I took my car for its retest last week and it passed!
It was the same inspector that did the first test and again he was great. The four items
which were easily fixed he just glanced at and ticked it off the form. The other two points which the car originally failed on, emissions and brake
balance took a little more scrutiny. I got the car red hot before we did the emissions test. He stuck the probe in the exhaust and started the test running. It wasn't looking good, in fact it was looking really bad, some of the numbers were off the chart. I knew it was going to be borderline still but something wasn't right. I asked him to reboot his machine and conduct the test again to which he agreed. This time the car got through. HC and CO readings were fine but lambda was still borderline but good enough. He claimed he'd never seen the machine do that before so there's a lesson to be learned there. If in doubt give it a reboot and try again.
I felt the brake balance was now fine having taken the car on a track day last week but the inspector said it was still borderline using their calculations for shifting of mass under braking but he repeated a few measurements and used the results that enabled the pass. As I said a really good and fair inspector and would certainly recommend the guys at Beverley DVSA.
Thanks to everyone on here who's offered help, advice and support over the last three and a half years of my build.
My registration paperwork is now in and I've already had contact from DVLA informing me that I was £10 short for my tax as the rates went up on 1st April and that I'd be getting an age related plate once I'd stumped up the extra cash!
Regards,
Chris
