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The car is booked in for an MOT this weekend and while giving it a once over I remembered the middle rear belt is jammed and won't extend at all (forgotten due to it being rare I have more than 2 people in and it spends 90% of its time with the rear seats folded to get a bike in).
I assume this will fail, and I don't have time this week to find and fit a replacement rear seat back. Will the car pass with the entire rear seat bench removed as a temporary work around until I can fix it properly?
I've mot'd my Berlingo without it's rear seats for years now. Should be sweet.
If it's fitted it must work, is what they say I believe.
If it’s fitted it must work, is what they say I believe
Got to agree - mine failed on a broken indicator on the door mirror.. its about a cm square!
Can you get to the reel and unbolt it? My sister's car had a duff belt and the ratchet had to be at just the right angle to work. Unbolting it and moving it about freed it up.
The car will be tested as presented.
If the rear seats are folded down, the tester isn’t allowed to put them up to check the belts.
Like kayak above, my Renault scenic also has the seats removed and it passes the mot.
50/50
We've got my OH's car through its mot the last few years after cutting the middle seatbelt out. Only thing the mot tester said was he could likewise also pass it without a windscreen, but not a chipped windscreen!
My C-max has been passed without rear seats before, but has also been failed like that.
Iirc that only applies to the middle seat, the front seats and two outer seats in the back have to have belts fitted but that might be in the construction and use regs not mot test. The wording boils down to the other 4 seats must have belts, whereas the middle seat only counts as a seat if it has a belt.
I'm gonna say something totally crazy.
Why don't you get the frigging seat belt fixed?
I’m gonna say something totally crazy.Why don’t you get the frigging seat belt fixed.
It is pretty crazy to reply to the OP apparently without reading it 😉
[b]forgotten due to it being rare I have more than 2 people in [/b]and it spends 90% of its time with the rear seats folded to get a bike in).I assume this will fail, and I [b]don’t have time this week to find and fit a replacement[/b]
Forgotten to run a safe and legal car?
OK then.
What if they sell it on with out disclosing the defects?
My front passenger seat (VW T4) was removed for over 2 years as I used to carry a lockable tool chest/safe, bolted onto the seat studs.
The front passenger seatbelt wasn’t tested in 2 MOTs as there was no seat to clip it into.
(It was held within a Velcro strap with the curtains, which wasn’t removed)
It really pisses me off when people try to penny pinch, the MOT is a really rudimentary safety test.
Forgotten to run a safe and legal car?OK then.
Perfectly safe and perfectly legal if nobody sits in that seat.
What if they sell it on with out disclosing the defects?
Yeah good point 🙄
Are there any other fictional scenarios that would like to dream up and then criticise the OP for ?
It really pisses me off when people try to penny pinch, the MOT is a really rudimentary safety test
Is that aimed at me or the OP ?
Neither of us have mentioned money or trying to avoid spending it.
That’s just you dreaming up scenarios again.
The op could fix the frigging seat belts? Makes you wonder what other basic and easily solved problems the car has that have been neglected.
Perfectly safe and perfectly legal if nobody sits in that seat.
Really. Really?
Perfectly safe and perfectly legal if nobody sits in that seat.
Really. Really?
Explain how it’s unsafe or illegal then ?
Oh jebus.
Fix the ****ing defect.
Thought not.
It's a malfunctioning or defective safety mechanism.
It's therefore an MOT fail.
It makes no odds whatsoever whether you (or any one else) intend to sit in that particular chair.
And it's not like it's an expensive thing to fix anyway unless you you are the type to drive a 60k car and refuse to pay for tyres that cost more than forty quid.
It makes no odds whatsoever whether you (or any one else) intend to sit in that particular chair.
Of course it does. It’s only unsafe if someone sits in the seat.
Otherwise it’s a perfectly safe empty seat.
unless you you are the type to drive a 60k car and refuse to pay for tyres that cost more than forty quid.
No, I’m not.
I do have a rear seat in my camper that has no seatbelts at all though.
It’s 100% safe obviously, as nobody ever sits in those seats while the vehicle is moving.
There has recently been a load of changes to the mot. I'm fairly sure it would have passed but I wouldn't be now. My van failed because it had a towbar fitted with no electrics - because I use a high mounted bike carrier which doesn't obscure lights and I don't tow- but due to changes it was a fail and had to come off.
Forgotten to run a safe and legal car?
OK then.
What if they sell it on with out disclosing the defects?
Way to take a huge leap from the original described situation...
The OP isn't asking about whether it's morally right to sell on a car with a known safety defect, but then you knew that.
My last MoT failed initially with a cracked wing mirror indicator lens (spookily similar to DezB), hardly a safety issue (it still worked) and I only got it done as I had to under the new rules.
If I had a faulty seat belt and could temp remove the seats in order to pass the MoT and then get it sorted out soon after then why not? He's not planning to strap a child in there in the meantime.
Jesus.
- I agree it needs fixing (at no point have I denied that or said that I'm not going to fix it) but I'm really struggling to see how's it's unsafe if I don't let anyone ride in that seat.
- It's a £3k Octavia and has decent branded tyres and is well maintained mechanically. No other 'basic problems' have been neglected.
- It really is a leap to think this says so much about my morals that I'd be trying to deceive a hypothetical buyer about a small fault.
Back in the real world, thanks for the more helpful replies. I'll remove the seat back for the MOT and then next week look at sourcing a replacement belt reel or seat back.
It’s worth trying onbolting the bottom end of the seatbelt to allow some slack by the way.
This may allow the seatbelt enough slack to undo the reel lock and then work normally.
Way to take a huge leap from the original described situation…
Really wasn't even worth a response imo!
had an mot last week and i had an advisory for rear seat belts:
Monitor and repair if necessary (advisories):
rear seat belts obstructed and seats down (full boot) etc
Randomly, when we had small kids (and thus child seats), I was told that the MOT didnt test the belts where the seats were installed!! This was because they weren't allowed to remove the child seat in case they refitted it incorrectly.
Strangely enough, I took the seats out, and had them retest the belts!
Fold down the seats.
They wont extend them nad it'll be listed as untested.
Did this a couple of months ago.
Can you remove the seat and have the back pointing upwards? It should release the inertia doodle and make the seatbelt work again. I had similar with my previous Berlingo...seat spent it's life folded and belt wouldn't return to the point I couldn't lift seat back to upright position. Had to remove seat and rest it on the back so the folded back was upright, seatbelt unclicked and worked again.