Ticketed for another year!!

[superloopy]

My 1995 Xantia TD SX .... eventually got through on retest

LOTS of work needed though ... osf suspension bush (changed the arm, it was easier), welding to nsr and osf sills (£80) and a sidelight bulb (down to me not checking!).

The rear brake 'imbalance' was sorted by a cleanup of the pistons. Everything looked ok but that MOT imbalance 'check' is going to be a killer in future for any older cars. It's designed to get us off the road in my opinion. The xantia uses virtually no rear brake in normal use as i understand unless the car is loaded. The testers have no idea about this.

Advisories against both front tyres being scrubbed at the shoulder but given that she's had two new balljoints AND a wishbone swapout this year then i think it's about time she got a couple of new tyres and a laser tracking session

Good for another years lugging the lawnmowers around eh ... i've a 96yr old M-I-L who used to cut her own grass until a couple of years ago, can't see me doing that at 94!! Or even reaching anywhere near that ...

[chinkostu]

Funnily enough mines got advisories on the tyres being low on the inside edges but tracks straight and true!

As for the brake imbalance, it might be worth finding a tester who knows the cars. I'm lucky that mine was tested at a specialist up the road, who had it on high to test the brakes and waxed lyrical about the one he owned many moons ago!

[RichardW]

Don't think there has been any change to brake imbalance, it's always been there - this is side to side remember, not front to back. Xantia rear brakes do more than you think - try driving one with gas in the rear brake lines, and see how much the rear rises and the front dives on braking

[Northern_Mike]

My 1995 Xantia TD SX .... eventually got through on retest

LOTS of work needed though ... osf suspension bush (changed the arm), welding to nsr and osf sills (£80) and a sidelight bulb (down to me not checking!).

The rear brake 'imbalance' was sorted by a cleanup of the pistons. Everything looked ok but that MOT imbalance 'check' is going to be a killer in future for any older cars. It's designed to get us off the road in my opinion. The xantia uses virtually no rear brake in normal use as i understand unless the car is loaded.

Brake imbalance is side-side, not from to rear. It will have been your sticking pistons that caused your failure, nothing to do with the Xantia setup. I've had other cars fail with brake imbalance on both front and rear but never a Xantia.

Never had a problem with Xantia rear brakes failing an MOT myself. I never even put any weight in the rear..

[superloopy]

My understanding is that the testing 'tolerances' for rear brake imbalance have been tightened up on recently ... hence a lot more failures. I've never had a problem with this until this year.

[RichardW]

I stand corrected, there has been a change to the imbalance criteria - appears it was 25% for steered axles only previously, now 30% for all axles. There was trouble after they brought it in with the computer calculating it wrongly, so this has been updated (Dec 2013)

[Stickyfinger]

2 Bags of sand and 3 spare wheels in the boot tomorrow then ....but does it work ?

[chinkostu]

If the tester has any sense they'll stick the suspension up!

[Stickyfinger]

can you ask them to do that ?

[Northern_Mike]

2 Bags of sand and 3 spare wheels in the boot tomorrow then ....but does it work ?

I think this is a myth. I've taken, I think 10 Xantias now for MOT, never loaded a boot, never had a problem apart from a snapped handbrake cable.

The imbalance is side-side not front to rear.. if the brakes are in good order they will be fine.

Just remind your tester that the handbrake is on the front... Last time on my last V6, mine forgot and came out to me it to tell me it wasn't working. I reminded him then he just did a rolling brake test by driving it across the yard with the deceleration meter thing in the car instead of buggering about it rollers. It passed of course.



Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[superloopy]

Thanks RichardW... that confirms my thought. Never a problem in previous tests because it was never a testable item! Will need to clean up the rear brakes more often [emoji4]

[Stickyfinger]

No worries, BUT he did test the handbrake in the car park to get reading he was happy with.

[superloopy]

Well done, that man [emoji4]

Feels good eh ...

[Stickyfinger]

sure does, its been a long and strange road getting to this point, the tester was "interested" in the car which helps ....add to that its a local country garage he invited me under the car with him, talking me thru what he was doing during the test which was fun

[superloopy]

Thats where i went wrong. Theres no interested parties up here. The guy had no idea what he was testing other than 'it's an old'un isn't it'... totally inept. No idea that the handbrake was on the front either, duh!