well, the time is near! I have two cars, and one i have missed the MOT for it, oope, but the Stilo is more important so im booking it in today hopefully for this week.

Anyway, I have a couple of questions. My passenger side headlamp adjuster isnt working, and the main beam is pointing up in position 3. Can i manually adjust this down for the mot to position 0?

Next, my rear discs are definately bad, i can hear them scraping now, but the handbrake works well (on six notches now though) and holds the car well on a hill, still likely to fail? I have spare discs and pads as I was hoping to fit before MOT, but i am thinking worst case sticky caliper or calipers, how much are these generally for the Stilo?

thats it i think, those two things are all that bother me. the car drives brill, stops very well, everything works etc no smoke and so on. I am a big worrier when it comes to MOT as I dont trust garages in general, and I am being forced by time to take it to a garage that sometimes, can be expensive (although recently they have proved good to friends).

hope you can help, cheers chaps!

You should be able to get two rear calipers for less than £100. Obviously that will be an exchange for your old ones, so plan it so you have the old ones off when you go to pick up new ones.

Clivvy said:

Anyway, I have a couple of questions. My passenger side headlamp adjuster isnt working, and the main beam is pointing up in position 3. Can i manually adjust this down for the mot to position 0?

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3 should be lower than 0

the adjuster uses similar vw part there was a recent thread on this giving the vw light adjuster part number , as be better to get motor than faff about with those plastic adjuster bolts that are liable to snap and also you have to play around later when you do get an light motor..yes 3 is lowest setting for headlights..
also if you play around with brakes close to mot time make sure you have good run to bed them in..few years back I changed disc and pads on rear just before mot time and it failed chap said take it for little run with handbrake slightly on do not have them glowing red just enough to bed pads in slightly and did this nipped back and it passed...thankfully this year it flew through with no advisories or faults ..good luck hope you get that little bit of mot paper with no issues

I had my MOT last Friday there, only advisory was the NSF tyre getting close to legal limit. Before the MOT though my nearside headlight adjuster stopped working, it now stays in the lowest setting (3), I just set the offside to the lowest setting as well so they're even. The MOT guy (he was sound) didn't mention anything about it, not on the MOT cert either.

EDIT: There's a company on eBay the Richy Draper showed me who offer two brand new rear calipers for I think was £75. If you've got enough time before MOT is due get the reardiscs/ pads changed and bed them in, that's what I did, the handbrake is perfect now too holding firm on two clicks.

dave said:

3 should be lower than 0

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:yeahthat: 3 is lowest possition not highest.

I believe the MOT tester is supposed to set any interior manual adjuster to 0 for the beam alignment part of the test. Would seem to be the logical way to do it anyway, otherwise anyone with high, dazzling beams would set it to 3 just for the test.
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Davren said:

I believe the MOT tester is supposed to set any interior manual adjuster to 0 for the beam alignment part of the test. Would seem to be the logical way to do it anyway, otherwise anyone with high, dazzling beams would set it to 3 just for the test.
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wouldn't he have to check what's in your boot first

dave said:

wouldn't he have to check what's in your boot first

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Exactly what I has thinking. My understanding it they check pattern, and if that's a pass they check that both levels are the same and within a certain height range.

the manual says position 0 is normal -1 to 2 people in the car. I have had to book the car in for this friday, so I will have to adjust manually, or just set it so both are the same and see what happens...so, when i set my lights to 0, the beam goes DOWN, not up..

as for the brakes, although the handbrake is on a good 6 clicks, its holding very firm on a hill, so MAYBE it will be ok. Worst case is new discs, pads (which i have) and new calipers. I believe the handbrake cabels to be good due to the handbrake operating perfectly.

gulp.

NO!

At 0 the beam goes UP to its HIGHEST possition!

Clivvy said:

the manual says position 0 is normal -1 to 2 people in the car.

Click to expand...

that's right the more people and weight added to the car the more you should lower the headlights, so 3 will be lowest used when 2-3 adults are in the back and boot is full

Poo. I just spent all evening attempting to adjust my headlamp aim. Found the motors still whirring, so tried to get t it and got myself into a right bloomin mare of a job. Anyway, end result is I didn't achieve anything.

So, when my lights are on, the passenger side can be heard whirring away, on and off, with no actual adjustment happening....what's the issue, motor or headlamp unit?

I think my car will be failing the mot tomorrow...

not sure how a stilo one fits but on some cars there is a ball end on the motor that pops out of its socket on the headlight

Motor has had it, get a replacement and fit it and all will be well. 20min job

OK, I'll get one ordered today and hope they don't fail it on the mot, although in saying that my plastic adjuster things seemed OK and I did attempt to adjust them, so maybe the garage can do that if needs be...

poo, failed, as expected with a couple of surprises:

Offside Rear metal to metal Brake pad(s) less than 1.5 mm thick (3.5.1g) **DANGEROUS**
Nearside Headlamp aim too high and too far to the right. (1.8)
Offside Front inside Road wheel bead rim badly distorted (4.2.A.1a)
Due to rear pads Brake performance not tested (3.7)
Service brake efficiency below requirements (3.7.A.9)
Parking brake efficiency below requirements (3.7.A.10)
Advisory Notice issued
Most Brake hose has slight corrosion to ferrules (3.6.B.4e)
Engine undertray loose

brakes I know about and already bought new discs and pads but im expecting maybe new caliper/calipers. Obviously that affects handbrake etc and the headlamp i know about. The wheel however, is a bugger. so, if they cant fix that, i need to source a new wheel, arrrgghghgh

This is pretty minor stuff compared to 'widespread structural corrosion' and some other fail reasons I've had over the years

Let's just look on the bright side and say that with new pads/discs if necessary, the calipers will probably work fine. At least try replacing the pads/discs first. I recall with the Stilo a strange arrangement where the pistons on the two sides wind in opposite directions to retract them. Maybe do a search here first before you do the job. Slacken off the handbrake cable before you start and only re-tighten it after the calipers have had a chance to self-adjust after some foot braking.

The headlights - take them out and investigate - get the motors you've ordered attached properly, they should be lifting the beam to the 0 position and lowering it to the 3 position, and of course, turning the adjustment screws should adjust the beam (horizontally and vertically).

You can set headlights quite nicely against a garage door, if you have a flat driveway. Or you can use the wall of a warehouse and their disused carpark First check that the bulbs are fitted correctly - a wonky bulb will throw out the beam adjustment.

Drive up close to the door (close as possible) and use masking tape to mark the centre of each beam pattern - it's the centre point of the \_ shape. Using a measuring tape, check the beam centres are the same distance apart as the headlight lens centres on the car.

Reverse the car about 5 metres from the door (or wall), and watch where the beam centres move. They should not move horizontally (check the distance between centres again), but should drop about 5cm (1%) vertically. Adjust the screws to achieve this.

If you can, back up another 5 metres and check again - they should drop another 5cm. Drive forward to the door and check they move up to where they were (and not across). Repeat until satisfied, knowing that the MOT testers can probably make a fine adjustment later, and will be more willing to do this if you have made the coarse adjustment first and proved that the adjusters are working.

I know this method isn't as accurate as reading the beam in a special optical device, but you will probably get the headlights much closer to correct alignment than they are at the moment. You might be surprised by the improved vision you have

I'm not sure about your MOT rules but I'd be surprised if the car would actually need the motorised adjustment - I reckon if the beam was adjustable to the correct position (for driver only) using the screws, that'd pass (even if the motor didn't work/was fixed in place). I know it's a good idea to have the motors, but they are only needed if you actually carry loads/passengers at night.

The bent wheel - it happens - there are companies here that can straighten wheels, I've had it done a few times over the years (to different wheels).

Give the brake hose fittings a wirebrush and a coat of rust-inhibiting black paint. Add some screws, or clips, or cable ties, to the undertray.

It'll be sweet as...

-Alex

thanks Alex, yes its not all bad stuff to be honest.

I have just spoken to the garage actually, I had totally forgotten about the car due to watching This Is England and being very much engrossed.

anyway, chap says I need a new drivers side caliper, so thats ok, i expected that due to sticking. they have two calipers to choose from, he isnt sure which yet but says the most expensive is £78, so nothing too drastic. He said they are going to try straighten the wheel, then fit it to the back, so fingers crossed on that one. He didnt mention anythign else so probably of no real concern, but we will see.

Im feeling a little bit more optimistic, but i am open minded about the cost. I love the car, so im being positive. I expect when its all fixed, its going to be much better than before, maybe even my MPG will improve (sticky caliper and bad tracking). fingers crossed!!

thanks everyone for your advice