NCT fail on Airbag Light

Agricola

Had a '94 bmw e36 in for NCT today. One thing it failed on was the airbag light. The tester told me there was no sign of it in the dashboard. Thing is I dont remember ever seeing that light in the instrument cluster. My steering wheel has a small light called Airbag down at the bottom center of the wheel (as in pic), which comes on red for a few seconds when the car is started. Is this what he was looking for and missed it by looking in the dashboard, or should there be another one in there?

johnos1984

Sounds like he missed it to me

Sobanek

You can see that there is an airbag light on the far right.

And there is a SLIGHT chance that your car never came with an airbag, thus the airbag light not being present on the dashboard (the steering wheel didn't have to be original)

Fast forward to 0:45 - this steering wheel doesn't have an airbag.

zizou_

Earlier e36s had the airbag light on the steering wheel. This was changed to a light in the dash after 94ish. Nct must have missed it.

Agricola

Sobanek - Ive got a slightly different dash to what you have in those pics. Thing is I can never remember seeing the airbag light in the dash, and this car has passed 2 NCT's since Ive got it. Although, rules change I guess so maybe thats a moot point.

Zizou - thanks, didnt know that. Hope your right. It stands to reason that if the car has one AB and the Steering wheel has a warning light for it, the dash wouldnt need another one.

zizou_

Agricola wrote: »

Sobanek - Ive got a slightly different dash to what you have in those pics. Thing is I can never remember seeing the airbag light in the dash, and this car has passed 2 NCT's since Ive got it. Although, rules change I guess so maybe thats a moot point.

Zizou - thanks, didnt know that. Hope your right. It stands to reason that if the car has one AB and the Steering wheel has a warning light for it, the dash wouldnt need another one.

If you still have the owners manual show it to the NCT guy. It says the light can either be in the dash or on the wheel.

Agricola

zizou_ wrote: »

If you still have the owners manual show it to the NCT guy. It says the light can either be in the dash or on the wheel.

PM sent.

Agricola

Passed on the retest. NCT guy simply missed the light on the wheel. He actually missed it again, but luckily I was standing beside him this time!

Thanks to Zizou. Big help!

challengemaster

Personally I'd be sending Applus an email / letter asking why you had to have your time wasted because of their employees not being familiar with the cars they're testing. Surely if they're the ones testing them, they should know things like this.

MagicMarker

challengemaster wrote: »

Personally I'd be sending Applus an email / letter asking why you had to have your time wasted because of their employees not being familiar with the cars they're testing. Surely if they're the ones testing them, they should know things like this.

Big +1.

This would absolutely infuriate me.

mgbgt1978

OP could you not have pointed all this out to the NCT tester when he told you the reason for failing the car ?

Agricola

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

OP could you not have pointed all this out to the NCT tester when he told you the reason for failing the car ?

It also failed on a loose battery mounting (fair enough) and also a sticky outer door handle which sometimes stays up when the door is opened!

Del2005

challengemaster wrote: »

Personally I'd be sending Applus an email / letter asking why you had to have your time wasted because of their employees not being familiar with the cars they're testing. Surely if they're the ones testing them, they should know things like this.

Their only human and they test hundreds of different cars a week. How are they supposed to know that an 18 year old car has the light on the wheel when nearly every other car has it on the dash. That's even if Applus know where the Airbag light is on a 94 e36, as the cars owner didn't know where it was. If it was a newish 520/Mondeo etc I'd be looking for an answer but a relatively rare car!!

Do you remember every detail of everything you've been shown a few months/years later or do you forget the things that don't come up often like everyone else?

Guy:Incognito

challengemaster wrote: »

Personally I'd be sending Applus an email / letter asking why you had to have your time wasted because of their employees not being familiar with the cars they're testing. Surely if they're the ones testing them, they should know things like this.

Is there any mechanice that knows everything about every car?

At my last NCT it took the guy 3 goes and calling another guy over before they realised why doing the handbrake test on the rear wheels of my Xantia wasnt working.

challengemaster

Del2005 wrote: »

Their only human and they test hundreds of different cars a week. How are they supposed to know that an 18 year old car has the light on the wheel when nearly every other car has it on the dash. That's even if Applus know where the Airbag light is on a 94 e36, as the cars owner didn't know where it was. If it was a newish 520/Mondeo etc I'd be looking for an answer but a relatively rare car!!

Do you remember every detail of everything you've been shown a few months/years later or do you forget the things that don't come up often like everyone else?

You'd have a point apart from one small fact, it's their job to know and test these things. Also an e36 is far from a rare car on Irish roads. Also they fall under the yearly test bracket so it's not uncommon that they're tested either. Applus can put notes in their system to alert testers to rare points also, such as the handbrake being on the front wheels on a xantia... If a company decides that they're going to be the sole say in if a car is road legal or not, then it's not really good practice that they have no clue what they're looking for, and to just assume all cars are the same.

voxpop

challengemaster wrote: »

You'd have a point apart from one small fact, it's their job to know and test these things. Also an e36 is far from a rare car on Irish roads. Also they fall under the yearly test bracket so it's not uncommon that they're tested either. Applus can put notes in their system to alert testers to rare points also, such as the handbrake being on the front wheels on a xantia... If a company decides that they're going to be the sole say in if a car is road legal or not, then it's not really goodexactly practice that they have no clue what they're looking for, and to just assume all cars are the same.

exactly, ths individual tester is not at fault here, its the system. same as the 4wd guys who need to leave a note to tell the tester not to do the brake test. The system should know the car and direct the tester-but the system is rubbish, cant even send out a reminder any more when your nct is due

Del2005

challengemaster wrote: »

You'd have a point apart from one small fact, it's their job to know and test these things. Also an e36 is far from a rare car on Irish roads. Also they fall under the yearly test bracket so it's not uncommon that they're tested either. Applus can put notes in their system to alert testers to rare points also, such as the handbrake being on the front wheels on a xantia... If a company decides that they're going to be the sole say in if a car is road legal or not, then it's not really good practice that they have no clue what they're looking for, and to just assume all cars are the same.

The Government decided it would be one company doing the test to remove the huge corruption like in the MoT.

Maybe there is a note saying the light is on the dash, since it's passed twice for the OP. But as in all large organisations, and a lot of small ones, mistakes are made.

What ever about sending a letter to Applus asking them to update their systems. But mistakes are made every day in all jobs and will continue to be made, why else do you think we have an appeals system for nearly everything?

vicwatson

I know thread a few years off but if my airbag light doesn't go off its a fail right? So providing nothing else fails can I get a free retest? Is this deemed a visual fail?

colm_mcm

Yes it would be a visual.

biko

Yes you need to get it fixed, and it's a visual retest.

2012 thread closed