Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all. Van has just failed it’s MOT due to a hole in the nearside doorstep. Bit surprised by this as didn’t think it would be classed as structural or near enough to seat belt points etc. Anyone else had a fail for this? Cheers, John.

if you had cleaned it up and painted it it would not be a rusty hole.

its on the boarder line apparently some testers fail them others don't

Steps have been brought into the test in the last year or 2 so should be a fail

Cheers guys. Trust the garage, just wanted to double check as had previously been told by someone it shouldn’t be a problem. Bit of welding it is then!

davidoft1 wrote:Steps have been brought into the test in the last year or 2 so should be a fail

mine passed just last week with holes although they are not big and they are cleaned and painted but they are not origional holes they are made by corrosion.

pics here of both my vans which have both passed in the last year with these steps.

https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p ... p#p8225332" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... al-changes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yep I agree it's specifically in the test now, I didn't say it wasn't but what's a fail seems not black and white.

T3s don't have a cab, therefore can't have cab steps. They're just "steps", and count as part of the floor. The fail criteria is "excessively deteriorated" which is open to wild variations in interpretation, but shouldn't be rejected unless they're likely to cause injury, or affect safety or control of the vehicle.
I asked my MoT tester friend and that's the criteria he would apply.

NB: from Appendix A;

 Failure criteria not within ‘prescribed areas’

Structural fractures, deformation or corrosion not within a prescribed area is covered in Section 6 of this inspection manual.

You should only reject these defects if:

braking or steering is adversely affected due to structural misalignment

The strength or continuity of a main load-bearing structural member is seriously reduced

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

If it’s rotten it’s a fail, if it’s not it isn’t, they are trying to make any type corrosion into a fail by the looks of it

davidoft1 wrote:If it’s rotten it’s a fail, if it’s not it isn’t

Lol, they should have had you write the manual, and saved everyone an awful lot of confusion, time and money!

ajsimmo wrote:

davidoft1 wrote:If it’s rotten it’s a fail, if it’s not it isn’t

Lol, they should have had you write the manual, and saved everyone an awful lot of confusion, time and money!

I’ll email my interpretation and see how they like it

ajsimmo wrote:T3s don't have a cab, therefore can't have cab steps. They're just "steps", and count as part of the floor. The fail criteria is "excessively deteriorated" which is open to wild variations in interpretation, but shouldn't be rejected unless they're likely to cause injury, or affect safety or control of the vehicle.
I asked my MoT tester friend and that's the criteria he would apply.

NB: from Appendix A;

 Failure criteria not within ‘prescribed areas’

Structural fractures, deformation or corrosion not within a prescribed area is covered in Section 6 of this inspection manual.

You should only reject these defects if:

braking or steering is adversely affected due to structural misalignment

The strength or continuity of a main load-bearing structural member is seriously reduced

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

My friendly MOT man added the point that if the so called 'steps' are dangerous for driver or passenger and likely to collapse when trodden on he would see them as a fail. Seemed fair enough.

Garage have classes it as excessive deterioration of the floor and a structural issue - it sits on the step just as it moves up and becomes the arch, so you can see it just above the step mat. Only issue so could have been worse!

mariner wrote:Garage have classes it as excessive deterioration of the floor and a structural issue - it sits on the step just as it moves up and becomes the arch, so you can see it just above the step mat. Only issue so could have been worse!

That’s a fail area regardless of the step, it’s close enough (just) to the chassis, shocks, steering etc

Get a cone drill and enlarge the rusty holes to look like factory drilled holes, within reason. Wire brush surrounding area (above and below step) + bit of Rustoleum, job done.