Annoyed with NCT

Kidchameleon

Hi,

Perhaps someone here can advise. Brought my car for NCT two weeks ago. It faild (transmission leak or something). So I booked a retest and then got mechanic to look at it. Mechanic found nothing wrong and couldant understand the fail. So I'm just back again from NCT and the car has passed? Despite the fact I got no additional work done! Should I complain? I fell like Ive been robbed a retest fee and mechanic fee :-( Mods move if this is the wrong forum.

Thanks for reading.

Ps. Sorry if grammer is bad im on mobile at the moment.

S28382

As always when dealing with the nct they will try and fob you off so make your complaint as strong as possible they are arseholes for pushing the complaint from one person to the next, i dont know how far complaining will get you over the issue you had, like is it worth it, i know you had to go get a retest but from my experience in dealing with them before they will give you the run around (if you take it from them of course) the fact that you have the cert now is good so i would still make a complaint but i wouldnt hold my breath in them doing anything about it.

andyseadog

funny, this is the very reason i love the NCT

my car recently failed on a cracked headlight mounting and a visually leaking rear shock despite the fact there was no pressure imbalance.

i intend to replace the headlight and jack up the rear of the car and degrease and wash the shock so as no oil is visible and it looks as if its been replaced with a "new" shock from a breakers. i would bet highly that it'l pass this time and cost me nothing

i'm kind of doing it for the experiment, results should be interesting.

Anan1

OP - Are you sure your mechanic didn't say something like 'Ah sure it's only a little weep, nothing to worry about' and wipe down the gearbox before you brought the car back for its retest?

S28382

andyseadog wrote: »

funny, this is the very reason i love the NCT

my car recently failed on a cracked headlight mounting and a visually leaking rear shock despite the fact there was no pressure imbalance.

i intend to replace the headlight and jack up the rear of the car and degrease and wash the shock so as no oil is visible and it looks as if its been replaced with a "new" shock from a breakers. i would bet highly that it'l pass this time and cost me nothing

i'm kind of doing it for the experiment, results should be interesting.

Yeah girlfriends car failed on a shock but a mechanic told her it was ok for another while so what they did was clean the shock and wrote on the shock to make it seem as if it came from a breakers yard and low and behold it passed the test...with the exact same shock.......sometimes the nct does nothing for the health of any car on the road.....now im not saying its right to deceive them about any car but it just goes to show that they dont actually be checking things properly.

I've a retest on Friday. Car failed on a serious oil leak. It had never ever had a leak before the took it in and after driving out the car was pouring out oil. The only thing a mechanic could find was a crack in the oil cap so I had it replaced but it's still bloody annoying that the car didn't have that issue going in.

Anyway OP, yes, I absolutely would be putting in a complaint with a view to getting a refund of the test fee.

bazz26

OP, are you now missing €50 from your ashtray? :pac:

YumDeiseMum

I was failed on a power steering fluid leak. Funny that there's nothing leaking onto the driveway and my mechanic couldn't find any leak. Just waiting on a retest now so fingers crossed I'm one of the lucky ones that will be passed this time

Kidchameleon

Anan1 wrote: »

OP - Are you sure your mechanic didn't say something like 'Ah sure it's only a little weep, nothing to worry about' and wipe down the gearbox before you brought the car back for its retest?

He said there was absolutely nothing he could find that was wrong. He basically said I must have got someone who was having a bad day...

Syllabus

nct is a load of &*%$

it is no way a standardised test

it completely comes down to the tester. were they out on the lash the night before. did they have a set to with the missus before work. is their mind somewhere else.

the testers own work history comes into it too. say they spent 5 yrs working on peugeot and therefore know the brake load sensing valves seize then you'll fail. but if they worked on nissan all their career then they may not know about it and then you'll pass.

there are so many different common faults with every make that its impossible for every tester to know every fault but it shouldn't be the car owner that suffers

Anan1

Kidchameleon wrote: »

He said there was absolutely nothing he could find that was wrong. He basically said I must have got someone who was having a bad day...

I'd be surprised, TBH. What exactly did it say on the results sheet?

cscook

To the OP, I hope you did complain.
We were once failed on misaligned lights. Brought it to our local mechanic who checked them, said they were perfect and wouldn't adjust them to be what he considered wrong. Brought it back, passed. Wrote and complained, and "without prejudice and admitting no liability" got a refund. Hope you do too.

Kidchameleon

Hi guys. Got my money back. Thanks all for your help :-):-):-)