NCT failure on dip beam

mickuhaha

I failed the NCT today. Tester said offside dipped headlight was too bright. I checked the bulbs and they were the same. The lamps look to be the same on both sides. Did I pick him up wrong? He never said anything about alignment and there are no readings on the fail sheet. On the fail sheet it reads DIP BEAM – nearside/pass – offside/refusal – result /refusal. Any one any experience with this?

biko

"Too bright" that's a strange one.
I suggest you check with a local place that has equipment for headlight alignment, bring the sheet. Maybe they can make sense of it.

flazio

It is a right hand drive car I presume? If it's left hand drive from the continent the lights would be misaligned for Irish and UK roads.

Alun

If the alignment is waaaay off, usually due to a bulb being at a weird angle having been put in incorrectly it can look very bright when looking at it, maybe that's what he meant? Possibly if it was that bad, he might not be able to get any sensible reading from the alignment machine at all, so didn't even try.

mickuhaha

I will book in with the garage and see what they make of it.

happywithlife

I know my friend had similar issues and she's the wrong wattage of bulb in

mickuhaha

Booked in for Saturday. Will see what's wrong. Garage said there always having problems with failure on lights. He said it could be bulbs not fitted correctly , damaged bulb, worn reflective surface or more than likely alignment.

Neamhshuntasach

Not sure if it counts a visual or not. But if so, bring it back up and just grab someone bringing another car out.

I have done this twice with my sisters car. Once it failed for wipers and another time for moisture in the a side light. The wipers had only been replaced as some scrote had snapped them just 2 weeks before the NCT. And the other time I couldn't see any moisture in the side lights. I didn't even drive away. Just told the next person I was there for a a visual re-check. Barely looked at the wipers or side light and issued the cert for a pass. Not sure what criteria they use for some of the fails when someone else can pass for the same thing.

MANSFIELD

Neamhshuntasach wrote: »

Not sure what criteria they use for some of the fails when someone else can pass for the same thing.

Some people in life go out of their way to make things as awkward as possible , that is one reason.

Hoffmans

They use this fail tactic a lot, anything that would need test equipment to squeeze 28 extra, sensible thing here would be an advisory" your car is fine just check the bulb there in right hand side its a bit bright may need a new bulb"

Had this lark today roll bar link "changed it today very light ware indeed", it can be clearly seen through the alloy wheels that a new one has been.fitted but , needs to go up on a lift for a few seconds for a visual as it said on the on the report yet they want 28 e for a retest now..

Del2005

Hoffmans wrote: »

They use this fail tactic a lot, anything that would need test equipment to squeeze 28 extra, sensible thing here would be an advisory" your car is fine just check the bulb there in right hand side its a bit bright may need a new bulb"

If they didn't fail the car it'd never be fixed. There's already way to many vehicles with badly aligned lights at least they are forced to fix them every 2nd year or annually for >10 year old ones.

Effects

Del2005 wrote: »

If they didn't fail the car it'd never be fixed.

Exactly. Too many people driving around already who don't care about lights not working on their car.

mickuhaha

Ok so got the car to the garage yesterday . Turns out bulb was slightly bent. Changed it, checked the alignment and will try the test again. Sorry to all for blinding you as I drove around south Kildare.