Mot & Damaged seatbelt

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Fri 17 Aug 2018 22:04
Mot & Damaged seatbelt - pendulum

Hi. I have an old estate being used like a van, the back seats are never used by passengers instead they carry gear and materials, accordingly at least one rear seatbelt is wrecked, another is borderline.

I don't want to replace the belts if I can help it, just get damaged again

I've heard you can remove stuff, and if it's not fitted it can't fail, so I'm thinking of removing the seat, can you do this and have it pass? Must I remove the seat and the belt, or just the seat, just the belt etc. Website I looked at seemed a bit ambiguous/maybe based on old info. Thanks for any help.

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Fri 17 Aug 2018 22:16
Mot & Damaged seatbelt - RobJP

I believe that the vehicle must be presented for the test 'as described on the V5'. In other words, if it's supposed to be an estate with rear seats and seatbelts fitted, then they must be present and in good condition.

The only way I can think of getting around it would be you want to remove the rear seats and seatbelts, AND then get it re-classified by DVLA/DVLA, all at your cost, then it might well be accepted. But you'd need to check that with VOSA first. And the costs would need to be ascertained too.

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Fri 17 Aug 2018 22:38
Mot & Damaged seatbelt - Galaxy

I believe it's as RobJP says, I'm afraid.

Just get a couple of belts from a breakers yard to pass the MOT.

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Fri 17 Aug 2018 22:50
Mot & Damaged seatbelt - elekie&a/c doctor

If you remove the seats completely,then the belts are not a testable item; section 7.1.1 www.mot-testing.service.gov.uk/documents/manuals/c.../

Edited by elekie&a/c doctor on 17/08/2018 at 22:56

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Sat 18 Aug 2018 00:18
Mot & Damaged seatbelt - Chris M

My son carries work stuff in the back of his Fiesta with the seat folded. It was like this when it was mot'd last year. It passed with an advisory "vehicle presented as two seats excluding driver".

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Tue 4 Sep 2018 15:48
Mot & Damaged seatbelt - pendulum

Cheers. Well the verdict is in from the tester, seat and seatbelt removed = still a pass.

Took a bit of a risk, as I cut the damaged seatbelt out with a knife before checking with him, but if it failed I'd have needed a new one anyway

Apparently it's not that uncommon a thing. Plenty of road legal track cars pass MoT with just front seats.

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Tue 4 Sep 2018 16:08
Mot & Damaged seatbelt - gordonbennet

My car goes in every year without the third row of seats in place, no problem.

SWMBO used to use her little C2 as a van, again no problems, just rear seat not present noted on the test result.

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