CATs & SVA

[CorseChris]

To answer Chris Richard's question on the V6 thread, I had a look at the SVA manual last night and it says (and I paraphrase);

CAT test required if the effective date of manufacture is

i). Vehices that are listed in the "In service Exhaust Emissions Standards for Road Vehicles" 1st Aug 92 to 31 July 95 (Basically, if the donor had a cat, you need one too).

ii). All vehicles from from 1st Aug 95

Effective date is defined as;

1st Jan immediately preceding date of manufacture of donor engine. This date needs to be proven either with the donor V5 or a certificate of manufacture from the original engine manufacturer.

If the date of manufacture crosses a critical boundary, then the more stringent test will apply.

If effective date cannot be determined, it is assumed to be 1 Aug 97.

So, make sure you get the V5 for your donor engine if you can.

Further readings from the Gospel According to the Minister of Transport can be had if required.

Another reason why I decided to fit a TC in my Corse to get it legal :)


Chris

[chris.richard]

Thanks for the info.
If your kit car is already registered, it won't have to go through an SVA just because you change the engine, will it? My V5 has the year of manufacture as 1986 (year of original donor Beta), the car as a Transformer hf2000. It was a 1996 kit registered in 1997.
If I notify Swansea of the new engine capacity and engine number, would it necessitate an SVA?
Any ideas?

[CorseChris]

Chris,

One of the biggest failings of the SVA seems that once a car has passed a test, you can do what you like. This seems to be confirmed by all the stories of testers who have a box of bits to help cars pass.

As far as changing the engine after it's been registered, I plan to do just that and all I intend to do is send off the V5 with the new engine number and capacity. It's no different to swapping the engine on a production car as far as I can tell. I suspect that if we dig really deep we will find all sorts of things we shouldn't be doing. I don't intend to go digging myself!

My main reason for starting with the TC are simply that my pile 'o' parts included everything bar a water pump to build a TC with new bearings, pistons, rings, oil pump, cams, dizzy, gaskets etc etc. It even included a brand new Hawk exhaust. Saved me a fortune at this stage.

Chris

[chris.richard]

Yeah, mum's the word!

However, if the engine had a lambda sensor or similar, would the ECU get confused if it was expecting catalysed levels of emissions? Hmmm.

[CorseChris]

No problem running a lambda equipped car with no cat as the probe is pre-cat. There were a few that had a probe but no cat anyway - some of the early Volvo 340s were like that I think. There's always a chance you might get a stroppy MOT tester that insists it should have a CAT if it has a lambda but with luck you can probably blag your way out of that one. If the car has an age - related plate you are fine, if it's a Q you can probably get it past on "visible smoke" only.

[Bricol]

Greetings - as an ex-stratos owner and maybe again . .

emissions testing has come up on the Caterham forums - the answer there was along the lines of:

Factory built cars with all new bits - emissions testing every MOT - needs a CAT

Kit built of any age inc. those with new bits up to a certain cut-off - once passed SVa no emmisions test - visisble smoke only

After cut-off - full test

I just don't know the cut-off - should be in the MOT manual.

Bri

[GMC]

Just to let ye know of my problem here in Ireland, just when I paid my 4250 Euro (approx £2600 str.) to import the car yesterday, I was too honest and told them the car was built in 1994, now I find out today that the car must be fitted with a cat. Here is makes no difference what engine is fitted , just the year of the car. If I just had told the the car was built in 1993 . No cat !!! So now I am faced with a problem How do I get the Fiat twin cam to pass the emmision test ? Looks like my car may not be on the road this year !:mad:

[thomas]

The problems in Switzerland with SVA are similar. A newly built kit has to pass the same tests for exhaust noise and pollution levels as a normal production car for type approval.

This means, you have to do a drive-by noise test (the limits are quite strict, I don't think you can make it with a single silencer as in the original design of the hawk) and you have to pass an emission test which will set you back about 1500 £ (of course you need a catalytic exhaust system to pass the test).

I'm not sure about the situation in the UK. I had a look into the SVA procedure and with an amateur built car you have to pass the standard SVA only. You don't have to give "evidence of compliance with type-approval standard" then (independent of the engine you use) but I don't know what the standard procedure is exactly.

Does anybody have a copy of the SVA inspection manual or even passed a training cours at the DETR (offered at no cost, at least for inspectors of other states who want an authorisation to carry out the same tests)?

[rutthenut]

Steve Hole (from Kit Car magazine) now runs a web site at www.totalkitcar.com and I think this has a whole series of information on what is needed in getting a kit car registered. Not sure of the level of detail though, but kit builders should find this of some interest in understanding the paper trail.