Preperation for nct

Thumpette

Hi All,

I was looking from some NCT advice.

I have my NCT tomorrow evening at 7 something (must check my mail)

My plan is not to get any pre-checks, I'll just let it go through and cross my fingers!

I just read through the PDF showing what is checked- a lot of the technical stuff is double dutch but I think I should be ok on most things I can understand.

I've had my tyres changed recently enough and they have that symbol they are meant to have
I have no modifications of any kind- bog standard 00 corolla
I had my brake pads changed recently (apparantly they were in a shocking state!)
All the doors/ seatbelts etc work fine and dandy.

So my plan tonight is:
Clean out the car
Give it a car wash
Check the tyre pressure (himself informs me he knows how to do this.. hmmm)
Check the oil levels
Check the water (I do this all the time anyway as standard (cough cough)

Then tomorrow before the test I plan to go to a garage and get the lights alligned as I've heard of a lot of people failing in this

My question is: Is there anything else cheap and easy you can advise me to do in preperation

and

Does anyone know of a garage near the northpoint test centre where I can book to have my lights alligned tomorrow?

Thanks!:D

af_thefragile

see if all the lights work...?

Thumpette

Yeah good plan! I had thought of that myself but it could have easily slipped through the checklist alright!

homer90

Thumpette wrote: »

My question is: Is there anything else cheap and easy you can advise me to do in preperation

Rev the nuts out of it, on the way to the center

No Really !!

Thumpette

homer90 wrote: »

Rev the nuts out of it, on the way to the center

No Really !!

Really? What does that do?

gbee

Thumpette wrote: »

Really? What does that do?

It gives it a good clean out, as long as the engine is in good condition. Too late now for tomorrow, but an engine treatment can be added to the petrol to give the engine a clean inside.

Take out the air filter and maybe buy a new one or blow it out with the air hose when checking tyre pressure. Be warned that if it's really dirty it will blow a lot of nasty stuff around, tap it off the side of a wall or something to get the heavier deposits off ~ but if it's really this bad, get a new one.

mickdw

At least you are wise enough not to pay someone to do a pre test which is an absolute waste of cash.
Id say you are just about spot on with your plan. Anything you can see yourself that is going to fail, well get that done. The headlight alignment is worth doing too at small cost but apart from that, let the NCT people tell you what it needs (if anything)

af_thefragile

Check for any smoke coming off the exhaust or any soot...

But its a bit late at this point to do anything about it.

Actually most NCT places are nice enough that if you get the parts fixed, they'll let you back for free and do the test again. Though I guess it also depends on how severe the problem is.

My sis failed her NCT cuz one of the lights wasn't working properly or something. The NCT person told her to get it fixed and get back to the center, he'll pass the NCT. She took it to a garage, got the light fixed, took it back to the center and the person gave her the NCT...

Thumpette

gbee wrote: »

It gives it a good clean out, as long as the engine is in good condition. Too late now for tomorrow, but an engine treatment can be added to the petrol to give the engine a clean inside.

Take out the air filter and maybe buy a new one or blow it out with the air hose when checking tyre pressure. Be warned that if it's really dirty it will blow a lot of nasty stuff around, tap it off the side of a wall or something to get the heavier deposits off ~ but if it's really this bad, get a new one.

My face is looking very scared right now. Have no idea what or where this filter you talk of is.

I reckon I might do more harm than good if i start going beyong my capabilities!

Thanks for all the advise- always a useful forum to visit!

No ideas on a garage in the santry/ ballymun area?

Thanks!

af_thefragile

Actually air filter is not that dificult to remove. But if you don't know what you'ld be doing then I'ld say you leave it alone.

I'ld say don't worry too much about it. Just see what the NCT people say and if you don't make it, atleast you know what you need to get fixed!

Gone Drinking

If your spare wheel is in your boot, make sure the boot is empty so they can get at it. Check it and make sure its ok. Remove all your hubcaps also.

Theres no consistency in the NCT, so i agree with what you're saying about pre nct checks. Friend of mine went in recently, passed on everything bar emissions, had to order in a cat from a main dealer, which meant he missed his retest, had to get the whole test over and failed on other stuff.

Retarded imo

Thumpette

Good point on the boot- will do that.

I have alloys I believe rather than hubcaps- I presume I just leave them as is?

Gone Drinking

If there's plates covering the nuts on the alloys, i think they have to be removed.

kazul

af_thefragile wrote: »

Check for any smoke coming off the exhaust or any soot...

af_thefragile

kazul wrote: »

Visible smoke from the exhaust... when you rev it up especially... It shouldn't be in a petrol car...

And a petrol car exhaust shouldn't be very sooty either...

slimjimmc

af_thefragile wrote: »

Check for any smoke coming off the exhaust or any soot...

But its a bit late at this point to do anything about it.

Actually most NCT places are nice enough that if you get the parts fixed, they'll let you back for free and do the test again. Though I guess it also depends on how severe the problem is.

My sis failed her NCT cuz one of the lights wasn't working properly or something. The NCT person told her to get it fixed and get back to the center, he'll pass the NCT. She took it to a garage, got the light fixed, took it back to the center and the person gave her the NCT...

That's probably because most light failures (except headlight alignment) are visual tests and all visual tests which don't require the use of test equipment are free. I doubt they would allow her a free test using the test lane out of niceness because I'd be surprised if there isn't an computerised audit trail showing when lane tests and lane retests were done.

Nunchuk

Gone Drinking wrote: »

If your spare wheel is in your boot, make sure the boot is empty so they can get at it. Check it and make sure its ok.

The spare wheel is not part of the NCT for private vehicles. It's only required for taxis and hackneys.

Divorce Referendum

Check that all your tyres have the 'e' mark on them. Should look like E4 with a circle around it. It can be any number though alongside the E i think. Alot of people have been failing on this issue recently.

Andrew Campbell

check the indicators are flashing orange in colour. Some cars have a white lens and the bulb is painted orange. this paint tends to flake off on older cars and many a car has failed on it.

Thumpette

Andrew Campbell wrote: »

check the indicators are flashing orange in colour. Some cars have a white lens and the bulb is painted orange. this paint tends to flake off on older cars and many a car has failed on it.

All lights checked and working grand

Divorce Referendum wrote: »

Check that all your tyres have the 'e' mark on them. Should look like E4 with a circle around it. It can be any number though alongside the E i think. Alot of people have been failing on this issue recently.

I have these thankfully! Got a fright when i heard this new rule but its all good.

Right so, car washed with the underside too, inside tidied, seatbelts closed, car tyre pressure set to 30, oil topped up, water topped up in the wiper water yoke, lights checked, boot cleared out.

I will try to get the lights aligned before it tomorrow and then its just fingers crossed! Thanks all for the advice!

Atlantic Dawn

Thumpette wrote: »

Then tomorrow before the test I plan to go to a garage and get the lights alligned as I've heard of a lot of people failing in this

Don't bother doing this as it's a waste of money pre NCT unless you can really notice them being off you are better to send it through the NCT and they will give you a reading of what's wrong and the garage can then make the correction.

VolvoMan

There's very little point in doing any preparation for the NCT besides the obvious (removing wheels covers where necessary). I just showed up with my car today with the above removed and the rear seatbelts connected and it passed with flying colours.

Thumpette

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Don't bother doing this as it's a waste of money pre NCT unless you can really notice them being off you are better to send it through the NCT and they will give you a reading of what's wrong and the garage can then make the correction.

Yeah my sister was telling me this today too- and she knows a lot more about cars than me! I might just give it a lash now as is

patrickc

Thumpette wrote: »

Yeah my sister was telling me this today too- and she knows a lot more about cars than me! I might just give it a lash now as is

yeh you've done all you can now, just lash her through

Thumpette

Oh god Patrick- I think I might have Wurzel Gummage nightmares now thanks to your avatar!

Scariest kids telly ever!

patrickc

Thumpette wrote: »

Oh god Patrick- I think I might have Wurzel Gummage nightmares now thanks to your avatar!

Scariest kids telly ever!

sorry but the best ever in my opinion ...


look at in youtube now you'll see it's not scary..

Thumpette

Well an update....

Failed- bah

But- twas only 2 small things though- so they are going to go a free visual recheck so long as I bring it back within a month

First thing was that a bit of plastic had broken off my wing mirror due to an unfortunate encounter with a car park pillar- left a bit of a sharp edge- hadnt even thought of it. Anyway found the bit of plastic still in the carpark so a quick glue job should do there.

2nd thing is that the battery isnt in a proper bracket thing- its just kind of sitting in the battery place- hopefully this wont be too hard to sort either.

So thats it- got the lights alligned in the end- who knows if they would have failed but I decided to go for it anyway.

So overall not a raging success but not so bad either!

patrickc

Thumpette wrote: »

Well an update....

Failed- bah

But- twas only 2 small things though- so they are going to go a free visual recheck so long as I bring it back within a month

First thing was that a bit of plastic had broken off my wing mirror due to an unfortunate encounter with a car park pillar- left a bit of a sharp edge- hadnt even thought of it. Anyway found the bit of plastic still in the carpark so a quick glue job should do there.

2nd thing is that the battery isnt in a proper bracket thing- its just kind of sitting in the battery place- hopefully this wont be too hard to sort either.

So thats it- got the lights alligned in the end- who knows if they would have failed but I decided to go for it anyway.

So overall not a raging success but not so bad either!

thats simple enough alright, you can get someone to fit a strap around the battery and that'll work also. have put cars through no bother with that and never been an issue.

if the plastic doesnt glue back you can buy one cheaply either from ebay or micksgarage.ie or somewhere like that

at least it's a free retest.

Thumpette

patrickc wrote: »

thats simple enough alright, you can get someone to fit a strap around the battery and that'll work also. have put cars through no bother with that and never been an issue.
QUOTE]

Good to know Cheap enough to sort do you reckon? I might wait and get it done in Donegal as everything seems to be more expensive in Dublin!

Merch

while I'm not entirely against reving it a bit, I certainly would give it a good warm up by running it on a drive, any nct where I was driving the car before hand (ie car warmed up) passed better on emmisions than not warmed up.

Check lights/bulbs, empty anything unecessary out of the boot, I do up all the other seat belts,
I'd be checking all fluid levels ie oil (on level ground)

Personally I time servicing my car a month or so before an nct (although I do it every year, not just the year for nct)

patrickc

Good to know Cheap enough to sort do you reckon? I might wait and get it done in Donegal as everything seems to be more expensive in Dublin![/QUOTE]

I had a strap thingy lying about was perfect , anyone should be able to get you a strap to fit it, and put it around cheaply enough like less than 10 for the strap.

Merch wrote: »

while I'm not entirely against reving it a bit, I certainly would give it a good warm up by running it on a drive, any nct where I was driving the car before hand (ie car warmed up) passed better on emmisions than not warmed up.

Check lights/bulbs, empty anything unecessary out of the boot, I do up all the other seat belts,
I'd be checking all fluid levels ie oil (on level ground)

Personally I time servicing my car a month or so before an nct (although I do it every year, not just the year for nct)

the car has been through the NCT and just failed on the 2 above things

Merch

patrickc wrote: »

Good to know Cheap enough to sort do you reckon? I might wait and get it done in Donegal as everything seems to be more expensive in Dublin!

I had a strap thingy lying about was perfect , anyone should be able to get you a strap to fit it, and put it around cheaply enough like less than 10 for the strap.



the car has been through the NCT and just failed on the 2 above things[/QUOTE]

I saw after I posted, I read the first few posts and when I saw the urgency I replied with my tips, then noticed it had already been through the test

Eoin

Thumpette wrote: »

I have alloys I believe rather than hubcaps- I presume I just leave them as is?

Lots of cars have wheel trims that look like alloys but aren't, so double check them. If they are wheel trims, then they might be attached with cable ties, which can be a pain to get off - so check that well in advance.

Make sure the boot and back seats are empty.