Mot question in hopes somebody knows for sure.

[fastbob72]

I have this week off work to get my car ready for the annual torture ordeal, quite easily the most stressful part of my whole year.

I lifted the front carpet to get at the wiring for the rear o2 sensor, well to unclip the multi plus really and allow enough slack. to solder the connection back together.

That achieved I was horrified to find all the sound deadening soaking wet in the drivers side foot well and rear foot well too.

I ended up removing all the seats, carpet, trim etc and junking the lot before going over the floor and treating it, the floor was thankfully solid.

Anyway, am refitting it all now and it crossed my mind with my car so low and 17 inch Celica rims a distant modification, once the rear arches are rolled there's no chance of ever accepting rear passengers. I always joke my Avensis is a 2 seater, I say jok3 but in truth I mean it.

Now, if I just fail to put the rear seats and belts back in is this an MOT failure. I'm pretty sure if I had belts the seats would be required, well sort of sure but I can't help wondering if there aren't any seats and no belts is it sort of analogous to not having a spare wheel, it isn't there so doesn't need to be legal.

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated as friday is looming fast. After the test, assuming she goes through the rear seats are coming back out anyway 😉😉

 

[m456an]

Good luck with the mot. I think you need back seats to pass. But I am no expert  I am sure some of the experts can help or point you in the right direction if you can take a picture or 2.

[Penfold]

Hi,

It is registered as a 5 seater and will be insured and type approved to that spec.  It will be tested to that spec as well  which means it will need all 3 rear seat belts installed and in good working order with no fraying or tears. Any associated warning lights will be checked on the dash, which if they either don't come on when they should or don't extinguish then it'll be an instant fail. 

The only way around this is to get the DVLA to modify the V5C to say it is a 2 seater ,which will require an engineers report and about 2 months of arguing/waiting. After that you will need to get specialist insurance who will fleece you for what they will see as a track car being used on the road.

You would probably find that the inspector will take one look at the missing belts and declare that the vehicle is 'not in a suitable condition to be tested'  for those items and refuse a certificate.  (same as presenting with headlamp covers and baby seats etc where they aren't allowed to remove them for testing so fail you for not having done so beforehand)

Sorry.

Penfold

[Jonnyzap]

This comes up quite often in the Van to camper van conversation forums I'm a member of where they regularly go from 18/6/3 to 2 seats without updating their V5C.  Basically the MOT tester will only test what is presented to them.

[DAN@ADRIAN FLUX]

Hi.

If you need any help with insurance at all for the removal of seats then please feel free to drop me a line.

Regards,

Dan.

[Gazz28]

If you remove the seats and belts there isn’t anything there to test that’s what manual says it could be used as a van 

[m456an]

You can change it to a 2 seat car, just like you can change the colour by filling in the modification section of the v5c.

[Mike169]

Hi.

As an ex MOT tester if you have removed the rear seats and even the seatbelts that will be fine.

If the seats are fitted but no seat belts then that is a fail.

Same rule applies if you have a full sized spare wheel and it is bald then it does not matter as many cars don't even have the 5th wheel, just take it out and leave it at home so to speak, this is 100% perfectly legal and you are not breaking the law.

Regards, Mike.