some cars can pass with next to no brake pads left?), and also that they didn't care about the size of the bolts unless 'the wheels are loose or fall off while brake testing'.

So I'm happy. If the wheels do fall off on the brake tester I promise I'll report back :-S

If I modded it, it would be more like this:

I certainly wouldn't take it cross country or at speed, but for a 30mph tootle to the MOT station it should be OK. I'm sure many caravans go touring around every year with a lot less...

PC Paul gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Why bother, when the tester's manual is on the web?

Yup. Braking performance is what's tested.

I know, but me not finding it isn't usually a guarantee that it isn't in there. There is a test for 'security of roadwheels' and I didn't know how far that went...

Hmm. That seems a shame... why artificially limit it like that?

PC Paul gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

To get to the front shoes in the drums of our '60s 2cv van requires the front wings to be removed, the outer halves of the driveshafts removed, the grease nipples removed from the inner halves, and - on the driver's side, the lower cowling from the cylinder barrel & head - oh, yes, and the master cylinder unbolted from the chassis...

The rear drums are held on by 44mm nuts to c. 300lb-ft.

Now - about checking the thickness of the friction material...

Well, it's 2CV van. They weren't expected to last long enough to wear out the brake pads. Or to go fast enough to need them, for that matter. Just kick your feet through the floor...

PC Paul gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Shoes. This one's front drum.

Oh, and it's 5yr older than me...

Pads on a disk-braker are easy to change. Don't even need to jack the thing up. Just open bonnet, remove heater (two sec) and big screwdriver. Five minutes for all four.

Blimey. I thought they were supossed to be easily fixable- or is that lot not as bad as it sounds?

Scaffold pole time?

To do otherwise would not be reasonable. For example, would you say that there should be sufficient friction material to last until the next test? If so, how would you define that? I've driven vehicles that under some circumstances would wear out a set of pads to the metal in 10K miles. Some vehicles cover 50K miles/ year, and would quite reasonably get through two sets of pads and a set of discs in a year.

Or should you set some arbitrary thickness? If so, how much?

Some vehicles require substantial dismantling to check things like friction material. Who bears the cost of that? Would the price of an MOT be set by vehicle type? Or would all MOT's go up to cover the cost?

I think the system we currently have is not unreasonable; perhaps Joe Public should be better educated to understand that the MOT is a minimum standard at the time of the test?

Chris

lol

Don't think they are highly stressed. Over engineered is a better term. They have to be.

Well, FWIW it passed no problem, and the wheels didn't fall off either on the way there or on the brake tester.

The new bolts should be arriving tomorrow and will be on it by the end of the day.

i can not more describe about it but i personally think it will fail for that yes, but its no big deal, they will just put some new ones on and charge you a few quid for them.that's if your car gets to the garage.

Congratulations!

You win my award for the most ill-informed post of the week.

Chris

Not unless I'm bored