Will it pass or will it fail ;)

CiniO

Tomorrow my car is going for NCT.

It's 01 Fiat bravo with 120k miles on the clock.

I'm not an mechanic, but pretty much I was doing all servicing and maintenance with that car myself.
2 year ago I changed timing belt (first time in my life - I was really happy after finished when engine started, because I wasn't sure if it's going to work).
I've done plenty of work with suspension and brakes few months back. New set of shock absorbers, new springs (eibach lowering), new wishbones, new stabiliser-ends, new tie rods (inside and outside), new brake pads (front) and linings (back), etc. I fitted strut-brace as well.

I've set up tracking old fashion way using a piece of string.
I've set up lighs just today just using the measuring tape and big wall in front.

Generally I was doing most of this stuff for the first time in my live, taking some knowledge from manuals from internet, and some was just experimenting if I can do it or not.

Tomorrow we will see how the result is, at the NCT centre

I've put a little poll - how do you think - will it pass or not?

barura

Should pass. Also, where is the poll?

Big Nasty

I hope for you that it does and I'm sure you'll report back but with the NCT none of us can guess acurately TBH.

Hiace.

If the car is dogy, don't forget to leave €50 in the glovebox.

YouTookMyName

Which test centre Westport Or Ballina?

CiniO

YouTookMyName wrote: »

Which test centre Westport Or Ballina?

Does it make any difference?

CiniO

Hiace. wrote: »

If the car is dogy, don't forget to leave €50 in the glovebox.

I always thought that bag of marshmallows should be enough ;P

gpjordanf1

CiniO wrote: »

I've set up tracking old fashion way using a piece of string.
I've set up lighs just today just using the measuring tape and big wall in front.

If your car passes the NCT just based on the above, I would be horribly worried about the safety standards in this country.

No offence to you of course.

YouTookMyName

CiniO wrote: »

Does it make any difference?

Only asking! :P Evil bunch in Westport though.

SouperComputer

gpjordanf1 wrote: »

If your car passes the NCT just based on the above, I would be horribly worried about the safety standards in this country.

No offence to you of course.

Why? Its not the method that matters, it's the end result. If its in tolerance and passes then its good. Weather you use a laser setup, a set square and a bob or eyeball it is irrelevant. What's right is right as Mike Strutter would say.

CiniO

YouTookMyName wrote: »

Only asking! :P Evil bunch in Westport though.

Heh so I'm going just there - Westport.

gpjordanf1

SouperComputer wrote: »

Why? Its not the method that matters, it's the end result. If its in tolerance and passes then its good. Weather you use a laser setup, a set square and a bob or eyeball it is irrelevant. What's right is right as Mike Strutter would say.

As I said to the OP, no offence, but IMO I would not be happy sharing the road with a DIY project like this, may it be a good job or not.

Each man to his own profession is what I say. I pay professionals to do their job as I expect to be paid to do my job.

If the end result was he made a mistake then it could cost lives on the road.

end a eknny

gpjordanf1 wrote: »

As I said to the OP, no offence, but IMO I would not be happy sharing the road with a DIY project like this, may it be a good job or not.

Each man to his own profession is what I say. I pay professionals to do their job as I expect to be paid to do my job.

If the end result was he made a mistake then it could cost lives on the road.

based on what. if the o.p is capable he has the advantage over some of the so called professionals

CiniO

gpjordanf1 wrote: »

As I said to the OP, no offence, but IMO I would not be happy sharing the road with a DIY project like this, may it be a good job or not.

Each man to his own profession is what I say. I pay professionals to do their job as I expect to be paid to do my job.

If the end result was he made a mistake then it could cost lives on the road.

NCT will surely show if it was a good job or not...

But I can't really see how it could cost lives, except from some kind of major mistake like fitting something completely wrong. But in that case, I would know much earlies, because as I said - all suspension and brakes were done good few months ago.

gpjordanf1

CiniO wrote: »

I'm not an mechanic

end a eknny wrote: »

based on what. if the o.p is capable he has the advantage over some of the so called professionals

Ok thats your opinion, I've nothing more to add to this really!

heate

People fret so much about NCT's . It's a test of road worthiness not if your car is as it was new! Put it thru the test see whats wrong get that fixed and hey presto you're road worthy.
People who go for pre nct checks or get the car serviced before are insane. Though at least the car is finally seeing an oil change in some cases!

Dilbert75

I've given you a vote of confidence CiniO - you sound like you know pretty well what you're doing, certainly as much as many people making a living out of car repair, and you've replaced a lot of bits that often wouldn't be replaced in a car of that age.

One thing is certain: paying someone a lot of money to use expensive equipment in a shiny building is no guarantee of good workmanship. There's a lot to be said for tracking your car with baling twine, aligning the headlights against a wall and the rest. Just cos it doesn't look as impressive doesn't mean the results are less good.

no1beemerfan

gpjordanf1 wrote: »

As I said to the OP, no offence, but IMO I would not be happy sharing the road with a DIY project like this, may it be a good job or not.

Each man to his own profession is what I say. I pay professionals to do their job as I expect to be paid to do my job.

If the end result was he made a mistake then it could cost lives on the road.

I couldn't disagree more with the above post. I'm an accountant and today I've changed the oil, oilfilter, airfilter, pollen filter, sparkplugs, cleaned the throttle body housing and breather pipes, put on a new back exhaust box, replaced the brake caliper front drivers side, replaced the pistons on the rear wheels and put in fresh brake fluid and put a new alternator belt on the car too. I also checked the gear oil level (which I replaced last year along with the coolent). In January I put new shocks and springs on the car. My car runs like a dream and IS very safe.

My father gave my mothers car to the professionals to do the brakes on her car. They charged him for replacing all pads/shoes front and rear. A week later my mother was saying her back brakes seemed funny. Dad took off the hubs....the pistons were leaking and one shoe had completely come away. Thats right....the PROFESSIONALS had not even bothered to do anything with the back brakes even though they charged for doing so.

Just because one is not a qualified mechanic or didn't train as a mechanic doesn't mean they cannot look after a car. At the last NCT (when I'd my car six years and it had almost 180k miles) the tester said mine was in way better nick than a lot of 4 to 6 year old cars they were testing.

Fair play op for doing what you did and I'd say your car will pass!

-Corkie-

gpjordanf1 wrote: »

Ok thats your opinion, I've nothing more to add to this really!

I disagree, I post on this forum every day of the week and Cinio knows a fair bit about cars and mechanics. It dont take long for the bullsh1ter to be seperated from the man who knows his stuff...;)

johnos1984

-Corkie- wrote: »

I post on this forum every day of the week. It dont take long for the bullsh1ter to be seperated from the man who knows his stuff...;)

Aye but some choose to ignore the obvious

SouperComputer

gpjordanf1 wrote: »

As I said to the OP, no offence, but IMO I would not be happy sharing the road with a DIY project like this, may it be a good job or not.

Each man to his own profession is what I say. I pay professionals to do their job as I expect to be paid to do my job.

If the end result was he made a mistake then it could cost lives on the road.

Many people are capable of more than one profession, especially in an information age. Paying somebody to do their job does not guarantee quality of work and this has been evidenced time and time again ad nauseum.

The last part of your statement is pure FUD. Death as a consequence is a distant possibility to say the least, and really stating something like this does nothing to add to the discussion.
I'd rather see people take responsibility for their car's condition, rather than relying on soley on the NCT as well as "professionals" and still end up driving around on shredded tyres, clapped out balljoints or other such real and apparent dangers.

The reality is that, weather you like it or not, you are sharing the road with many cars that you are concerned about. Perhaps they are going to veer off the road at any given moment, perhaps not. Personally the nut I'm the most concerned with on any car is the one holding the steering wheel. Stats back this reasoning up pretty comfortably.

wonski

One advice Cinio - have a look underneath the car to see brake lines condition. Mine, and my friend's Bravo failed on this particular item. As someone mentioned before it is only NCT, and it is not that hatd to pass as some might think.
As for people suggesting that your car is unsafe, as you are not qualified mechanic. Well I do lot of work on my car meself, and it is not a rocket science really. Saves a lot of money in the long run. At least you know whats been done. Always feel little unsafe when leave the garage, and do quick check under the bonet, underneath the car, and check if the wheels are ok as soon as I get back to home. This is how much faith I have with qualified mechanics.

dr.fuzzenstein

I did say no, but not for any of the suspension work, etc..
If it does fail it will be something small, I'd say lights out of alignment.
However, if it does pass, can you please tell the rest of us how you did the lights?:)
As for the rest, it should be ok, unless the tracking is off.
Please keep us posted.
Also, the NCT isn't failproof. Her car passed, but when I had a look at the rear brakes a few weeks later, the pads where down, caliper seized, discs fubar'd and generally in a bad way. Shouldn't have passed.

Hiace.

gpjordanf1 wrote: »

As I said to the OP, no offence, but IMO I would not be happy sharing the road with a DIY project like this, may it be a good job or not.

Each man to his own profession is what I say. I pay professionals to do their job as I expect to be paid to do my job.

If the end result was he made a mistake then it could cost lives on the road.

Mate, all I can say is you have some faith in Irish mechanics.
Many of them could not give two ****s, they just rush change the oil and filter (if you're lucky) and then pretend to check/adjust the rest, unless it's way out, and then they'll do it.
They wouldn't do half the job the OP has done.

unkel

CiniO wrote: »

2 year ago I changed timing belt (first time in my life - I was really happy after finished when engine started, because I wasn't sure if it's going to work)

Nice one! And fair play to ya for doing the timing belt job yourself. I voted that your car will pass the NCT. Keep us updated

Our man in Havana

What time are you in at? I have every confidence in you.

CiniO

So here's the update.

Unfortunately, even though 23 people vote for pass while only 9 for fail - car failed.

Below is a result scan.

Only thing which was wrong was a bush on rear trailing arm on both sides.
As I mentioned earlier, few months ago I did general rebuild of suspension, including 4 shocks, 4 springs, 2 front wishbones, stabiliser ends, and tie rods with tie ends. But I never did anything with rear wishbones/arms, as they were fine at that moment.
Seems that that few months, was enough for them to become loose.
And indeed - after coming back home I lifted a car, and both of them are loose (about 1mm play) - so fail was fully justified.

Problem might be with fixing it, might be hard to find those bushes in Ireland (most likely they will have whole arm only which won't be cheap). You can order them from ebay from UK (here) for 50 quid per one + postage (I need two) but it's still bit expensive.
I found the same in Poland (here) for 50 Polish zl per one (which is about 12 euros) so that seems to be the most reasonable option.
I'm not sure if I'll be able to change them myself, as I read on some forum that they very often are to stiff, and you need to cut the screw to get it out, which might involve a need to take the whole rear suspension off the car, including the fuel tank (sound to me like a major job).

Anyway - I'm generally happy with the result, as everything else which I've done passed no problems, including wheel alignment, and lights alignment.
All suspension, brake and emission results are great, which I'm happy of, as it's quite unusual for 10 year old fiat

One more think I'd like to add here is that it proves that car testing is not a money making scam as some might say, but it's really needed.
I'm trying to keep my car in best shape I can, but even though I checked those bushes few months back, I didn't realize they were gone now (there wasn't any knocking sound while driving). It's almost impossible for owner to be able to check everything in the car regularly, so NCT from time to time comes very handy.

dr.fuzzenstein

How on earth did you get the lights alligned with a wall, bits of string and a bit of chalk?
I'd pay money to see that!:)

dr.fuzzenstein

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Its the old fashioned way, in the AA book of the car I have from the 70`s shows you how to do it. To hell with fancy lasers and expensive equipment

Hey, i have one of those lying around, from 1977!
Must have a look.
Remember when the lights thingy came in? Getting your lights adjusted cost E50 in some places, "because it's highly sophistimacated doohickery wot cost a lot of money".
In Germany the garage would do your lights for free, here its a major source of income.

barura

Ah balls! I had faith! Pity you didn't get it man. Don't be disheartened, fix her up and put her through. It would be a shame not to after coming this far!

CiniO

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Hey, i have one of those lying around, from 1977!
Must have a look.
Remember when the lights thingy came in? Getting your lights adjusted cost E50 in some places, "because it's highly sophistimacated doohickery wot cost a lot of money".
In Germany the garage would do your lights for free, here its a major source of income.

In Poland in most cases if you bring a car for a test, and light are not adjusted properly - they will adjust it (at the test centre) and pass the car.
No additional charges for it usually.

CiniO

barura wrote: »

Ah balls! I had faith! Pity you didn't get it man. Don't be disheartened, fix her up and put her through. It would be a shame not to after coming this far!

Of course I will
That car is my toy

I didn't vote Cinio as it was only a guess either way
If you had inspected the suspension again yourself you'd have spotted the trailing arm bushes and sorted them.

lol at the chap that has a problem with folks adjusting tracking and headlights at home.

shamwari

Forget failing the NCT. Getting the TB done and aligning the lights by himself should have won the OP a prize!! Both jobs in theory require specialist tools. Brilliant result getting even those two jobs over the line!

Respect!

YouTookMyName

Like i said Evil bunch in Westport. Well done on everything else though.