MOT today

Anything about BXs
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rutter123
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MOT today

Post by rutter123 »

put 50 shades in for its MOT today, its fate will be sealed by 5pm.
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Tim Leech
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Re: MOT today

Post by Tim Leech »

Good luck!
Lots of Motors, mostly semi broken....
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Re: MOT today

Post by rutter123 »

MOT results not too bad, 2 patches needed on n/s sill ,one patch o/s floorpan, both rear tyres need swapping round (directional running wrong way guess i put them on wrong when i checked the brakes last weekend) the towbar needs to be removed as it is of inappropriate type (it bolts thru the towing eye supports and should be bolted to the chassis) luckily never used it, and finally, not sure about this as reads 006 front fluid suspension unit leaking (2.4.d.2) 007 o/s front fluid suspension pipe leaking (2.4.d.2)), i have looked for some time to find these last 2 items and can see no sign of any leaks i have checked all round the strut, the return pioes, all across the subframe, around the brake valve, steering rack etc, and can see no sign of any leaks anywhere, only signs of a previous leak from the return pipe on top of the brake valve which had dripped down onto the o/s subframe, i have since pressure cleaned all these areas and let it dry and had the car running up on the ramps for an hour or so doing several high/lows and pumping the brakes lock to lock etc etc and no sign of any leaks are evident, i know the mot tester and he has tested this car for seven years and is a very fair chap, so if he says there is a leak then there is a leak, but i cannot find it, any ideas?
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ghaddon1701
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Re: MOT today

Post by ghaddon1701 »

Where else are you supposed to bolt a tow bar if not where they were originally designed to be fitted?
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Re: MOT today

Post by rutter123 »

ghaddon1701 wrote:Where else are you supposed to bolt a tow bar if not where they were originally designed to be fitted?
when i fitted the towbar the holes lined up exactly with the holes in the towing eye brackets, so as i thought this was correct, but apparently not the case, he says that the towing eye brackets are not strong enough to support any weight (trailer/caravan) and that towbars should be bolted to the chassis? ive seen many bx with similar towbars fitted, its no big deal to remove it, but it was on there last years mot??? clause 6.6.2 towbar mounting obviously of an inappropriate type.
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Re: MOT today

Post by ghaddon1701 »

I have just had a quick read up. All I could find was that cars built after 1998 have to have the holes for mounting tow bars in the chassis. Towing eyes are supposed to be strong enough to tow a car with? Where else would you mount a tow bar on a BX?
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Re: MOT today

Post by kiwi »

Wow sounds as nuts as the Bus we took in for a certificate of fitness. Rules got changed because it did not have a certification plate on the towbar it failed the COF for the bus. So we had to remove the towball weld a plate over the hole to pass the COF, then back to the garage to remove the plate and put towball back on.

Someone sounds like on a power trip with your MOT.
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Re: MOT today

Post by rutter123 »

ghaddon1701 wrote:I have just had a quick read up. All I could find was that cars built after 1998 have to have the holes for mounting tow bars in the chassis. Towing eyes are supposed to be strong enough to tow a car with? Where else would you mount a tow bar on a BX?
yes this is what he said that the bar should be mounted to the chassis, but surely if a towing eye will pull a ton, say, then surely two towing eyes supporting a frame which is likely to be pulling less than a ton should be adequate?? i dont know of any chassis mounted towbars and surely you would loose the spare wheel carrier if this is the case, anyways i have removed it for now to get it through the test, but i have not binned it. now its time to get the welder out, again... :roll:
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barry badger
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Re: MOT today

Post by barry badger »

Three of my estates have towbars, all fitted to the towing eye supports. The most recent one to be mot'd was done last june though, I think the new regulations came in since then? However the three different stations I use wouldn't fail a towbar attached in this way. I think your testers being a jobsworth/interpreting the rules wrongly.
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mat_fenwick
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Re: MOT today

Post by mat_fenwick »

The revised MOT manual states that a reason for rejection is :
"Towbar assembly is attached to the vehicle structure using a mounting, support or fixing which is obviously of an inappropriate size or type."

So presumably this is the reason - whether it's justified we don't know without seeing it. I could be a home made bodge job, although I've seen bought towbars which only use the rear two mounts by the towing eyes. The genuine Citroen towbar extends round the spare wheel and fixes to another two mounts further forward.
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Re: MOT today

Post by citsncycles »

I have just had a quick read up. All I could find was that cars built after 1998 have to have the holes for mounting tow bars in the chassis. Towing eyes are supposed to be strong enough to tow a car with? Where else would you mount a tow bar on a BX?
It looks like the tester isn't taking into account the cutoff date mentioned above. I think that date ties in with when all towbars needed to be properly approved ones.

Even the factory bars bolt to the towing eye brackets, albiet with futher mounts much further forward aswell. Timex's is bolted up through the boot floor in several places from what I can see of it.
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Re: MOT today

Post by KevR »

All you need to do to mimic the factory way of attaching the towbar is to weld on a couple of lengths of bar ( I used field gate hinges) suitably bent to go round the spare wheel and pick up those front mountings.
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Re: MOT today

Post by mds141 »

The valver has a Witter tow bar, fitted since new. No mention of anything untoward from the MOT tester three weeks ago.

The XM had it's MOT last October, I hung around in the MOT bay whilst the test was being undertaken and the tester didnt even look at the tow bar.

I'd return to the test station and request a re-test, explaining the 1998 cut-off date.
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