Lets’ make it easy for you; they are right here on our servers and you can get them now.
The application form is a MS Word document and you can get it here: IVA Application Form
The guidance notes are a PDF document and you can get those here: IVA Guidance Notes
The fees form is also a PDF document and you can get that here: IVA Fee Schedule
The government has made a great job of hiding the forms also. They will no doubt keep moving them, so you can find them on the IVA Forms Page right here.
Old SVA certificates are valid from 18 months from the date of issue in theory, but you cannot use them after October. If you have a car that got an SVA certificate, make sure you use it before October and it wasn’t issued more than 18 months ago.
So, you have your car, you have all the parts, now you want to actually do the work. Expect it to take between one and two days to make a nice job of it. I have not bothered to note the colours of the cars wires feeding this and that, as if you are doing this job, I expect you are familiar enough with a 12v tester to be able to identify them anyway.
I am also not going to go into great detail about where you should route individual wires, you will find your own way that suits you.
Assuming you are performing the light conversion using Euro Tail Lights and Angel Eye Headlamps as I recommend (the easy way) on this site, it might be useful to do a double check of the things you are likely to need.
The vast majority of items can be had by mail order, the advertisers on this site will be as good a source as any.The internet tends to make suppliers of this kind of stuff quite competitive as they know you onlya mouse click away from another supplier who is maybe cheaper than them
The forums are an excellent resource, but of course one must often wade through the off topic posts and white noise that forums invariably attract to get to the information you want.
Some people (on a V8) modify the front fog switch wiring to operate the rear fogs. I prefer to tamper with the original wiring as little as possible, so I fit a new switch. (V6 cars do not have a fog switch anyway so you have no choice but to fit a new one in that instance.)
You need an illuminated switch. It should be visible from the driving seat ideally in order to pass a test. I use an after market one and site it near the regular light switch.
Observe that one end has a silver stripe on it, that is to ensure you fit it the correct way around. It is imperative they are fitted the correct way round.
The diode goes between 1 and 5 on your Omron relay bases, bridging between the only feed from the SJB (being the light you have tapped from) and ground – with the black end of the diode going to the Nr 1 ground terminal. Put another way, black end to earth, silver stripeend to switching live from the light you tapped from.
The relays you need are low current devices. Do not use standard ‘automotive’ style relays. The average Automotive relay has a coil resistance of about 60-90 Ohms, where as a relay more suitable, will have a value of about 1000 Ohms. You really do need to put a back EMF protection diode across ANY relay coil connected to an ‘electronic’ output. This will minimize the back EMF voltage across the SJB* outputs. More on that on the diode article.
Chances are, if your light has an E mark, your VOSA tester will not get too involved seeing if it complies to some obscure Brussels rule – he will merely assume it does because it has an E mark. That said, he reserves the right to check something himself if he is not happy with it. My experience suggests they look for an E mark, and when they find it, they say, “Ahh, thats OK then”.
I found a few specialists and I called them up. I got various prices of between £1000 and £3000 to do the work. I asked all of them to give me a detailed breakdown of how that huge price panned out – none of them would. I asked one to sell me the information to do it myself. “Ooh, it’s far too specialist a job” he said. I asked one guy if he would be converting existing lights or fitting new ones, “Depends on the individual car” he said. Hmmm, are they so different? I think not! It seemed giving a price of £2000 didn’t depend on the individual car. I smelled a rat and became determined to do it myself.
