75ZT Community

My 75 goes for it's 1st MOT, since I've owned it, today.

Am somewhat dubious about it's last MOT, given it was carried out by the seller and what I've had to do to it in the last year....

Spent the weekend tinkering with the handbrake, fitting a new washer bottle, new discs and pads on the front and re-soldering the number plate light.

Having new brake pipes fitted today and hopefully that will see her through.

So finger's crossed.

Like to take the opportunity to thank BigRuss, JonJon77, Andy Willi and Zeb for helping me keep Madge on the road.

Chris

Everything crossed.

Well almost everything crossed unless you want me to crash!

She failed




On headlamp aim too high

Long list of advisories for me to work through, but she has a new MOT

Oh, well done. What are the advisories?

One of mine got a nice new shiny ticket on Saturday too. The guy I go to, showed me an Alfa he had just changed the gearbox on. Similar suspension setup on the front, but the trailing arm bushes are almost impossible to replace. He said the 75 was way easier!

My 8 advisories

1) O/S/F Tyre Near Legal Limit - agreed - tyre is almost bald on outer edge due to tracking being out after new bushes and lower arms - was actually supposed to be swapped out but mechanic forgot
2 to 4) N/S/F, O/S/R and N/S/R Tyre Near Legal Limit - totally disagree - approx 4mm across whole width of tyre in each case
5) Rear (silencer) exhaust has part of the system slightly deteriorated - outer skin of the silencer is loose
6) Air bag light on - driver's side sill sensor is wet - need to get seat out and dry this area out then clean the contacts
7) Power steering belt has slight fraying
8) Slight blue smoke at tickover - engine must have been cold as I am aware it does this, but never when warm

So nothing major really. I know the tyres, bar the one, are actually OK to get me through to winter, when I'll be putting my winter tyres back on anyway. The Power Steering belt is the only real surprise and not sure how competent I feel at doing that one. Everything else I already knew about.

To be fair to the MOT tester, the legal limit is 3mm so 4mm could be classed as "near legal limit". Probably written on the certificate as a heads-up for owners who perhaps aren't as savvy at looking after their cars.

Outer skin on exhaust silencer shouldn't be too much of a worry as they are all double-skinned anyhow. Remove any loose metal "shrapnel" perhaps to avoid causing a problem to others on the road but until it rusts through completely it'll probably go a more thousand miles yet

I thought the legal limit was 1.6mm across the width of the tread

PaulT wrote:I thought the legal limit was 1.6mm across the width of the tread

The legal limit for minimum depth of the tread on your tyres is 1.6 millimetres, across the central ¾ of the tread around the complete circumference of the tyre.

The one I thought would have failed is only below the limit on the outer edge, hence why only an advisory, but the others have loads of life left. I guess they wouldn't last til next MOT, so maybe that is why they are an advisory?

all in all,l dont think thats to bad chris.the belt does look like it might be a bit tight to get to.a knucle rasher too

Of course the legal limit is 1.6mm. I dunno where I got 3mm from Must have been having an off-moment Sorry...

Simon, glad it ain't 3mm, but there is a lot of debate about 1.6mm being too little tread. I believe 2mm has been discussed as a legal minimum across Europe. Maybe that is where you got it from??

Chris

Jon

Am pleased with the result to be honest. The tyres aren't a problem, as I have the 2 I bought off you, having switched mine onto the wheels I bought off you so as to keep 4 matching tyres.

Looks a tight fit for the power steering belt, but also am not sure what else is involved? How do you tension it etc?

Will have a good look at it this weekend. If it's failure was likely they wouldn't have passed it, so I guess I have some time to get it sorted.

I have never noticed it smoke at tickover, nor has anyone ever pointed it out to me. So am guessing either it was a little choked up as I haven't taken it out much lately or else it was running cold for the MOT?

SpongeBob wrote:Of course the legal limit is 1.6mm. I dunno where I got 3mm from Must have been having an off-moment Sorry...

1.6mm is the legal limit. But 3mm are often recommended as the safety limit for summer tires (and 4mm for the winter ones).

Hi Chris,

Not bad at all - the headlight one made me smile as my first did the same on both headlights on its second ever MOT.

As has been said the rest of them look not too bad, is yours a diesel? Aux belt is tricky due to lack of access but is doable.

Best,

Jake

Jürgen wrote:1.6mm is the legal limit. But 3mm are often recommended as the safety limit for summer tires (and 4mm for the winter ones).

Thanks Jürgen,

I knew I had read it somewhere and am sure Simon will be please he's not going mad.

JakeWilson wrote:Hi Chris,

Not bad at all - the headlight one made me smile as my first did the same on both headlights on its second ever MOT.

As has been said the rest of them look not too bad, is yours a diesel? Aux belt is tricky due to lack of access but is doable.

Best,

Jake

Yes, tis a diesel.

Am going to have a good look at what's involved this weekend and will also have a chat with Russ, as I'm sure he'll have done a couple in the past.

Does look very tight down the side of the engine, probably a case of having to remove the engine mount on that side etc to be able to get to everything.

As I say, it obviously isn't critical as it was only an advisory, so I can afford to have a good look at it before I dive in.

There has been a lot of discussion on the change of limits, but I read somewhere it's unlikely to change unless everywhere in the world changes at the same time, because all the tyre moulds would need to be modified to change the wear limit bars.