MOT AND OUTRIGGERS

[nigegas]

HI as im near to buying my first tvr chimaera i thought i would ask this question,i have made an offer on the car subject to the car having a new mot and the owner has agreed to,so if there were any major problems with corrosion to the chassis and outriggers this would be picked up by the garage doing the mot,i have had a good look underneath and there is some surface rust but seem to be solid from what i can see your thoughts and views please.

[350Matt]

outriggers aren't structural so not subject to MOT poking

[Roy C]

nigegas said:

i have had a good look underneath and there is some surface rust but seem to be solid from what i can see.

Unfortunately it's the tops of the tubes that rot first, so what appears to be a solid tube from below could be as rotten as a pear.

[.Mark]

350Matt said:

outriggers aren't structural so not subject to MOT poking

You sure about that? The bracket for the rear mount of the seat belt is bolted to the outrigger.

[jammy_basturd]

Surely the whole of the chassis is 'structural'?

[mandrew]

I car should fail its mot on outriggers being wrotten !!

[Milky400]

but as mentioned would probably be missed as the rot starts on the top

[911motorsport]

A hefty wack with a hammer will help determine their state. A dull thud and there could be problems. A nice solid ring and they're likey to be ok. (only likely though).

[Milky400]

would you get a ring!!!!!! if they were covered in waxoyl type stuff? i would imagine this to dull the tone

[Roy C]

Milky400 said:

would you get a ring

No. The only way to check is to probe the top of the tubes.

[911motorsport]

It's hard to describe but the sound difference between a rotten and solid out rigger are very different when you whack them. I suppose it's not an actual ring as such, just more of a 'bright' sound It's something I've done on all my Chimaeras and it's helped me avoid a few dodgy ones.

Edited by 911motorsport on Wednesday 16th March 15:45

[Konrod]

Take a small torch, put the wheel on full lock so that you can get to the outrigger on the nearside and then look along the top of the outrigger between the metal and the body. It's a fag but you will be able to see perhaps a foot or so which is enough. Push a long screwdriver down against the metal (don't scratch so you don't take any waxoyl etc.off). You should get a good idea from the results of that. If anything flakes off of looks to be moving then either walk away or factor in repairs/hassle to the price.

[tvrgit]

.Mark said:

350Matt said:

outriggers aren't structural so not subject to MOT poking

You sure about that? The bracket for the rear mount of the seat belt is bolted to the outrigger.

I think that for vehicles with a separate chassis, the body has to be securely fixed to the chassis - and since the body mounting points are affected by the condition of the outriggers, I think that corroded outriggers means a fail...

[mep12345]

tvrgit said:

I think that for vehicles with a separate chassis, the body has to be securely fixed to the chassis - and since the body mounting points are affected by the condition of the outriggers, I think that corroded outriggers means a fail...

On the s series they also hold part of the seat belt mounting points so definately a failure there - not sure about the other models though.

If you want to see how little you can see go to my website and look at the little shop of horrors, this was not visible from below, car had just passed MOT and I'm and engineer so gave it a good inspection on axle stands before purchase but this was only visible on body lift (possibly could have found more on a ramp) as it was a good bodge of half moon welding

Mark

[kslett]

My Chimaera failed on its outriggers, and be aware that even if the underside looks reasonable, the "invisible" topside can be in far worse condition. Hope that clarifies things.

[tvrgit]

As per the previous 2 posts, my car passed MOT in May, then in July, I found corrosion through an outrigger.

The unseen top (against the body) looked like this:



That had passed an MOT 7 weeks before...

The other side was even worse - it disintegrated totally when I tried to cut it out...

[Timja]

MOT testers only view the outriggers from underneath, so could quite easily pass if there was a hole on the top of the tubes such as behind the front wheel - My car passed it's last MOT and i knew it had a hole in it behind the front wheel and he was a thorough tester - Just that inspecting the chassis from above is not required in the test, so can be missed.

I think it only fails if hole within 30cm of key points or something.....

If its rusty underneath, it's probably 10 times worse on top.

[pk500]

the rear of the out rigger has a seat belt point on it so 12" around that area fails thats were mine was bad

[tvrgit]

I wasn't knocking my MOT tester for not spotting it - my point was, as others have said, that a recent MOT is no guarantee that there's no rust.

And with regard to the point above, about rust within 30 cm of a " critical component", that's true - but for cars with separate bodies, there's no point on having 30 cm of good steel that's not connected to the rest of the chassis. Plus, as I said, the body must be mounted securely to the chassis, and rusty outriggers don't meet that requirement.

[Roy C]

A few years ago, my S2 had an outrigger replaced after it's MOT, as the specialist doing the job was pretty sure the tester would never find it.