Rear brake bias adjuster

[kenmorton]

If I had a rear brake bias adjuster but it was inside a screwed down box with a pipe going in and a pipe coming out could the SVA inspector remove the box and then fail the car because the bias could be adjusted or are they not allowed to remove anything ?

[GreenV8S]

Do the SVA regs really say that it mustn't be adjustable? That's pretty wierd, because I'd have thought that any car requiring SVA is likely to have non-standard brakes and weight distribution and hence need an adjustable bias valve.

[steve_d]

The Ultima has a bias bar on 2 master cylinders.
For SAV this must be locked and is usually done with locking nuts on the bar but some SVA testers have insisted that it be welded.

Steve

[d-man]

If its adjustable, the fronts must still lock before the rears with the adjuster wound all the way to the back... Which kind of defeats the point. The theory being that it might accidentally get adjusted at some point to a dangerous setting without anyone noticing.

I'd say you should be fine by fitting a box over it though, what the tester can't see they can't test (and have to assume its ok) and they're not allowed to remove anything that's permanently fixed. You'd have to rivet it or something to make it look like its not supposed to be removed though.

[Avocet]

Agree with d-man. Tested at both extremes of travel. As a general principle, the SVA tester will want to see some form of tamper-proofing that requires an owner to deliberately "break" something like a weld or pop-rivet to get to the edjuster. Something that can be overcome with normally available tools won't usually be acceptable.