MOT Fail

Hi guys,

Here's my MOT from the other day. A few things to sort out, but the biggies are my rear cross-member which has two small holes, and the hand brake. Was wondering what people thought of the cross-member problem, whether it would be a cut out the bad section and replace job, or a plate could go on top, perhaps both sides. The holes aren't corroded any more, I got rid of the rot and repainted them ages ago. I'm going to try and fix the advisories this weekend too, well, apart from the muddy and rusty vehicle underside, which will have to wait for some nicer weather!

Any ideas?

Reason(s) for refusal to issue Certificate
Registration plate lamp not working (1.1.5c)
Rear fog lamp tell tale not working (1.1.6e)
Hazard warning tell tale not working correctly (1.5.A4b)
Parking brake lever has no reserve travel (3.1.6b)
Rear cross member x 2 Vehicle structure excessively corroded within 30cm of towbar mounting (6.6.6)
Parking brake efficiency below requirements (3.7.B.1b) **DANGEROUS**
Advisory Notice issued
Centre Exhaust has a minor leak of exhaust gases (7.1.2a)
Offside Front wheel bearing has slight play (2.5.A.3c)
Steering system has slight free play detected at steering wheel (2.2.A.1a)
Oil leak
Rear under side of vehicle rusty and muddy

Sure you have done this but if you have a real good poke about on the inside of the xmember and remove all loose and flakey stuff you may get a shock. I know I did.... it was paper thin in places. As you know they rust from the inside out so chances are its all quite rotton even under your previous work.
Is cutting out with an angle grinder an option? Cant say I have seen any plates welded onto/over bad bits. Seems practical to 'remove the cause' rather than paper over it. Besides, will look nicer when smoothed off and painted.
My MOT is next Friday so save me a place on Saturday morning to list my faults

tombardier said:

Rear cross member x 2 Vehicle structure excessively corroded within 30cm of towbar mounting (6.6.6)

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Take the tow bar off for the MOT!!! Which cross member are we talking about, the one right on the back that you can see? My 110 has corosion issues on the crossmember in front of the fuel tank, but i dont know if a 90 has this crossmember. Eather way, the tanks not there so at least you can get at it! Can you weld?

tombardier said:

Parking brake lever has no reserve travel (3.1.6b)

Click to expand...

Change the cable, take the propshaft and drum off, clean out the mechanism with WD-40. Wont take long and will be alot better.

Well. It's definitely the rear cross member at the back of the vehicle. The big open 3 side box section one, and it of course needs doing, whether the towbar is there or not Luckily I can weld, and I have a MIG and an Arc welder. I think I'll use the sticks for this, as it's quite nice thick metal.

regarding the handbrake. I put a brand new cable on, which seems to be a bit too long, but I haven't tried the adjuster on the drum yet. The old cable would pull up nice and tight, but the brake didn't seem to be operating at all, as in, literally _no_ resistance despite the cable being tight at 4-5 clicks max. I've got a couple of 9/16ths spanners now, so I should be ok to get the prop shaft off and dig around inside and see why the brake isn't working.

The hazard switch has completely broken up inside, so I need a new one of those.. Quite expensive for a poxy switch with a light bulb inside it! £17.51 from paddocks with economy postage!.. I can get one on fleabay for £13.25 though, so I'll go with that. Not sure how the fog lamp tell tale works, but i swapped the bulb on the instrument panel, and that still doesn't light up ..along with my main dipped beam, diff-lock, parking brake, seat belt and heater bulbs... The important ones light up though like oil pressure, glow plugs, main beam, battery, so I'm happy with that.

well as were doing mot failures heres mine from thursday and i cant weld and i dont have the stuff to weld lol

1 near side rear lamp not working (1.3.2a)

2 offside front panhard rod excessive play (2.4.g.3)

3 offside center 2 point s , suspensions component mounting prescribes exessivley corroded (2.4.a.2)

4 nearside center 2 point s , suspensions component mounting prescribes exessivley corroded (2.4.a.2)

5 offside rear chasis , suspensions component mounting prescribes exessivley corroded (2.4.a.2)

6 nearside exhaust mount missing (7.1.1b)

7 nearside rear lower shock absorber excessivley worn linkage (2.7.4)


other then that verything else was ok lmao

i'm not experienced enough with welding/fabrication to tackle suspension mounts, so i'm lucky i've just got the rear cross-member to do! would much rather have a garage do something so critical to safety anyway don't want to end up like that chap who went in to the river with his kids!

im considering paying to go on a welding course , the garage want to charge me £250 and thats at mates rates other punter it would be 400

right, I jus used the adjuster on the hand brake, and it's now fantastic! Three clicks and it effortlessly holds it on quite a steep hill. I _think_ i've got the adjustment just right. There's a small amount of play before the first click, but you can feel it start working just before the first click if you're moving slightly. Will check the manual before I take it for a longer drive. Also I've sorted out the steering box and removed most of the play in it. There's a little bit of play in my UJ's on the steering column, so I'll replace them at some point, but it feels fantastic compared to how it was

Will have to buy a new hazard switch, and no idea how to fix the fog light tell-tale. the registration plate lamp seems to be quite corroded on the inside, so perhaps a new one of those as well.

is the adjuster easy to find or does it require a bit of work? im thinking i need to do the same on mine, td5 110

top of the steering box. front drivers side corner of the engine bay. Next to the bit bolt for the lubricant reservoir, there is a big nut, with a flat head screw/bolt, in the middle. Loosen the big nut off, and screw in the adjuster in the middle before locking the nut again.

please search for information on the adjustment, as going too far could be disastrous

Like above - just remove the tow bar - would not go around towing heavy things when (not advised) you refit it

As for hand brake - 'a garage' failed mine because there was play in the drive train, which they said was unaceptable, as they had not come accross transmission brakes before - called VOSA and reported them - they soon changed there minds.

As for the lights - i suspect one of the plugs has come off the back of the dash

Also how can they put an advisory on a Land Rover that it is muddy! Is he taking the ****!

if yu can't get the foglamp telltaill to work just run a wire from the foglamp to a bulbholder in the dash then when the foglamps on the bulb will light up and yu have a working telltail. ya can always bin it after the MOT.

-Defender110- said:

is the adjuster easy to find or does it require a bit of work? im thinking i need to do the same on mine, td5 110

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uhm, I was thinking of the steering adjuster when I replied to this before, but reading again I think you mean the hand brake adjuster? it's dead easy to find. it's in the passenger side of the hand brake drum at the back of the gearbox. About half way down, and pointing towards the front of the vehicle it works in a funny way, going tight as your turning it and then loose again. there are better threads on the exact way to adjust it.

it easy enough once you know where it is to take out the drivers seat, and reach over with a 13mm spanner rather than get underneath the vehicle and do it from the passenger side.

well, it looks like my cross-member is a lot worse than I originally thought. I've managed to poke several holes in it, on each side where the chassis meets the cross member. I've cut out some holes on one side, and tried welding some plates in, but I think all my arc welding sticks are damp from being in the shed, so it was a bit of a nightmare. It was getting dark so I decided to leave it how it was and dig out the MIG tomorrow morning. I might actually get it done professionally though, as the bad patches are about 6 inches across, near the bottom, stretching up about halfway up the cross member. it wasn't nearly that bad when i painted the crossmember with hammerite

i was wondering. the hazard switch has a light in it. The switch i've just ordered should have that working, but if the indicator light doesn't work on the instrument panel, is that still a fail for the MOT, or is the light in the switch enough?

i'll stick some photos up tomorrow of my cross-member. I'm thinking that a new one might be on the cards, not that i can afford that!

i doubt there are many garages that'll do it this cheaply:

defender 90 rear crossmember fully fitted on eBay (end time 21-Feb-10 18:39:03 GMT)

thanks to MrJC for the tip in this thread

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f7/replace-rear-crossmember-can-i-ask-audience-95108.html

I hope it doesn't come to that!

Weld the fooker ya self. just unbolt the rear tub and lift it 6 inches. cut old crossmember off. Then lower tub back down bolt new crossmember to the tub and check it's sitting level and square. Then tack it in place & unbolt the tub. The lifting the tub as high as possible finish welding the crossmember in place.

can confirm that all cables and plugs are attached to the back of the dash warning light panel. The plastic circuit board thing is pretty knackered looking. I can't believe how expensive it is to get a replacement warning light panel. This is the cheapest I can find, and I've seen them going up to £130! Does anyone know if you can just buy the circuit board bit?

land rover defender dash warning lamps AMR2628 on eBay (end time 01-Mar-10 23:52:32 GMT)

redhand said:

Weld the fooker ya self. just unbolt the rear tub and lift it 6 inches. cut old crossmember off. Then lower tub back down bolt new crossmember to the tub and check it's sitting level and square. Then tack it in place & unbolt the tub. The lifting the tub as high as possible finish welding the crossmember in place.

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I like welding, but I'm not _that_ confident. If I can't get some plates in place on the bad bits, then I'm definitely not going to try welding the whole thing on!

I'm tempted though (and thanks for making it sound so easy )

here was my mot result. PASSED no adviserys do you not check basic things like lights,, turn up with something as silly as that and mr tester is going to think you cant be arsed and look deeper.are your suspension mounts really that bad. do they need welding. some over zealous testers will call bad surface rust excessive needing no more than a good wire brush and coat of paint.and if suspension mounts are that bad surely this is dangerous