Failed WoF. Just got a fail 2 or 3 reasons but the most interesting one was the fact that my front seat covers were covering the

texastwo, Dec 16, 7:21am
Just got a fail, 2 or 3 reasons but the most interesting one was the fact that my front seat covers were covering the side air-bags.Guess what, the covers have been on the car for 3 years and its had at least 6 warrants in that time. This is the first tme the covering of the air-bags has been mentioned. No biggie but shouldnt it have been picked up before!
vtecintegra, Dec 16, 7:23am
Yes it should have been picked up before
mugenb20b, Dec 16, 7:24am
Yes. However, it depends if the wof inspector KNOWS the car is meant to have side air bags. If he doesn't know, then he can only assume.
nz2293, Dec 16, 7:25am
i failed on a mcdonalds vip sticker
thejazzpianoma, Dec 16, 7:30am
+1 Its a bit different to them suddenly deciding all the seats needed to be in the Multipla for a WOF.
ninja_man, Dec 16, 7:40am
haha really!
mugenb20b, Dec 16, 7:42am
By the book, yes, that's how it "should" be. But when you get to know your clients and their cars and their business operations, and you know for a fact they have seats at home, why muck them around! The result would still be the same, so I tell my clients (with a *wink*) "All 8 seats were in when you came here for a wof check, right!" And they happily say, "oh, yes, of course".
mugenb20b, Dec 16, 7:43am
He probably stuck it in the centre of the windscreen.
thejazzpianoma, Dec 16, 7:55am
Fair enough, although the Multipla has the seatbelts attached to the seats so they should be checked.
That aside though. would you believe this was at a random VTNZ testing station (didn't know me as I don't normally use them). They failed the car on the usual VTNZ brake imbalance nonsense, and then made me go back for the seats when I went for the re-check even though there was no mention of the seats missing as a fail on the WOF sheet.

BTW, I would have put the seats in but it slipped my mind.
thejazzpianoma, Dec 16, 7:59am
I had another one that was a bit funny, MGB failed on its big re-vin/re-register jobbie.

1. They wanted to make the 5w marker lights on the side blink with the indicators. (I said no piss off of course)
2. They failed the lights because they could not find the switch.

No. I am not kidding!

Oh and the massive fuel leak that would have been dripping on their heads. thats a pass!
curlcrown, Dec 16, 8:00am
Maybe maybe not. A W.O.F. is a visual inspection of the car without removeing any parts. On some models the airbags in the seats were an option and you wouldn't know if they were there or not without removeing them. Could seat cover's be concidered a part of the car! Maybe.
mugenb20b, Dec 16, 8:09am
Haha, that's funny. I regularly do wof checks on vintage cars like 1908 Buick, Model A Ford, etc. I tell you what, I can't even drive, let alone start the damn things. Some cars I'm not familiar with, I ask the owner where switches and things hide, so I know for next time.
One interesting one I had recently, a 2009 Range Rover, owned by one of our best customers, I "kind of" had to fail it. The owner removed all the head restraints to improve vision for his passengers when he drives them around his farm, lol.
beblowin, Dec 16, 8:38am
haha someone doesnt know there job, just point out to me in the virm were it says you cant have a seat cover over a side airbag please. I think some one doesnt know the difference between frontal impact airbags and side airbags.
twink19, Dec 16, 8:49am
there was acase a while ago where the lady got upset re seat air bags and took it to court and lost, air bag wont work properly with seat cover on it.
beblowin, Dec 16, 8:56am
some cars come with side airbags that can be switched off from factory so disabled they will never work.
mugenb20b, Dec 16, 9:09am
It comes under SRS air bags. The same applies when you stick ornaments on top of your air bags, on the dash. Anything you do to SRS system to compromise its operation is a fail, if spotted by the wof inspector. The VIRM also states that if a wof inspector has any doubt that a safety "component" is compromised (chassis, brakes, SRS, etc), he can fail it, and it's up to the owner of the car to prove otherwise.
mugenb20b, Dec 16, 9:10am
Yeah, some 4WD cars from USA you can, for off road application. Again, if spotted = fail.
the-lada-dude, Dec 16, 10:06pm
the o'l lada failed a warrent because they couldn't open the boot to check inside, i wanted to say something , but i didn't i carmly took the key out of the ignition switch (and yes it's got one + a hot wire because it's got an electrical fault" some where " ) and proceeded to open the boot for the pair of smart arse punks who thought it would be great fun to try and write the lada off the road. the dickheads had been trying to turn the key the WRONG way !