Edd China’s Basic Classic Car Health Checks: Inspecting Classic Car Lights and Tyres

Welcome to Edd's Classic Car Health Check. Now, in this video, we're going to be looking at lighting, tires, and also under the bonnet but first up is the lighting. Now with all of the lenses, you want to have a look out for cracks, chips and discoloration, but also on headlights you want to have a little look at the reflective because on older cars like this, you can start to suffer a little bit of corrosion. Now 20% of MOT failures are down to lighting and signalings. It's well worth spending some time to try and sort those out and it's very handy to have a rather glamorous assistant. Hello, Edd China. Hello sir. And when he's not being glamorous assistant for myself, he's actually the editor of practical classics magazine. What we'll first up, we're going to have a look at the lights. Can you turn the sidelights on please. Well, that's a good start isn't it? We've got side lights at the front at least. So now I've got to dip beam if you can. Okay, and onto main beam. Well, that's great. So now the next thing I need to check is actually that the lights are the same height and they're actually in the right orientation or it's the right height on the wall of a workshop. It can be a wardrobe door doesn't matter as long as you can actually make sure that they are correct. At the moment they do look the same look at that light which is lovely. So that's great. So now the next thing would be indicators. If you go for your okay well that one. That works for me. Now we're looking for a flash obviously that doesn't have a bad earth or anything for one thing, but also it's got to be flashing between 60 and 120 times every minute. And that's about right so we can try the other side. Smashing, fantastic so all our lighting on the front of the car is working in treats. So now let's look at the backend. Well, straight away we can see that our rear side lights are working which is great. Next thing to look at would be the reflectors. Now if you've got a pair of them you need to be matching symmetrical either side of the car. And of course they have to be in good reflective order, which is wonderful. The next thing is the indicators, please Danny. So there we go, that's working. It's going to be flashing at the same rate as the ones at the front, which is great. Other side, please. Fantastic that's working well as well. Now the thing is, you also need to check what's going on with the lenses themselves because you don't want them fading in color. I want to go from orange all the way down to white because I guess then they would look like reversing lights, not good. So these are all in good order, which is wonderful. Now brake lights need to be tested while the side lights are on. Just in case there's a bad earth and they seem in good order as well, which is great. And then the last thing we're looking at the condition of the number plate, make sure it's readable again in good condition, but also the lights that light it up. Also have to be working. Now 10% of MOT failures are down to tires. So it's well worth doing this in your pre-MOT check. Now, the first thing to do is a visual check. Look for cracks and bulges. You want to do that on both sides. So give yourself a bit of space and have a look around maybe rotate the wheel and look for things like screws and nails sticking out. Of course, when you're sure you're safe, then I would recommend just running your hand on the back is often easier to feel than it is to see. And once you're happy with that, you also then move on to looking at the tire wear itself make sure there were no flat spots or anything and also you've got even tire wear across the full width of the tire. You then want to check the depth of the tire gauge like so. We've got about four millimeters. Now the minimum legal requirement is 1.6 mil but really anything lower than three millimeters, you want to buy yourself a pair of new tires after what you do want them to stop in the wet. Now the last thing, it doesn't really matter how old your tires are, but just want to check the condition. So look for cracking any signs tool on the side where we want to replace them and it also check in the depths of each of the grooves as well. Now, the last thing because you have an assistant, I was all good. I've done it to put the brakes on, please, sir. Okay. And just check the wheel nuts. Now while checking all of your tires, have a good look at the sidewall with a torch as well. Not only does it help you find maybe even early signs of a little bit of cracking there, but also you can have a look at the size, and the spec, and the weight, and the speed rating of the tire. We want to make sure that they're identical on either axles or so literally from this side to that side is gotta be the same. It doesn't matter, actually if they're slightly different from front to back but side to side, very, very, very critical. Now what does the, one of the things if you've actually fitted aftermarket tires to your wheels there may be a different size that's of course going to affect the speedometer. Now that isn't tested as part of the MOT, but of course it may well affect your license or the cure people tripping behind you. Now what you're also here have a look to make sure that the dust caps are all in order and also just check the tire pressures to make sure they're what they should be and of course are the same around the car. Now the last bit, the spare tire is a little bit strange. If it's not on board, the car, it won't be tested. If it is onboard the car, it will be tested but you can't actually fail the MOT test even if it is an unsafe tire, but if you come to need it after a puncture on the side of the road, but only we put yourself in danger but also you could get in trouble with the law. Well, that's now obviously the lighting and the tire sorted. The next thing would be under the bonnet.