The big day had finally arrived! The VOSA centre was in Mitcham, Croydon ... a 35 mile drive from home. I had planned to hire a trailer and car with tow hitch but the nearest hire centre was Maidstone and they wanted ~£250 for the two day hire ... ouch! So with the car loaded with various nuts, bolts, tubing, tape, and tools I set off at 6am to drive to Mitcham.
It was a nervous drive but with every mile my confidence grew and I arrived in plenty of time for the 8am appointment.
Here's the car at the test station just before the test.
Next the windscreen wipers and washers. During the wipers test he poured water on the windscreen whilst he timed the sweep frequency ... water poured into the cockpit. Note to self ... more sealant required around wiper box holes.
From there it was onto the ramps to check underneath. Here he pointed out what appeared to be a slight leak from the brake master cylinder. He asked me to tighten the fitting and we checked again ... all good now. From here to the light check ... headamps were not quite aligned but again he allowed me to adjust them there and then. Next a check of the exterior and interior projections with the varous sized "balls" and height etc of the seat belts ... again no issues with anything there. From here onto the brake test. Foot brake no issues but the hand brake wasn't holding properly on the near side. Andy said he needed to punch the numbers into a spreadsheet once he knew the weight of the car but it didn't look like it was pass :-).
From here it was onto a check of the mirrors ... we moved outside and various cones were laid out across the tarmac. Onto the noise test where it recorded a very quiet 94decibels at 4000rpm ... well within the 99db allowed. Then Andy asked me to drive about 25mph and slam on the brakes to check that the fronts locked first ... they did. Final check ... a weight test ... total was about 630kg ... slightly heavier than I thought but almost 50/50 weight distribution front and back.
Then it was a long wait whilst Andy input the brake test and weight numbers into his spreadsheet. I had resigned myself to the result and sure enough Andy came out with the Fail Certificate. He was almost apologetic to fail it and offered some compensation by saying that it was "very well put together".
I consoled myself on the drive home ... getting more used to the car I pushed on a bit and was only slowed when a police car pulled out behind me. I was ready to produce the paperwork explaining I was en route frm an IVA test but despite no number plates and no tax he ignored me!
Back home I set about looking at the hand brake and booked some time at the local garage on Saturday to test it again.
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