Hi,

Managed to pass IVA today, but still had to change the position of the side repeaters at the test centre. On the initial test they were mounted on the underside of the wing mirrors.

I then moved these to the front wings, I put them on the top of the arch as close to the edge as possible.



But apparently these could be seen from the front, so they failed. I have seen cars with similar positioned units and have passed. Fortunately in my wisdom I had purchased some self adhesive led side repeaters from ebay for £10 (bargin). So after talking to the tester, we agreed the location and hey presto, a pass.

Side repeater is dark grey so quite hard to see (they are e marked too)


So my tips, run the wiring around the arch trim, it is easily moved and repositioned and get yourself a set of these for the test day UNIVERSAL FLUSH FIT 8 LED Side Repeaters BLACK LENS on eBay (end time 17-May-11 23:30:02 BST)
Ace Parts.

Probably the best £10 I have spent in ages and stress free mounting.

Passed last week at Nottingham, repeaters mounted at top edge of mudguards, very visible from the front, in fact the repeaters mounted on tintop mirrors face the front, I give up.

I tried to politely question where it says in the manual they should not be seen from the front, funnily he could not show me the paragraph and just pointed at the diagrams of the vehicle. Very conclusive!

Anyway that saga is out of the way now the DVLA want their piece of flesh.

Most new cars with mirror-mounted repeaters would fail then, I'm guessing!

No matter, you've done what your tester required, and got through the test. That's all that matters. Well done!

this is what the law has to say about the subject,

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/schedule/7/made

it gives some diagrams, but it does not say that the side repeaters must not be seen to the front.......


here is a pdf of the IVA manual, page 173 is the indicators page, (section 23) it says that the side repeaters must be visible to the rear as the "law" link above shows, but it does not say that they must not be visible to the front, where similar instructions do get said for other things.

http://mcelroymotorsport.co.uk/Documents/IVA%20manual%20may%202009.pdf


[Edited on 14/5/11 by snowy2]

oddly the requirement for the repeater to be fitted to the middle third of your car seems to have been ignored!!!

I have checked all my cars (3 kits one tin top) and all of the lights seem to be able to be seen beyond the required angles of visibility, thus implying that these are minimum requirements and not absolute requirements.

so it seems that the IVA is as arbitrary in some respects as the MOT is (I am an MOT tester and have quite a wide remit on pass/fail on some items)