Well, the deed is done, I now have a roadworthy vehicle that is ready to be registered. The testing process has been brilliant from start to finish, mainly due to the Bristol testing station.
So first thing, vehicle weights. Wow these things have been all over the place. Or more specifically, my brain has been all over the place. It all came from my axle weights being wrong. The gross design weight was pretty much spot on (I said 770, actual was 762 so that was fine). The axle weights were wrong, with the rear actually weighing more than it had measured.
My flaw in all this is thinking the gross design weight is the same as front axle weight plus rear axle weight. Actually it's not. The axle weights combined should be the same OR HIGHER than the gross weight. It even says it on the pass/fail form if I had actually read it right.
What it meant was that my gross design weight was 770Kg (which is above the actual weight of 762Kg and therefore a pass), the front axle design weight is 400Kg, which is higher than the 328Kg and also a pass, and then finally the rear axle design weight is 500Kg, which is higher than the actual weight of 434Kg.
Most importantly, I didn't need an extra brake test to get the other 25Kg. I'm still happy that I replaced the discs and pads as they needed to be done, but at least I didn't have to worry about tyre traction again.
The day started chilly, and I soon realised that my winter coat wasn't actually windproof. I stopped at pretty much every services, partly to check things as I went but also to defrost just a little bit. In any case, it was a clean run to Bristol, taking 2 hours and 15 minutes. That's about half hour longer than Google maps which is about right. I was sat at about 60 all the way.
The drive itself was good. The car did not like bumps, breezes and many other things that the Superb wouldn't have noticed. It's not due to the car setup, it's merely the weight of the car and it being very agile. Motorways is not it's natural habitat, but then it was never to be a high mileage motorway muncher.
By the time I got to Bristol I was shivering but the car was fine. A quick fill up at the garage showed I'd used 12 litres to do 100 miles. That's 2.6 gallons, or just over 38 miles per gallon. I can live with that. It also gives me a range of just over 200 miles.
I put the car outside the IVA garage and went to use the facilities. By the time I came out the inspector was already measuring up the indicators and number plate, they got ticked off straightaway.
Then it was up on the ramps for the next three, which he was very happy with. Then just the last step. As expected the new weights hadn't been added to the application, however I had printed the email which he accepted. Of course, I also had to declare I was the manufacturer, but that's all it needed.
Ten minutes for a quick brew while he did the paperwork, and I had the certificate in my hand. All done, all passed. Such a relief.
The return journey was a bit more eventful. A lot more traffic for a start, at several points I was stationary with all the holiday traffic returning home. Once again I stopped at a few of the services but every time it was just jam packed so my only break was a brief drive round the car park. It was nice to see people looking but all I wanted to do was straighten my right leg!!
Somewhere along the way the rev counter stopped working. Or more specifically it got stuck at around 3K. A couple of bursts of 70mph got it moving again, then it dropped as my speed went down. So that may be on my 'fix' list quite soon. The speedo worked fine which was my worry due to the cable routing.
There is a whine that I will also need to figure out. When I accelerate or when I'm above 60 I have what seems like a bearing noise. Thinking about it, it could be a gearbox whine so I'm tempted to do a gearbox oil change. Thinking about it the diff and engine got new oil, but not the gearbox.
Then lastly I did get something bounce under the car and make a horrible banging noise. It could have been anything, but I did have to check that it wasn't something that fell off my own car. It all checked out so I can only assume it was something off the road.
Anyhow, after 2 hours of very uncomfortable driving I got home, and immediately started working on my 'to do' list to make things more comfortable.
The last thing to note on here is the emissions tests. Basically everything is listed as 'na' for all the emissions values. So that makes things potentially awkward for registration. I can either go for a Q plate, have it forever branded as a 'car of unknown origin' but able to get away with a smoke test for MOT. Or I can go for an age related plate and have to work off a K plate emissions level.
I'll get the registration docs over to DVLA on Monday, registered Royal Mail post and then it's a few weeks before the registration comes back.
No comments:
Post a Comment