| Moderated by: Stealth, MOTman, KevG, bimmer |
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| atl update | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Tue Jun 19th, 2007 07:05 pm |
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1st Post |
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KevG Super Moderator 
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Thanks for the feedback Matt Kev
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| Posted: Thu Jun 14th, 2007 08:34 pm |
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2nd Post |
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matt Trade Member
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Hello Douglas Sorry i havent replied earlier, the wifes had a baby and its been manic. Watched the dvd once and fairly brieftly due to the little one coming along. Dont have much time at the minute. I seem to do the test totally different to the dvd. I drive the vehicle onto the shaker plates, not the turning plates. Then do the in car checks. Then start from offside front and work my way round the car to the rear then to the nearside front. Checking seat belts, fuel cap, sharp edges, etc. Then i check the lights, front then back. After that everthing off, Check under bonnet, then start engine, apply brake pedal applicator and check everything under bonnet again. I will also turn on the skaker plate and the steering plate on to check any exposed steering/suspension bits. Then close the bonnet. done. Then raise the car. Everything off. Start at osf wheel, down along the outer sill, across to the nsr outer sill, back upto the nsf. Also checked tyre size/ rotation as well. Then basically follow the manual route from then on. After i have completed the underside check as in the bible i will then jack the back up. Do the checks, then jack the front up. After doing the checks lower the car down, and then check the suspension/steering using the shaker plates. After that i will lower the car down, drive it onto the free turning plates and apply the brake pedal applicator. so the engine is running and the brake system under pressure. Put the car up and then check the exhaust/brakes/fuel systems. After this i will then lower the car down halfway, take the brake pedal applicator away, but leave the engine running. Then do the manual lock to lock check. I keep the engine running due to power steering being fitted. Ater this put the car on the deck again and get in the vehicle and do a lock to lock check in the car. Finished!! Have i confused you even more?? It really is nt that bad. This was the route i took when our vosa man came round to check and he seemed happy at the time. But he was probably fairly new to the atl route too. I think it is so much better. We do still have an old test lane where we use an assistant and i hate this method now. With the atl you can just get on with the test and not have to wait for someone. Like i said before i think the test quality is much better. For example i was testing a vehicle the other day and was checking the outer ball joint at the front. I decided it was a pass/advise. Then i checked it with the shaker plates and found alot more play in the joint and failed it. It made me think!! Hope this helps. I say go for it. At least you wont have to employ any assistants. Thats at least £10000 saved for each one. Well on the way for the cost of an atl. all the best Matt
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| Posted: Wed May 23rd, 2007 12:40 pm |
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3rd Post |
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douglas950 Member
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I wonder how you are getting on after watching the "OPTing in DVD"? Issues are raised which I had not previously thought of. We are advised to check the brake and fuel systems under the car and under the bonnet with the brake applied and the engine running, then check both locations again with the brake and engine off. The manual does support the need for these checks. I suspect VOSA forgot to alter them when the manual was amended to cater for ATL testing. We can't afford to miss the second checks, even if they have been retained in error. I said before that I was looking forward to second generation equipment. The DVD has reinforced my reservations. Incidentally I think the DVD advises us to tap the rear fog lamps with the ignition off. I will watch again some time to be sure. It is also states that the "concession" to allow one person testing without a full ATL expires at the end of 2009. I have not previously heard of this. Policy manufactured on the hoof? I have heard that the manual will be re-written soon. I am keen to have the advantage of the wheel play detectors, but cannot afford to spent more tester time on each test. I prefer to employ two assistants to service three testers. Douglas950
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| Posted: Mon May 21st, 2007 09:25 am |
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4th Post |
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Master Member
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This company sell Rav equipment.  http://www.jhmbuttco.com
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| Posted: Sat May 19th, 2007 07:29 am |
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5th Post |
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ccb2 Member
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Thanks for the review. do you have contact details for RAV?
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16th, 2007 11:15 am |
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6th Post |
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Master Member
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thanks alot Matt, very good review.
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| Posted: Wed Apr 11th, 2007 09:39 pm |
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7th Post |
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martins Administrator 
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Great review! many thanks.
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| Posted: Wed Apr 11th, 2007 09:07 pm |
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8th Post |
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matt Trade Member
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its now been around 2 months since we had our atl fitted. We had a few problems with the installation!!! So far so good. We had a scissor lift from Rav fitted. We had this because we were short on space and this was the only option. A scissor is nt as wide as a four poster. And we had also heard reports that the four poster ramps were having problems with the mounting bolts coming out of the concrete due to the amount of movement caused by the shaker plates. Like i said its going well. It doesn t really take much more time than the assistant method. I definitly prefer to use the atl lane. The shaker plates work really well. It really does put a great deal of load on the suspension joints. Especially good with the bigger VW and Audi s with those two upper and lower suspension ball joints! I also use the side to side shaker plate to check the rear suspension joints as well as the front. It really does shake the vehicle that much. The other plate on the other side moves the steering just enough to check the track rod ends and rack security. But i have found that it is sometimes good to check the suspension joint using both shaker plates because it puts the front suspension joints under different angles of movement and loads. The only one thing i find a bit of a pain is you have to lower the ramp down again to drive the vehicle from the shaker plates to the free moving turning plates to do the lock to lock check and to check for any stiffness in the steering. And it can be awkward doing the lock to lock check yourself. It can be a bit difficult to hold the steering on a lock while checking for any fouling, ie wheel chafing on inner wing. But it depends on the vehicle. so you may need an assistant for that check. But overall its very good. I do feel more confident with the result of a test on a atl because i feel the suspension joints have been tested more vigorously. Especially with the more complicated suspension setups. The brake tester is also from rav. Once again so far so good. The brake test is very simple and the computer screen instructions and results are simple and easy to read and understand. So much so the vosa man commented on how easy it was to follow the on screen instruction, which cant be bad. The one extra thing we did was to have another computer screen fitted to the wall just pass the rollers to help see the instruction because the main unit is at the end of the ramp and the old man was worried that he couldn t see the screen propertly. We used a small lcd flat screen so it didn t intrude to much into the bay. And yes we can test 4WD vehicles. even though we haven t done many. We need to build up our confidence with it!! Costs alot of money to fix it!! Ive tested a subaru legacy 4wd and a Tata 4wd. Cant remember the model now. Not many of them about. Was the first mot though. when testing, one roller goes one direction and the other goes the other direction. Clever stuff. Overall its very good and also is looks good when testing. At the moment because its new and not many of them about we re always getting comments from trade and customers and they always comment on how well it tests there vehicle. They always seem impressed. And like i said i before i feel it test s the vehicle better and at the end of each test i feel more confident with the result. We do about 6 to 8 tests a day on the atl and so far we ve had no problems. Hopefully this has answered some of your queries and sorry for taking so long to get back to you all.
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