IVA Test Result

Well not a bad day in the end.  A bit of a challenge getting through the snow and ice to the test station.  However, once there the test went much better than expected.  Only three fail items:

1. Radius issue on exhaust clamp - needs turning around so that bolt is towards the sill of the car.
2. Light on fog light switch coming on with side lights - needs to come on only when the fog lights are actually on.  Easy re-wiring job.
3. Not possible to assess the state of the rear brake shoes due to the inspection hole in the back plate being obstructed by the Tiger uprights.  Need to drill a new hole that is accessible and fit a rubber bung.  On each side of course.

Will get these things fixed in the next few days and book a re-test for a couple of weeks time.  This time I think I will drive it to the test centre.  As long as it is a bit warmer.

Even though the car was on a trailer quite a lot of salty road spray end up on the front of the car.  Even more got sprayed on as the car was driven round the test centre.  Its all washed off now and the car is back in a heated garage to dry off.

First of the tests was the speedo.  Good news no issues here, my calculations to programme the digital dash must have been roughly right.

Second test was emissions.  Like the MoT no issues here as long as the retard 'switch' on the ECU was activated.

Worse than the dentists?  The tester goes into the cabinent of IVA tortutre tools...

When doing the basic brake test the car's front and rear axle weights are measured.  With a full tank of fuel, but no driver this came out at a bit over 600Kg in total.  I was expecting a bit less than this.  Especially given that I have the alloy tank and rad, race battery, as well as no windscreen, heater, etc.  I'll get the car corner weighted at a later stage and double check the figures.

Outside the noise test was performed.  93 point something dB.  Well below the 99 dB limit.  Will also be okay for track use too.  This is with the standard Tiger exhaust set up.

The indirect vision test was a breeze with the big side mirrors.  Anything that couldn't been seen due to the headrests was easily seen in the side mirrors.

Before and during the test I was apprehensive, especially with the weather situation.  In the end though, it is like most people say, an enjoyable experience.  The tester was very fair and helpful.  Having driven around the test centre I definitely cannot wait to start driving on the road.

Oh, I nearly forgot.  When I return for the re-test I need to have the 'five point brake test' done.  The equipment was away being repaired on the day I was at the test centre.  It was supposed to arrive during the day, but didn't.

Rear Lighting

All fitted, wired up and tested.

Some of the wiring could be attached to the chassis tubes, but inside the wheel arches there is nothing to attach the wires to.  Some Grip Fill was used to glue clips to the inside of the wheel arches and then cable ties could be used.  Sprial wrap was then added to all wires to prevent chafing, particularly where the wires pass through the fibreglass.

As the fog light needs to be vertical for the IVA test I used one of Tiger's fibreglass 'wedges'.  I didn't need to use them on the rear light clusters as my light units are tapered at the back.  To mount the wedge I made up a small bracket.  I made sure the holes in the bodywork are the same spacing as on the fog light until, so in theory I can attach later without the 'wedge'.

Wiring Check Out

Now that the wiring is complete (standard Tiger loom, not Webcon Alpha loom) I decided to give it a little test.  It is much easier to fix errors now, before the body is on.  There were just a few gremlins to fix, like the relays in the wrong sockets and the low and high beam wires mixed up on the steering column switch.  Once corrected everything seems to be working correctly.

Here are the rear lights all switched on.  The camera on the phone has not coped too well though.

Once satisfied that the loom was all correctly wired in it was time to try the digital dash again.  Here all the 'tell tales' are illuminated.  Not something that you'd want to see while driving along!

There is just the reverse switch to wire into the digital dash.  The dash supports a reverse gear logo ('R') as well as 'calculated' gears.  To light the 'R' on the display requires a connection to ground.  However, the output of the reverse light switch on the gearbox is +12v, so I need to use a relay.

Once this reverse gear indicator is working I'll tidy up the Tiger loom and move on to the Webcon Alpha loom.