Car bought in the US going through NCT

Sticky Fingers

A friend of mine imported a 2006 Toyota RAV4 from the States and now it is due its 1st NCT. As the sidelights are orange as opposed to white here in Ireland, will it pass through the test ? Are any allowances made for imported US cars ? If not why are they allowed to be registered in the 1st place without modifications for Ireland ? Has anyone put their US car through the test ? Thanks all.

hi5

My pickup truck passed the last 5 DOE's with standard orange sidelights.
Early Defenders have orange sidelights the passanger versions would need an NCT.
If its standard from the factory then I should not think its a problem.

zilog_jones

Modern BMWs and some other cars have orange sidemarker lights now, so I don't think that's a problem. NCT says "Side Lamps (Front Position Lamps)" need to be white, so if the orange lights also act as these (i.e. there's no white parking lights on at the same time as these) technically it should fail - however I'm not sure how much they care about this in real life. I've seen several boy racers with US style orange side lights on their Civics and the like - do they get through the NCT with these?

Red rear indicators would be a problem but I don't think these have them. Dipped beams will fail if they don't point to the left.

Cosmo K

Sticky Fingers wrote: »

A friend of mine imported a 2006 Toyota RAV4 from the States and now it is due its 1st NCT. As the sidelights are orange as opposed to white here in Ireland, will it pass through the test ? Are any allowances made for imported US cars ? If not why are they allowed to be registered in the 1st place without modifications for Ireland ? Has anyone put their US car through the test ? Thanks all.

It will fail. Side lamps have to be white in colour, orange side lamps are a definite fail. Your friend will have to spend a bit of money, and get european lights for the RAV 4.

Sticky Fingers

Thanks All, it's a bit stupid that it is ok to run the car before the NCT with these orange sides and then possibly fail after the test, isn't it ?

Leonard Hofstadter

The orange bumper marker lights DON'T fail, otherwise there would be no Volvo's from the 90s on our roads:).

Atlantic Dawn

I presume they have already got their headlights adjusted for driving on the left side of the road so as not to be blinding oncoming traffic?

gofaster_s13

You cant adjust the headlights, but not sure if beam bender stickers will do.

Sticky Fingers

Yeah, the headlights have been adjusted to suit driving on the left, it is just a matter of putting stickers on the headlight glass to redirect the beam. I think she should put it through the test and see what happens. Now that I'm aware of this, I have seen other cars on the road with the orange beam sidelights and they are driving around no problem.

Cookie_Monster

I wouldn't trust those stickers tbh.

Was in Switzerland a few years ago, by coach. Put the recommended grade on the lights before leaving England.

Melted after two days leaving a horrid black mess covering half the light

Big Nasty

In relation to the sidemarkers they are orange at the front and red at the rear in the US. AFAIK they must be orange on all four corners if used here.

Darsad

Sticky Fingers wrote: »

Yeah, the headlights have been adjusted to suit driving on the left, it is just a matter of putting stickers on the headlight glass to redirect the beam. I think she should put it through the test and see what happens. Now that I'm aware of this, I have seen other cars on the road with the orange beam sidelights and they are driving around no problem.

Unfortunately this will not pass the headlights will have to be changed The postal service in the US buy right hand drive cars (so the postman is next to the kerb while delivering mail ) Many of these cars have been brought here but as they are fitted with Left hand headlamps they fail the NCT and stickers will not pass. I know one guy who had to change both headlamps on a US RHD Subaru Legacy to get it through the NCT here.

zilog_jones

Some can be adjusted, I don't know about these specifically.

I've seen a few modern US cars on Irish plates, they often just have those sticker things on the lenses. Don't know how that can pass the NCT...

BarryM

Where are you located? If it is 'down the country' I'd suggest using a local garage to bring it through the NCT......

Sticky Fingers

I'm in Dublin, I spoke to the NCT people and they said that the stickers on the headlights are fine and they'll pass the test, unfortunately they said the orange side lights will fail as they must be white. This either means replacing the entire headlamp units or trying to retro fit small side lights which evidently can be done quite easily. I think she would much prefer the latter rather than being ripped off for new headlamps