6:00 early get up. I looked outside to find blue skies, welcome after the last couple of weeks of rain. I then looked down to see frost on the ground. It was going to be a cold journey to the test centre. Hunted around for the old ski jacket and gloves. A friend, Mick (as opposed to Mike) had agreed to accompany me in his car, a bit like Thunderbird 2 support vehicle. We loaded the back of this car with almost the complete contents of my tool kit and various other things I might need to fix things during the IVA: convoluted tubing, various tapes, electric wires, connectors and fixings, various rivets, nuts and bolts.
7:00 left the house. The journey was about 25 miles to the VOSA test station at Chadderton. The first couple of miles on local roads, about 6 on the A34 dual carriageway then the rest on the M60 Manchester orbital motorway. Given I'd done less than 1 mile in total with the longest run being a few hundred metres around the close it was quite a daunting prospect. With Mick following and the instructions to catch anything that fell off, I set off. 7:10 petrol station. You have to have a full tank of fuel for the IVA so first stop was the local Tesco petrol station. I filled up a jerry can as well to top up at the testing station if necessary. The car had felt really good on the first few miles. I realised I'd forgotten a hat so cold ears.
8:00 arrived at the test centre. I'd found a nice van travelling at about 50mph to follow on the motorway and with Mick acting as my wingman behind the journey to the test centre was very smooth. It had helped that the motorway was starting to get busy with the Monday morning commuting traffic. This meant the general speed of the motorway was slower. I parked up in the car park and wandered over to reception. They told me to bring the car into the 1st lane where it was marked with SVA and the inspector would be with me shortly.
8:10 the inspector came out, asked a few general background questions then we were off! As the car was warm he started with the CO2 emissions test. He first measures something towards the rear of the engine then shoved a sensor up the exhaust. I guess this is the same as they do at an MOT test but having never witnessed it I'm not sure. This was one of the things that if there had been a problem there was very little I could do. It would mean a trip to a garage with more specialist knowledge and equipment to fix. Luckily there was no problem and it passed.
Next was onto the ramps to check out the steering, suspension, and under the car. Whilst on the ground he got me to turn the steering fully left and right. The wheels were on rotating disks on the ramps to allow them to turn. With the ramp up he got me to apply the handbrake several times, I assume to check the mechanism was working okay. This is one area I know several people who built the standard Westfield had issues. There is a nylon fixing that has a tendency to slip under strain. My handbrake mechanism all came from the Mazda and was fine. He remarked on how neat it was underneath. Lights and electrics were next. He checked all the lights were working correctly, including checking things like the fog light only coming on when the dipped beam was on (another failure point I'd heard of). Despite the time Mike and I has spent setting up the lights, the O/S headlamp needed pointing very slightly to the right and down (only by a tiny amount). This section raised the first two problem items. First was the wire going to the indicators on the cycle wings at the front. I had run then behind one of the stays holding the cycle wings. The inspector wasn't happy about the proximity to the wheel, having a concern it could get caught. The second item was also indicator related. This time it was the wires running to the front nose cone indicators. These were fixed using self adhesive fixing pads attached to the front lip of the nose cone. This allowed easy access for disconnecting when removing the nose cone but one of the pads had come loose during the trip and came away easily when pulled. He said you have to stick using something like Araldite as the self adhesive pads on them are not sufficient. Depending on how the rest of the test went I would have to remediate these two items.
Rolling road time. The inspector tested the front brakes then drove the car forwards and tested the rear as well as the handbrake. He seemed to use a pressure pad under his foot to check how hard he had to press to stop the vehicle. He tested it multiple times, I assume at various speeds. He also tested the speedo. I was very relieved when these tests were over as although he couldn't confirm it had passed until he had entered all the data into the spreadsheet they use, he thought it looked okay. This was a relief as I'd just driven 25 miles and would have been a scary thought if he'd have told me it had defective brakes. Also, if there was something wrong, I'm not sure I would have been able to rectify it at the centre. Whilst on the rolling road he also measured the weight of the car.
Next we went outside for the noise test and to see how the car drove. The car park at the VOSA centre was quite large and there was a whole section round the back which was completely empty. He had a good go at flinging the car round forwards as well as backwards, testing things like the self centring of the steering. When he had finished he commented on how well it drove. Next was the noise test. He had a stand which he placed against the exhaust end. It came out and back a a specified angle. He placed the sound meter at the other end and then removed the stand. At tick over it was registering at something like 85dB. I then had to rev it up to 4,800 which is the appropriate percentage of max revs whist he read the meter. The meter registered 95.2dB, well within the 99dB limit.
He drive the car back to the main building but as it was such a nice day parked the car outside. It was time to check general bodywork, sharp edges etc. He didn't seem to use the hemispheres but I had seen them in the cupboard by where we did the emissions test. I assume he had done IVAs enough to know by sight things that may not be right and will only pul them out if necessary. This was when he highlighted the 3rd issue on the car. The jubilee clip that fixes the standard Westfield exhaust to the Mazda 'S' shaped adaptor needed to be rotated. I had fixed it so the bolt part was horizontal under the exhaust. He wanted it at 45deg so both ends were behind, i.e. out of the range of the hemisphere.
10:00 He wanted to check the brake fluid level test button but you cannot press the button whilst still being able to see the dash so he asked me to press the button. When I pressed it he didn't see anything. I checked he didn't have the handbrake on as it's the same light on the dash (a mistake I did earlier) but the handbrake was off. I'd checked this a few days earlier so knew it should work. I took of the 2 connectors and shorted them out, the light came on. I tried to take off the brake master cylinder cap but I'd clearly been keen when tightening it and couldn't get enough leverage with the restricted access. At this point the examiner said he was off for a cuppa and would leave me to play with it. I send Mick off to his car to get some gloves to get a better grip as well as various items to fix the wiring and jubilee clip. I managed to get the cap off and get my hands covered in brake fluid, just as Mick returned with the gloves. After reconnecting the connections it all seemed to be okay so I screwed it back on and all seemed well. Less than a minute with a spanner fixed the exhaust jubilee clip:
For the cycle wing indicator wires I just wrapped a load of insulating tape round then to ensure they were held on the inner side of the bracket:
I had just finished wiping my hands (and the floor) when the examiner returned. He checked the wiring and exhaust jubilee clip and was happy. I pressed the brake fluid level test button and thankfully the light came on the dash. Slightly humorous moment occurred next, he was checking in the engine bay when he said in a serious tone "you seem to have a fluid leak". He then broke into a big grin, it was the fluid from the brake cylinder. When he returned I'd told him I'd got the fluid all over my hands when getting the cap off.
The final section was all about measuring the car, wheel base, seating position etc. At about 10:30 he announced he was done and would go in to do the paperwork which would take about half an hour. He said with a good neat car it takes less time. At this point he didn't say it had passed but as I'd fixed all the items he'd mentioned I felt it was looking good. I guess he couldn't say for definite until he had run all the numbers through the spreadsheet. Mick and I went to sit in the waiting room, drank plasticy coffee from a Klix machine and ate 2 day old slightly stale donuts I'd thrown in the back of Micks car with the tools.
At just before 11:00 the examiner returned. He said "did I realise that 98% of vehicles fail the IVA on their 1st time" (something I'm not sure is true - I know a lot do fail but not that many), but then he said mine was in the 2% and said congratulations and handed over my certificate (in return for the hi-vis vest I'd had to wear all morning). I asked if he had any advice, if there was anything that had passed but he thought could be improved. He said there was nothing and it was a really nicely build car. I was really chuffed!
By 11:00 we'd put all the tools back in Mick's car and were heading out of the test centre. I was definitely more relaxed on the way home but still shaking slightly. I felt more inclined to open it up more on the motorway but still wasn't going mad. I did make it to the middle lane though.
11:30 Arrived back home. Next stop... the DVLA.
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