Law on rear seats

Steve220 · Post by **Steve220** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 4:18 pm

Hi All.

Just to query really, if i had bucket seats in my car (again) and they weren't reclinable and had harnesses, so basically the seats in the back would be useless, how would the MOT see this? Phil (ultimate racer) has no rear seats and no seat belts and he went through the MOT fine. What would i need to do to keep the car legal for the MOT with having the harnesses in?
Cheers
Steve

Jonny 5 · Post by **Jonny 5** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 4:25 pm

Take the rears seats out for the MOT, then whack em back in.

Food for thought on that other thread

Time to get an MR2 turbo, a S2000 or an Elise if you gonna be taking rear seats out though.

Im imagine for MOT it would fail its after 198x model and has no rear seat belts = fail. Also you probably need the std seats belts up front due to easy of getting you out in event of a crash, not 100% sure on that one though.

Chris220SDi · Post by **Chris220SDi** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 4:27 pm

Steve220 wrote:Hi All.

Just to query really, if i had bucket seats in my car (again) and they weren't reclinable and had harnesses, so basically the seats in the back would be useless, how would the MOT see this? Phil (ultimate racer) has no rear seats and no seat belts and he went through the MOT fine. What would i need to do to keep the car legal for the MOT with having the harnesses in?
Cheers
Steve

If I remember correctly, the harnesses themselves would prove a sticking point - you need to have a certain type of buckle, like the seatbelt release for them to be road legal - so you may have to retain your standard seats belts anyway.

As for the rear seats - I think its open to interpretation - the MOT manual can be very vague.

Find it here:

Clicky Clicky

Steve B · Post by **Steve B** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 4:36 pm

Would imagine you would only need rear seatbelts if you have rear seats fitted, you don't need rear seats to pass a MOT however.

Front harnesses are fine if you have a normal buckle type (ie the same as your normal seatbelt buckle), these are widely available, and cost less than a full race harness. Race Harnesses should also be road legal, as rally cars have them and they have to be road legal. They need to be installed correctly however, locating the rear mount point where your rear sealbelts bolt to should be fine, do not bolt them to the floor in the rear passenger foot well.

Steve

Steve220 · Post by **Steve220** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 5:08 pm

cheers guys, i was after a set of the buckle type anyway, as they're cheaper

, i was going to bolt them to where the rear seat belt buckles bolts down to.

WelshwarrioR25 · Post by **WelshwarrioR25** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 6:53 pm

Deffo fail.

You may notice that they check that both of your seats fold forward. This is for safety reasons- so that the guy/gal in the back can escape the vehicle if you had an accident. If you dont have recliners they wont be able to get out- FAIL

Glyn

That is also the same reason that 4/5 door cars have to have all doors working

Steve220 · Post by **Steve220** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:00 pm

just found out tonight my answer

if i remove the rear seats totally, (like i want to) and remove the rear seatbelts, keep the front seatbelts in ASWELL as the harnesses it'll pass as the rear seats are then classed as n/a as they're not there or any withstraint system. Though the fronts have to have the seat belts still on.

Si · Post by Si » Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:06 am

Just wait till you get to a junction which requires leaning forward

Why not just keep the standard seat belts. Harnesses are not road friendly.

Jonny 5 · Post by **Jonny 5** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 8:50 am

Personally i think cars with harness need over 200bhp

Steve220 · Post by **Steve220** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:20 pm

its in prep Jonny

Si - i know what you mean about that one, well the idea is there, i suppose i have the option to back out of it if needs be.

Dave 220 · Post by **Dave 220** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:09 pm

Hi all,

I,ve got harnesses in the GSI (which has no rear seats) and TVR both passed the MOT I think its down to the place you get it done.
By the book the harnesses should have the kite mark on british saftey thing but that said mine don't.

Toblerone · Post by **Toblerone** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:28 pm

WelshwarrioR25 wrote:Deffo fail.

You may notice that they check that both of your seats fold forward.

My 214 only had 1 reclining front seat. Went through 2 MOTs like that fine :oops:

That was from where i put in 5 door leather - didn't fancy reframing both front seats as it was a **** of a job

Rovertech 2.0

Law on rear seats

Law on rear seats

Re: Law on rear seats