Apologies if my poor searching skills missed the answer to this one but what's the score with the F2 and rollers when it's MOT time?

Should I find somewhere else if they want to test the brakes on the rollers or is it perfectly safe on the F2?

Perfectly safe. They will put the rollers in 4WD mode. The rollers then rotate in opposite directions (instead of the same way).

MOT stations should have a Tapley brake tester which sits on the floor of the car which the tester then takes for a short drive and when he applies the brakes he gets a read out. Car does not go on the rollers at all.

See Google link for old mechanical type and new digital unit. https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=tapley+meter

Bill Life Honorary Member of Wallasey Motor Club.
Licenced MSA Radio Operator for 35+ years.
Rallying is the only sport.

Steve D wrote:

Perfectly safe. They will put the rollers in 4WD mode. The rollers then rotate in opposite directions (instead of the same way).

If you are testing say the right hand brake, in 4WD mode the right wheel will rotate in the normal direction of rotation and the left will rotate in the opposite direction meaning that the propshaft (and therefore any other axles) will not turn. You then apply the brakes and record the reading for that brake only. When testing the left brake, the opposite applies. Much more accurate than the tapley meter as that will only give you an overall brake efficiency and not individual brake readings. You could have one brake low on efficiency or even not working and still pass the efficiency test with a Tapley meter. Who on here would be happy with that?

Thankyou for the explanation but the rollers on the equipment that I used and indeed the garage that I use now has no provision for the rollers to rotate the opposite way and that is fairly new setup.

The garage that does my MOT plus several others in the area still only have a test bed with a single pair of rollers and on a 2 wheel drive car the front bakes are tested first and the car then driven forward to test the rear brakes and hand brake.
A Tapley meter as shown in the link in my previous post is still used for all 4 x 4's.


Bill. Life Honorary Member of Wallasey Motor Club.
Licenced MSA Radio Operator for 35+ years.
Rallying is the only sport.

3 disco. You surprise me on that - ours is at least 8 years old.

Sorry Bill, you must be mistaken on 4WD testing procedures. Not saying you can't use the Tapley meter. Our 4WD one is a single set of rollers. My post above refers to our brake tester with a single set of rollers. I know many mot stations but I don't know any with brake testers that have more than one set of rollers - how could two sets of rollers cater for cars with different wheelbases?

Our local rally car tuner has a set that adjust for various wheel bases.
But take your point on MOT brake tester. just that our local one does not have a setting for 4 x 4s and is in fact still steam powered its that old but still gets a ticket every time the guy from the Ministry calls.

Bill Life Honorary Member of Wallasey Motor Club.
Licenced MSA Radio Operator for 35+ years.
Rallying is the only sport.

Aah, rally tuner. I suspect that adjustable twin axle piece of equipment he has will be a 4WD Dyno tester and not a brake tester. Seen plenty of those.