NCT Broke my car!

CJ83

It seems everyone I talk to has a bad NCT story, particularly I'm referring to stories where the car has gone in fine and has been broken by someone doing the test. I've only talked to a small handful of people and so far I have a few good ones. Has anyone else got a bad story, more importantly did making any kind of complaint actually get you anywhere?

CJ83

A friend in work who I talk car stuff with. Went in they took the cap off to check the fluid levels and didn't put it back on. They did the test then called him out to the car and showed him their handy work. Engine bay was absolutely covered in steering fluid, insisted it's a leak and he must get it fixed, needless to say he was furious when it was painfully obvious it was their fault. Two cleans later and a few months on do you think there's a leak? of course not.

CJ83

My best mate recently went in and his handbrake would have come on in three clicks of the lever now requires full extension and still doesn't hold on a hill. It actually Passed the test. Someone else went in they broke the key in the ignition, how do you break a key? From the story I heard he kicked up quite the fuss, and rightly so.

CJ83

And lastly the reason for this post, I've just been out fixing a family members car. They failed it and nearly wouldn't let them drive it home because they couldn't close the bonnet. They broke the mechanism inside the car. The handle moves about 120 degrees when you pull it, but it only needs to be pulled about 60 degrees to open the bonnet. They were just in a rush, careless and forced it too hard.
These stories are only from the few people I've even talked to about the NCT, and despite making complaints they have got absolutely nowhere. I think it's ridiculous. These guys don't care in the slightest and at this stage they must know that they don't even have to.

Max Power1

do you talk to yourself often

bmw535d

in diesel yoks they make you sign a form saying that if your engine blows up while they are testing it, they cannot be held responsible. even though thats not worth the paper its wrote on, it must have happened to someone before.

CJ83

Max Power1 wrote: »

do you talk to yourself often

When I'm annoyed I do, yes. Sorry rant over, but that's what the internet is for yeah?:mad:

Anan1

I've NCTd lots of cars, never had any problems. The only complaint i've ever heard personally (as opposed to on the internet) was a German tester telling a friends wife not to use her foglights on a clear day.

johndaman66

Anan1 wrote: »

a German tester telling a friends wife not to use her foglights on a clear day.

Allbeit not particularly his place to say but thats a fair enough comment he made I would have thought?

SV

The guy I bought my clio off(who's on here incidentally) had the NCT burst the radiator on it when he was getting the car tested.

As far as I'm aware they paid for a new one.

Funfair

Anan1 wrote: »

German tester telling a friends wife not to use her foglights on a clear day.

I bet he was looking at her chest when he said that and got all flustered

biko

Anan1 wrote: »

The only complaint i've ever heard personally (as opposed to on the internet) was a German tester telling a friends wife not to use her foglights on a clear day.

Fair play to the lad!

On topic, nope never had an issue nor have I heard of one.

El Guapo!

Two weeks ago a guy I know brought his 05 Aston Martin DB9 to be NCT'd (in the Ballymun centre). They failed it on advanced corrosion on the front brake lines. Now this guy is extremely particular with his car so he knew there was no problem with the pipes. He argued his case but was told basically to go away.

He immediately brought the car up to Aston Martin in belfast and asked them to check the pipes. They said there was a miniscule nit of surface rust on one of the pipes but its definately not a fail by a country mile. They took photographs and he got an official letter from them to state their opinion. He returned to the NCT and showed them but they still insisted they were right. They finally agreed to get the car inspected by an independant engineer (AA). The inspection had to be carried out in the test centre and under the supervision of NCT officials. The engineer said there was absolutely nothing wrong with any aspect of the car and it should be passed. The NCT officials were extremely pissed off but they had to pass it (without an apology)

The owner told me it was nothing to do with money but it was the principle of it all. He'd have no problem getting it repaired if it was genuinely damaged (as I said he's very particular and spares no expense)
At least he got a result!

solerina

Its only a small thing but it caused me a lot of hassle....my old car was a hatch back with rear windscreen wiper and those lines to defrost the window....both worked properly before the NCT as it was a frosty month when I was doing the test and had used them the day before...any way after the shaking about the car got doing the NCT neither of them ever worked again.

sean1141

been true the test about 7or 8 times with various cars and never had a problem

Guy:Incognito

I havtn had any issues with any of my cars but my uncle is a panel beater that does a fair bit of Lotus work and had an Elise in a couple of months back that had been jacked up at the wrong points durign an NCT. broken fibreglass everywhere

rodneys

not a bad story but I once took my uncles 93 fiesta in for its nct, thought the steering was a bit iffy on the way, they drove it in did the emissions /lights etc, was driving it forward to do brakes and stopped ( I was watchin from window) , called over 4 others and they all lifted the front passenger side up an rolled the car backwards out of the centre the ball joint had popped out, was worn to hell , To give em their due they re-funded me and told me if I got it fixed that day they would do the test again.
so there i was stranded 30 miles from home, had a look in the boot, and there were some spanners and a hammer , jacked it up put it back in, went down the road bought a new on , drove back up and fitted it in the car park of the nct centre:p , and got it passed:D

FunkyExige

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

I havtn had any issues with any of my cars but my uncle is a panel beater that does a fair bit of Lotus work and had an Elise in a couple of months back that had been jacked up at the wrong points durign an NCT. broken fibreglass everywhere

Funny i was going to post on this thread myself. That's the car my partner bought! Small world or what! I dont have pics at the moment but the damage to the sills was bad! It was before it was bought by us and the nct didn't give the guy anything and it wasn't a cheap fix either! Unreal they can get away with it. All they had to do was look at the manual to see the jacking points?! I think its unfair that if they dont know how to do something or open something etc that they can't just come and ask to be shown how it works. It's horrible having to take any car you love in those places

Guy:Incognito

FunkyExige wrote: »

Funny i was going to post on this thread myself. That's the car my partner bought! Small world or what! I dont have pics at the moment but the damage to the sills was bad! It was before it was bought by us and the nct didn't give the guy anything and it wasn't a cheap fix either! Unreal they can get away with it. All they had to do was look at the manual to see the jacking points?! I think its unfair that if they dont know how to do something or open something etc that they can't just come and ask to be shown how it works. It's horrible having to take any car you love in those places

Sure is Yeah I had a look when it was up in the garage, damage was bad alright.

OT but my cousin (the panel beaters son) drives an Elise himself and lives where theres on street parking (all parallel) . People keep hitting it when parking. It's been cracked pretty bad a few times. They just crumble with any sort of contact.

FunkyExige

Ive heard a few of his stories alright on octane Ive been really lucky with more then 6 years of everyday driving a lotus (elise then exige) and never had anyone tip into me. Then again the problem is the cars are so low that some people just dont check their mirrors good enough but your cousin has been mega unlucky in fairness! The idea with the lotus is that the front and back ends are all one piece to aid in a crash, basically your in a crash box that protects you in the crash and the clams are made so they sustain all the damage. Its a very safe car but then again that design isnt great for small tips because sometimes you may need the full clam repaired/replaced instead of what would be a small panel or bumper on another car. In fact this quote says it all about how their designed:

"The chassis design is inspired by F-1 cars and utilizes a self-sacrificing principle"

Midnight_EG

FunkyExige wrote: »

Ive heard a few of his stories alright on octane Ive been really lucky with more then 6 years of everyday driving a lotus (elise then exige) and never had anyone tip into me. Then again the problem is the cars are so low that some people just dont check their mirrors good enough but your cousin has been mega unlucky in fairness!

To be fair...nobody could possibly miss your car

FunkyExige

Midnight_EG wrote: »

To be fair...nobody could possibly miss your car

Thats a fair point :P But from 2005-2009 i drove a dark blue one so not quite as easy to notice!!

Voodoomelon

Meh, you only hear the bad stories, not the thousands of good ones every week.

dnme

Have we any NCT testers on here?

scudzilla

Does the 50Euro in the ashtray still work?

Topdeck

scudzilla wrote: »

Does the 50Euro in the ashtray still work?

No i think them days are gone i tried it with the tester because i knew my car would fail on the air bag light.He said no way he couldnt do it.

mondeo

scudzilla wrote: »

Does the 50Euro in the ashtray still work?

No it went up to 55 in the last budget.

dr.fuzzenstein

Topdeck wrote: »

No i think them days are gone i tried it with the tester because i knew my car would fail on the air bag light.He said no way he couldnt do it.

I bought a Focus last year, it was such a wreck that it would not have passed the NCT in a million years on front suspension alone.
It had a brand new NCT with a letter stating that the computer was broken and therefore no NCT report was available with the cert.
That just screams "dodgy" to me.

doctorchopper

Topdeck wrote: »

No i think them days are gone i tried it with the tester because i knew my car would fail on the air bag light.He said no way he couldnt do it.

easy fix, take the bulb out

stevenmu

doctorchopper wrote: »

easy fix, take the bulb out

I think they're supposed to check that the bulb lights up for the self test when the car is started. A very easy thing to miss or overlook though.

Topdeck

doctorchopper wrote: »

easy fix, take the bulb out

I did,the fecker failed me on it not lighting up

JodTT

Dean09 wrote: »

Two weeks ago a guy I know brought his 05 Aston Martin DB9 to be NCT'd (in the Ballymun centre). They failed it on advanced corrosion on the front brake lines. Now this guy is extremely particular with his car so he knew there was no problem with the pipes. He argued his case but was told basically to go away.

He immediately brought the car up to Aston Martin in belfast and asked them to check the pipes. They said there was a miniscule nit of surface rust on one of the pipes but its definately not a fail by a country mile. They took photographs and he got an official letter from them to state their opinion. He returned to the NCT and showed them but they still insisted they were right. They finally agreed to get the car inspected by an independant engineer (AA). The inspection had to be carried out in the test centre and under the supervision of NCT officials. The engineer said there was absolutely nothing wrong with any aspect of the car and it should be passed. The NCT officials were extremely pissed off but they had to pass it (without an apology)

The owner told me it was nothing to do with money but it was the principle of it all. He'd have no problem getting it repaired if it was genuinely damaged (as I said he's very particular and spares no expense)
At least he got a result!

Funny you mention advance corrosion on brake lines. My boyf recently had his car NCTed in Deansgrange. He drives a 99 Hyundai Accent. He was also told there was advance corrosion on the brake lines. My Dad is a mechanic and took a look at it, only to find that the brake lines on the car are made of copper, and therefore can't rust!!!! He's had plenty of experience with NCT guys and said you'd be arguing until you're blue in the face trying to explain this to the guys. In the end, he completely replaced the brake lines and it passed the second test! :rolleyes:

challengemaster

Voodoomelon wrote: »

Meh, you only hear the bad stories, not the thousands of good ones every week.

They're being paid to do a job the right way, so it's expected they'll do it right. Would you prefer we give them a round of applause every time they do it too?

manatoo

JodTT wrote: »

Funny you mention advance corrosion on brake lines. My boyf recently had his car NCTed in Deansgrange. He drives a 99 Hyundai Accent. He was also told there was advance corrosion on the brake lines. My Dad is a mechanic and took a look at it, only to find that the brake lines on the car are made of copper, and therefore can't rust!!!! He's had plenty of experience with NCT guys and said you'd be arguing until you're blue in the face trying to explain this to the guys. In the end, he completely replaced the brake lines and it passed the second test! :rolleyes:

I can go one better - I brought my ancient car in for NCT just before Christmas knowing it would fail but just putting it throught to see what needed doing. So the brakes are screeching, 2 of the tyres dont have the "E" rating, 2 had only about 40% thread left and the spare in the boot was flat! How did it get on? Failed on advanced brake line corrosion. No mention of the other blatantly obvious problems! Retest had to be taken by the 9th January

So after asking several mechanics to look at it all of which quoted starting prices of €300 for the work but none of which would actually take the job on...."oh the tank will have to come out to do that...you never know with these old yokes if it'll go back up"...and so on, I got down under it myself on the morning of the 9th, sanded the corrosion off the pipe and brought it for the test. Passed no problem. Total cost - €3.50 for a piece of emery cloth.

Glad she passed but it does beg the question of the effectiveness of the test....

YouTookMyName

NCT is just a money racket.

dr.fuzzenstein

manatoo wrote: »

I can go one better - I brought my ancient car in for NCT just before Christmas knowing it would fail but just putting it throught to see what needed doing. So the brakes are screeching, 2 of the tyres dont have the "E" rating, 2 had only about 40% thread left and the spare in the boot was flat! How did it get on? Failed on advanced brake line corrosion. No mention of the other blatantly obvious problems! Retest had to be taken by the 9th January

So after asking several mechanics to look at it all of which quoted starting prices of €300 for the work but none of which would actually take the job on...."oh the tank will have to come out to do that...you never know with these old yokes if it'll go back up"...and so on, I got down under it myself on the morning of the 9th, sanded the corrosion off the pipe and brought it for the test. Passed no problem. Total cost - €3.50 for a piece of emery cloth.

Glad she passed but it does beg the question of the effectiveness of the test....

Next time bring it back without doing anything to them, bet it'll pass just the same.
Heard of one guy, got failed on lights 3 times, every time brought it into another garage to have them refocused, no good, they even focused them downwards a bit, no good.
Brought it back, got tested in another lane, passed no problem.

manatoo

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Next time bring it back without doing anything to them, bet it'll pass just the same.
Heard of one guy, got failed on lights 3 times, every time brought it into another garage to have them refocused, no good, they even focused them downwards a bit, no good.
Brought it back, got tested in another lane, passed no problem.

+1. I've heard of people getting completely different reading on the brake test depending on which lane their car is tested in.

The funny thing was that the re-test dude was surprised that the orginial tester had failed the brake lines at all. He said "some of them are very fussy" has he passed me the NCT cert... doesn't say much for consistency!

Gabbo57

YouTookMyName wrote: »

NCT is just a money racket.

Care to elaborate?

phill106

Gabbo57 wrote: »

Care to elaborate?

it is a scheme to get money out of the motoring public.

Failing because your numberplate has a different font? Or because your factory spec indicators aren't orange enough?
YOu get more points for no nct then for being caught doing 200mph.
Which brings me up to the new tyre rating rules. If your car can go xxx miles per hour, then your tyres must be rated to that speed. We aren't allowed to drive that fast!

2qk4u

I put my Taxi in for the NCT last year with the clutch almost gone, first and third were hard to select and no reverse, only gave me trouble the day before the test so I decided to put it in anyway, only failed on two shocks and a drop link, nothing said about the clutch or the fact that you could not select reverse.
I have my NCT again tonight, lets see what happens this time round.

Voodoomelon

challengemaster wrote: »

They're being paid to do a job the right way, so it's expected they'll do it right. Would you prefer we give them a round of applause every time they do it too?

And i'm sure you work to 100% of your ability 100% of the time and have no complaints about getting paid for it.

Unless the NCT is entirely automated, some allowances are to be made. I'm not saying i'd be delighted with an obvious f-up, but they're few and far between.

Slidey

I always have to laugh when these threads pop up.

I am sure mistakes have been made but some of the stories that crop up are a bit unbelievable.

I'm a DoE tester and in 3 years the only things I have broken were a hubcap, a wire on a headlight plug (sorry to the boardsie that owned that van ) and a headlight (kinda)

The hubcaps were all left on the van and I took them off and we put them on the floor incase we get blamed if they fall off, I missed one and backed over it, The owner was told and it was replaced for him.

The other 2 happened when I was trying to focus lights as I was testing it.

john.west

^^^ To be fair the DOE guys do little bits and pieces like changing bulbs and that so you would perhaps expect such little mishaps to happen more often. NCT guys wont do any such things and some of the things Ive being reading about them says little for their competence but all the same would hardly surprise me.

manatoo wrote: »

+1. I've heard of people getting completely different reading on the brake test depending on which lane their car is tested in.

The funny thing was that the re-test dude was surprised that the orginial tester had failed the brake lines at all. He said "some of them are very fussy" has he passed me the NCT cert... doesn't say much for consistency!

I was discussing mantoos brake line problem with him not too long back after I had a thread going on this. I previously had the exact same problem and the exact same fix as mantoo sorted me out for retest also. It was the exact same section of hose in the exact same model of car....unbelieveable, you could hardly call it a one off slip up by NCT. The brake line they failed me on was absolutely sound, not even surface rust but tarnished slightly as it was a copper hose. When I was under the car sorting out this I noticed a fuel hose line thats almost ready to crumple away with the rust...I mean wheres the common sense in that...do these guys brains go into shut down mode when their on the job...are they failed mechanics or something? Mind you I think you paid enough for the emery cloth @ €3.50 mantoo, i only paid €0.50 for the piece I got:p

On the brake imbalance. I had to get retest done twice and got the brake test done each time (three times in total) Failed first time out with the imbalance on rear axle being well over the 30% fail point (forget the exact figure). So fitted my brake shoes and adjusted them, took the car back for retest and the imbalance was on rear axle was 6% and a pass. However, this time round I failed on the "corrosion" on the brake line (had actually failed on this first time out also but thought they were talking about a bracket nearer the wheel). Polished the correct piece of hose up like mantoo and took it back for retest only 4 or 5 days later. The brake test was redone and imbalance on rear axle was 24% but still a pass as it was below 30%. I didn't adjust the brakes in the slightest in the meantime and ensured the tyre pressures were the same in all wheels on both occassions before I went car. Car was in a different lane, so I'm guessing this does not say a whole lot for the calibration (or lack thereof) their equipment....the mind boggles sometimes.

Slidey

Brake imbalances can vary quite significantly on the same rollers. Wet tyres, not being perfectly straight in the rollers and the testers foot on the brake pedal can all affect the outcome of the reading.


If you have a vehicle with a borderline imbalance, a slow press of the brake may get it to pass whereas if you you press the pedal hard and fast it will more than likely fail

john.west

Slidey wrote: »

Brake imbalances can vary quite significantly on the same rollers. Wet tyres, not being perfectly straight in the rollers and the testers foot on the brake pedal can all affect the outcome of the reading.


If you have a vehicle with a borderline imbalance, a slow press of the brake may get it to pass whereas if you you press the pedal hard and fast it will more than likely fail

Fair enough Slidey, I appreciate that there will be a certain margain for error but 24% versus 6% with the exact same tyre pressures, less than 70 miles travelled in the interm and weather conditions being generally the same on both occassions just doesn't seem right to me at all?...Maybe Im totally out of touch though and I cant claim to be knowledgeable in this area. In fact I think the car may have initially failed the brake imbalance test on the last retest as he back-tracked onto the roller again, if that makes sense....thats just speculation on my part though.

Such differences surely call into question the credability of the brake imbalance test?. One would have to assume that there are many instances where cars that should fail end up passing and visa versa.

My own personal observations of the NCT would lead me to believe that they abide strictly by the manual without applying their own judgement or common sense. For example failing a slightly tarnished brake line for having "advanced corrosion" with the same car having a fuel line thats about to crumple away with the rust (must get that sorted actually;)). I can provide a few other examples from my own experience if need be.

Little Mickey

F*ck NCT

I've a horse outside

Tigger

Little Mickey wrote: »

F*ck NCT

I've a horse outside

2010 called : they want their meme back

Mc Love

Did the NCT before and when I got in the car after the test - the interior light was hanging down

Was easy to fix though

nogoodnamesleft

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

I havtn had any issues with any of my cars but my uncle is a panel beater that does a fair bit of Lotus work and had an Elise in a couple of months back that had been jacked up at the wrong points durign an NCT. broken fibreglass everywhere

Same thing happened my mates S2 Elise. caused a crack in the sideskirt on the passengers side in front of the rear wheel.

FunkyExige wrote: »

Funny i was going to post on this thread myself. That's the car my partner bought! Small world or what! I dont have pics at the moment but the damage to the sills was bad! It was before it was bought by us and the nct didn't give the guy anything and it wasn't a cheap fix either! Unreal they can get away with it. All they had to do was look at the manual to see the jacking points?! I think its unfair that if they dont know how to do something or open something etc that they can't just come and ask to be shown how it works. It's horrible having to take any car you love in those places

Small world.....I recon your partner bought a blue Elise S2 from the south in a place starting with K ;-)

Pulsating Star

nogoodnamesleft wrote: »

Same thing happened my mates S2 Elise. caused a crack in the sideskirt on the passengers side in front of the rear wheel.
QUOTE]

As the jacking points on fibreglass cars can be very specific and there are so few about I dont see as testers could be expected to know in all cases. It would be in the owners best interest to go through their locations with the tester beforehand as missing them can be so messy.

Viper_JB

Pulsating Star wrote: »

As the jacking points on fibreglass cars can be very specific and there are so few about I dont see as testers could be expected to know in all cases. It would be in the owners best interest to go through their locations with the tester beforehand as missing them can be so messy.

At the same time if I wasn't sure where to jack a car I'd ask or find out, what I wouldn't do is throw caution to the wind, and risk damaging the car for the space of time it takes to ask a question. But again no accountability means they do not give two sh!t's about other peoples property, personally I would be livid if this happened to me. Ignorance isn't an excuse.