MoT day Thursday: will she pass?
 

The 740 is booked in for MoT: eek! Actually, I know she won't pass, because the exhaust is blowing. It's more a case of what else will she fail on?

She's been off the road more or less since last year's MoT. Trying to find where the rain was getting in, I found a rusty patch which turned out to need welding. It took time to sort that out, and then I turned my attention to swapping the knackered gearbox. I stripped everything down, but couldn't budge the bellhousing from the block. My best guess is that the dowels have corroded in. With MoT date looming, I put it all back together again for now.

The exhaust is blowing where I opened the joint between the downpipe and front silencer. I guess it just needs a bit more sealing gloop than I gave it when I refitted it. It'll fail on that, but the garage should be able to sort that out.

It may fail on my welding. I showed the garage photos of my repair as I went along, and they said it looked fine. But whether it'll pass muster when they see it in the metal remains to be seen.

And with it standing for a year, I wouldn't be surprised if the emissions are off - although I did put a fresh tank of petrol in today

But the real worry is that the car was shuddering badly on the way over. And by badly, I mean enough that I didn't attempt to go above 40 mph... I'm not sure why; my best guess is that I didn't align the prop-shaft carefully enough on refitting.

So one way and another, I'm not expecting a nice shiny new certificate this time round. Work will need doing, it's just a question of how much?

Good luck, Stephen. Coincidentally, my V70 is also going in for it's MOT tomorrow (Thurs). I'm quietly confident that it will pass, as it has done less than 1000 miles since last time, and I always give instructions to fix any minor issues (bulbs, wipers, that sort of thing) rather than issue a 'fail' - so here's hoping!

Regards, John.

Good luck with it, let us know how it goes! :thumbs_up:

Regarding the shuddering, it's entirely possible your tyres have "flat-spotted" and as you drive it they will improve. They will warm up, the natural oils in the rubber will disperse and return the flexibility to the tyres and all will be well - in an ideal world at least!

I wondered about that, Dave, and you're right of course. But it spent most of its year off up on axle stands with the tyres off the floor, so my best guess is that it's not that this time.

Anyway, I've just had a word with the guy at the garage, and they'll investigate. I'm lucky that I've got a very helpful independent: totally straightforward and happy to work on 'characterful' vehicles like mine!

Thanks, John, and good luck with yours as well!

Yes, I've always had the same 'deal' with the garages I've used: fix anything minor and pass it, otherwise give me a bell. That's always worked out nicely.

I skim-read your post John and missed you were putting your V70 in for test today - good luck with that! :thumbs_up:

Good news; it did! Just had a phone 'call to say that it needed a tyre due to age and cracking (an advisory last year) and it's all good for another year - £68 fitted plus the test.

Not bad for a 21 year old car that cost me just £550 over five years ago - how 'green' is that?! Go on for ever, these old Volvos. :regular_smile:

Hope your news is good too, Stephen. :thumbs_up:

Regards, John.

I was chatting to my local tyre place yesterday - they bunged my new Adharas on for a few beer tokens - and they say it's been non-stop since lockdown fixing perished tyres. Good legal tread, knackered sidewalls, particularly NS.
I've also noticed it checking out MOT history on prospective cars for my partner - cars that were doing 10k a year down to 3 or 4k.

Congrats on the pass John, another year for the beast! :thumbs_up:



It's funny but i generally only do about 3k/year and so far i've not had perished/cracked tyres. I'd be interested in knowing if there was a particular brand(s) that were more susceptible to cracking up/perishing etc.

Cheap tyres left to stand at the side of the road mainly. Tyre goes down slowly, sidewall gets folded, cracks and perishing happens.
Even on low miles (at £100 a tank I'll be surprised if I do more than 3000 in Val) I think all cars benefit from gentle weekly exercise. Fortunately our old petrol cars run up to temp quickly so they don't need many miles a week. I've got a 5 mile round trip which is ideal (the fact there's a pub car park at halfway is purely coincidental!)

I try to exercise both of mine regularly, the Volvo gets almost daily use for taking the pooch out and the Rover gets used every few days usually and if not, i give it a run at least once a fortnight at the longest. Although i have cheap tyres on the Volvo, they've had some surprisingly good reviews but they don't sit still long enough to start deteriorating.

Belated update. The 740 finally got its MoT test this morning (after three weeks sitting in a corner at the garage). My Mondeo's in for MoT today, so they did the Volvo first thing while I waited, in the hope that it would pass and I could drive it home. And the result is...

... it passed!!!!

I'm chuffed, because it means my welding was evidently up to standard!

Congratulations on the pass.

Congrats on the pass! :thumbs_up:

Well done; yes I know it's rather belated but I'm piggy-backing onto this thread to announce that the Exxon Valdez has another year's life.

It was a close shave though as the near-side wiper arm decided to become the near-side bonnet cleaner when I ran through the basic last-minute check-list.

There are a few advisories that will be dealt with once the weather and bank balance improve.

Val's in for hers on next Thursday, I'm expecting a fail but should be nothing major that I can't sort out. Just need a clear drive and some better weather. She's not a daily so I can take my time.

Congrats on the pass for the Exxon Valdez - isn't it amazing how wiper blades stay put for 364 days then on MoT day suddenly make a bid for freedom? Had exactly the same happen myself, managed to get it to stay where it was long enough to pass the test then bought a new pair on the grounds that if one has done it, the other is likely to soon as they were replaced as a pair.

What happened was that the entire arm decided to slip on the splined spindle and described an arc from the bonnet to a point approximately 6" above the scuttle. My first thought was that the cable had snapped so decided to remove the arm and if that was the case, present the car with one working windscreen wiper - if it isn't fitted it can't be tested after all!

Checking the function revealed that it was simply a case of re-locating the arm and tightening up the nut that secures the arm to the spindle.

Woohoo! She passed! Just an advisory for a minor "oil" leak (well, I guess PAS is derived from dinosaur juice :tongwink:) and one tyre - which were installed as rim protectors for the wheels I picked up from Luke - nearing the legal limit. £110 quids-worth of BP's finest added and we're good to go for another year.

Still got her quirks - random high idle and haunted ABS - but both of those can wait for the spring.

Congrats on the pass Alan, justifies the investment in the replacement engine now! :thumbs_up:

Yeah, really delighted. It's been a good day. Found a new car for Mum, got an unexpected bonus from work, and Val's all sorted for another year. They were pleased I'd saved her - same garage that gave me the bad news back in July. I think they just like working on old cars. Commented on how tidy she is underneath. Bonus should mean the rack's paid for, if it turns out to be a PAS leak.

Excellent news! Sorted for another year. :thumbs_up:

Update on the shuddering problem: it's the prop-shaft centre bearing. I'd misfitted the rubber what-not that goes in the metal hoop, and it's pretty knackered anyway. With it fitted properly, there's a lot of movement, and there's still a bit of vibration - but the dreadful shuddering has now gone away. The bearing itself seems fine.

It'll need doing properly at some point, but that can wait for warmer weather!

It's always better to buy the complete repalcements (cheaper too than buying the individual bits) and fit those instead of trying to press everything in square yourself. Also after replacing, try finding the speed at which the vibration is worst, return home, crawl underneath or use ramps (DO NOT use a jack :nah: ) and slacken the bolts holding the bearing bracket to the chassis by 1/2 turn.

Roll down the ramps and drive VERY gently up to the speed where the vibration occurred - it should have cleared. Return home, back on the ramps and tighten in very small movements and evenly a bit at a time on each bolt until they are all evenly tightened then take it for a test drive.

Usually the first one gets it but sometimes you have to repeat the procedure, especially if the vibration speed has changed.

Thanks, Dave, that's great advice!

Looking at spares on the Brookhouse website, it turns out that the metal ring and rubber donut are supposed to be bonded together as one item anyway. On mine, the rubber has completely detached from the ring - but it is the original, I think, so I guess it's not surprising!

I'll order up a new one and fit it in due course. Probably when the weather warms up a bit...!

ps rest assured, I never go under the car on just a jack: I always use stands or ramps.

You can find the bearing complete with bracket etc on ebay relatively cheaply - it's shared with some Transit, Sherpa and Land-Rover models so is plentiful with several aftermarket suppliers.

The idea about the ramps wasn't in fact safety advice as i know you're well up on that. It was in fact technical advice because if you jack the car (even if using stands) then the bodyshell twists ever so slightly. You can't see it but it can be enough to misalign the prop centre bearing, hence saying to either crawl underneath if you can reach or run the back up on a pair of ramps so the bodyshell doesn't twist while loosening and/or slackening the centre bearing to bodyshell bolts.

You are absolutely right though, you should never go under a car without at least adequate safety supports - having a car fall off the jacks on you isn't pleasant! :err: :eek: :nah:

Well deserved pass :_:

Thanks for clarifying, Dave. I hadn't appreciated the point about bodyshell twist. I'd assumed it was about the rear axle hanging down when the car's up on stands, pulling the rear section of the prop downwards.

It's that time of year again, and the good news is... she passed!

A quick update: since last year, I finally succeeded in changing the gearbox. I had to take the engine and gearbox out complete in order to get access to put heat on the corroded-in dowels. The old gearbox had got so bad that the car was barely usable, and only around town. With the 'new' gearbox, it's a viable car again. For those of you who follow the project threads, this is the M47 gearbox that came out of '50 Shades': a huge thank-you to Luke (aka 360 Beast).

While the engine bay was empty, I cleaned up some scabby bits on the inner wings and chassis legs. Thanks to the galvanising, that turned out to be a lot less bad than it looked: a little bit of pitting here and there, but otherwise just surface corrosion. I put in a new exhaust down pipe, because the old one had rusted through most of the way round the flange where it joins to the middle box. And I cleaned up the injector seats and fitted new O-rings, which seems to have cured the poor idle.

Initially she failed on emissions, but passed on re-test. Other than that, just one advisory on a worn tyre, which I was expecting (n/s/f outer edge). I'm very happy with that!

Still plenty to do, but now that the gearbox is sorted, it's worth persevering, because she's properly drivable again. Happy days!

Excellent news and congrats on the pass! :thumbs_up: