Morning all

I've been working on the front end of the car to try and ensure it's okay for SVA. Sharp edges are slowly being cobered in all sorts secured with tie wraps.

how the hell do these things pass SVA? once secured and cut the tie wrap to me seems more of a problem than the thing I'm covering yet everyone on hear seems to use them.

Whats the score please as I'd hate to get to SVA only for him to fail it on sharp tie wraps

Cheers
Nigel

mine had them on holding the main harness through the engine bay, so shouldn't be a problem.
Mine passed in August
Cheers
Adam

2 solutions:

Easy - make sure that the fastening bit of the tie wrap is at the back, where the tester can't get at it with his sphere.

Less easy - buy the posh tie wraps from CBS, which make the ends lie flat, leaving no sharp edges.

I don't know if it was necessary but for my test I twisted them round as mentioned so that the sharp bits are out of reach....... no problems....

No probs using them as long as they are around, or fixed to, something permanent.
Mine failed because the cr*p sticky pads from Maplins came unstuck.
Tester asked that the holders were riveted to the bodywork/chassis if the ties weren't going round a structural part.
HTH.
Cheers, Pewe.

Ooh, thats useful to know. I was going to sikaflex the crappy maplin tags as that seems to hold them on really well.

You may get away with using Silkaflex as long as it's holding well.
It didn't help that the cr*ppy Maplins tags were letting go underneath almost as he inspected them.
thought I'd cracked it by cleaning the panelwork with Meths then drying it off before applying the tags but they still let go.
Cheers, Pewe.

i used cable ties through the whole car for wiring loom, water pipesm and converluted tubing,

SVA MAN DIDN'T SAY A THING, IN FACT HE SAID IT WAS VERY NEAT.

if you take the time to make things look neat then the inspectors are more likely to let things 'slip through the net' whereas if it looks like a frickin shambles he's going to check everything little detail.

My SVA tester went straight for the tie-wrap pads, even though they were still stuck on properly.

Fortunately almost all of them were also rivetted, apart from a few on the inside of the rear body skin. He let me tie-wrap the harness to bits of chassis instead.

(You might guess that my SVA experience was pretty good).

Nigel, get down to your local toy shop and buy a 100mm diameter ball. Anything on the outside of the car that you can touch with that must be either "blunted" if it protrudes less than 5mm or radiused to a min' 2.5mm if protruding more than 5mm. If you turn the zip ties so the clips are out of range of the ball you'll be OK.

My wiper arms had sharp edges and I cut myself fitting them. I Dremeled them for SVA. When I told the tester he said I'd just defined "blunted"! It's subjective but if it feels sharp then it's not "blunted".

adrian