NCT testers

Ubbquittious

Do they get paid extra for being overly dramatic and giving really vague descriptions of why the car failed?

scudzilla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058317636/nct-testers

So what did they fail you on?

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121221401#Comment_121221401

They havent failed me for a while. Just a random thought that came into my head

REDBULL68

Had one 2 years ago ,old ford focus ,he drove it out and said I can't test it as bonnet wouldn't open ,I turned key left and right and it popped straight away, he said OK and then went in got me my pass cert, without even seeing the engine, never mind testing it .

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121221690#Comment_121221690

They don’t test the engine.

Lewis_Benson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058317636/nct-testers

No.

hoodie6029

Thought it’d been a while since we had a NCT complaint thread and here one pops up just after

artanevilla

Never had any issue with any tester. From my experience at centre's it's normally the customers that are snarky.

REDBULL68

?why open the bonnet then ?they surely have to test something in the engine, as its the heart of the car .

mk7r

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121226546#Comment_121226546

They would check the oil level and they check the emissions (through the exhaust) but other than that the engine is not considered a safety item so is not tested other than a cursory glance

REDBULL68

Ye fair enough, but you still have to open the bonnet to check fluids levels, but he just gave the cert ,I think he was just embarrassed as other people where watching.

User1998

The oil level should be checked and and the battery mounting should be checked. VIN number also needs to be verified but I believe thats under the floor mat on your car.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121226612#Comment_121226612

mk7r

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121226612#Comment_121226612

They don't check your fluid levels other than the oil if its accessible

Patrick2010

would have thought checking for fluid levels below minimum would be a standard quick check of issues?

r65

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121221873#Comment_121221873

They do check the oil level before commencing emissions test.

My Citroen Picasso failed because they "could not complete test" .

This engine has a flexible bit on the dipstick.

While wiping the oil off it, the tester seemingly pulled off the flexible part.

As a result he couldn't measure the oil, so no test possible.

Padre_Pio

I had a NCT tester with the thickest Cork accent.

Not a notion what he said. I felt bad asking him to repeat himself for the third time..

REDBULL68

I had tester, that couldn't find anything wrong with the car but,as by the directive, couldn't help him self but to fail me on one of the indicator bulbs slightly darker than the other ,couldn't see it myself as 2 other people I asked either, so I won't down the road ,came back and told another tester I changed the bulbs and he gave me my cert ,joke of a company, its just a money spinner

Yes

ahnowbrowncow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121230583#Comment_121230583

You certainly seem to fall foul to dodgy NCT testers. But luckily you always come out on top in these stories.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121230583#Comment_121230583

How’s it a money spinner? It was a free retest.

pcardin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121227857#Comment_121227857

Yes, its embarrassing. Google Translate can't cover corkese either, and human translators are expensive.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121231001#Comment_121231001

I work with a fella from Cobh who was buying a car from a man in Larne, both with the thickest accents. We needed two middlemen to translate the conversation.

Isthisthingon?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121221690#Comment_121221690

Same thing happened to my wife's passat years ago. The spring on the clasp was indeed rusty and it would often take a few attempts to open the bonnet.

It failed the nct on the basis that the bonnet couldn't be opened but yet everything else passed.

Managed to squirt in some WD 40 which unseized the clasp and brought it back. it was only a visual inspection so no charge but I had to open the bonnet in front of him. He asked did I get the clasp replaced and I just told him I sprayed wd 40. he shrugged and gave me the cert.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121230583#Comment_121230583

I'm old enough to remember the kinds of wrecks that we had to share the road with pre-NCT days.

Remember when you'd be giving somebody a push start or a push off the road every month? Remember when you'd get into your mate's da's car with the rusty floor and broken seatbelts and one headlight?

hoodie6029

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121232107#Comment_121232107

Ger outta here with your ‘facts’!

Best story about testers on here was one guy who claimed his 911 4S was put on the rollers and it ruined the AWD system. Limping it to a mechanic a truck crashed into it, writing it off, so he never got for complain to the NCT. Santa was the tester and the Easter Bunny was the reckless truck driver IIRC

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121232107#Comment_121232107

Good times !

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121232401#Comment_121232401

I had a tester in Fonthill give me a fail/advisory years ago because the orange indicator covers on my E30 "weren't orange enough" yet he couldn't tell me how orange they were meant to be. When I took it personally, and protested, I was told that it was just a fail/advisory and just go home (which I did and can for evermore moan about it on the internet).

I also had a fella in the Naas centre not able to open the bonnet on my first E39 despite there being . I banged on the window when I saw him struggle and he called me in to open it. As it turned out, he failed me on one of my newly installed angel eye headlamps because he reckoned the silver lamp lining had worn. Returned for the retest a few weeks later having done abslutely nothing and the car passed.

The moral of this I guess is that people do make mistakes and those working for the NCTS are no different.

hoodie6029

I’m under no illusions that it’s a perfect system. You get people on a power trip/bad day/jealousy etc take it out on others. Then there are just out and out pr1cks too.

I think what happens is people have a bad experience and come vent about it here. And hey, we all need to let off steam regularly.

JohnC.

On the other side, you get chancers going in with obvious fails too. I was waiting for my last car to get done and some guy got failed for an issue for the third time. I can't even remember what it was now. But this guy was getting incensed, shouting about the test being a rip-off, over being failed for the same thing 3 times, despite admitting never having anything done to fix the issue.

niloc1951

Earlier this your my wife's car failed because of "insufficient contact between the brake pad and disc" yet the Service Brake performance was 93%. A total contradiction. The car went back a few days later withing nothing done, there was nothing to do, and it got a pass.

More recently my car failed because of excessive brake pedal travel but the brake performance was excellent, the car will stop on the proverbial dime. Again, the car went back a few days later and got a pass.

It does seem that testers can override the machine part of the test if 'in their unfounded opinion' something is not as they think it should be, like has been said, an indicator isn't orange enough or a brake light isn't red enough.

Arnout

This brake hose was a pass 5 months prior to taking the photo:

ba_barabus

Parts fail, who knew

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121281682#Comment_121281682

lick of paint, be grand!

Arnout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121281694#Comment_121281694

The guy who NCT'd my 19 year old car didn't, apparently.

Dr_Colossus

@Seth Brundle

"I had a tester in Fonthill give me a fail/advisory years ago because the orange indicator covers on my E30 "weren't orange enough" yet he couldn't tell me how orange they were meant to be. When I took it personally, and protested, I was told that it was just a fail/advisory and just go home (which I did and can for evermore moan about it on the internet)."

Ha, I had the same in Northpoint a few years ago with the rear indicator bulbs on my Volvo S60, the covers are clear but the bulbs are orange.

Over the years have found most testers to be pleasant enough but there's a lot of subjective stuff such as the above so some testers can find any excuse to fail you rather than applying some common sense and just mentioning it as an advisory.

Tantalum73

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121281908#Comment_121281908

You sure it was like that though... I see this time to time where the brake hose outer rubber is perished but cord isn't exposed when its in situ at time of the test . Then when the caliper is removed from the vehicle doing brake work the hose gets twisted and moved around causing the outer rubber to disintegrate showing the inner cord/ply ...... and ......"sure how did they miss that only tested few months ago" 🙄

Arnout

I'm not a mechanic myself, but the garage people were shocked by it too.

Sure it could have been difficult to see. Big brakes and big wheels, so not very easy to get to it without removing the wheels.

All the more reason to have the tests performed by the local garage which will more often than not be combined with a service, for which the wheels will be removed.

That's how it works in the Netherlands. Integrity of testing is being maintained by having the national authority perform sample retests, with the initial tester incurring penalty points if they got it wrong and losing their license if they've accumulated to many penalty points within a certain amount of time.

This content has been removed.

Tantalum73

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121282150#Comment_121282150

While I do think from certainly a convenience point of view and the possibility of a more in depth inspection , having a garage do an all in one service/test is good , the service we currently have now offers the advantage of cross checking test failures and repairs by separating the two .

Also to note NCT testers get surprise audits quite often by both internal and external auditors and the car gets reexamined .

Mundo7976

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058317636/nct-testers

Would also help if they could speak/understand English.

Had a recent attempted fail due to side lights not working, even though they were on as I was talking to him. He was referring to the auto lights at the side & couldn't figure how they work, ridiculous conversation and had to get a supervisor out who took all of 10 seconds to go get the cert printed. 🙄

GavPJ

Fonthill is a terrible test centre. Had some awful experiences there from orange bulbs not matching, water in rear lamps that was about the size of a rain drop and often waiting over 90 minutes before the car was even brought in. I'd rather get herpes than go back near Fonthill. I find the smaller the test centre the more decent the staff.

Isthisthingon?

My Car failed the NCT on friday - MAJOR FAULT - which was ....drumroll............

The bulbs on my rear licence plate had blown.

Damien360

Young lads 20 year old Passat with a reek map (black smoke over 4000 revs, pops and bangs over this rev and it's diesel) passed it's emissions test. They test at 3000revs and it wasn't smokey. I genuinely laughed when he came back out. Brake pads excessive wear was the fail which he will fix himself.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121304897#Comment_121304897

...and what?

Are you suggesting that they should have passed your car because you reckon it wasn't a "big" failure item?

Damien360

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121304918#Comment_121304918

Ah now. It's not break lights, it's a bulb in the reg plate. Advisory fail not major would make more sense.

Isthisthingon?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121304918#Comment_121304918

Pretty much. A car can scrape through ever conceivable test and pass , yet if you cant make out my licence plate, then apparently my car is not roadworthy.

Seth Brundle

Whilst it might initially appear pedantic, do bear in mind that the rules are clear to read within the manual. In your case @Isthisthingon?, I'm assuming both bulbs didn't both blow as the car was being driven into the test centre (fairly safe assumption unless your car has an electrical problem). Had it been one blub (or less than 50% of the lighting area) then AFAIK it is a fail advisory but, as you say, you had "bulbs" (plural) gone. That's on you!

Plus being able to see a reg plate is a legal requirement and not just an NCT requirement.

Dr_Colossus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121305089#Comment_121305089

Confirmed, I had a fail advisory last year as 1 of the 2 reg plate bulbs had blown (had checked all bulbs a couple of days prior). Got the cert and replaced the bulb when I got home as had a replacement in the boot.

Isthisthingon?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121305089#Comment_121305089

I'm not disputing the failure..... you know what nevermind was just making conversation in a topic about the NCT. I will just have to be careful driving around in my deathtrap.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121305282#Comment_121305282

Firstly, nobody described it as a deathtrap except you so not sure why you'd throw that there. The NCT is a test to ensure cars meet basic safety, environmental and legal criteria. Your car didn't meet that level.

As for the discussion, it's about the NCT testers rather than the NCT so it was a logical assumption for us to believe that your moan was about them failing your car.

Another potential assumption one could make is that your car hasn't been properly checked prior to its test. If you, or your mechanic, didn't check bulbs properly then can you be sure that brake lines (as an example) are not corroded in places?

Lastly, next time before you go for an NCT (and maybe before you go to your pending retest) check that all bulbs are working, check your tyre pressures, check your cars fluids. It really isn't a difficult or time consuming task and as you've just found out, it can often save you time!

Isthisthingon?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121305393#Comment_121305393

Thank you so much for setting me straight and explaining to me what the NCT was for, 20 years of doing them I had no idea.

Unfortunately my car is now a write off as someone plowed into the back of me, he said ..........drumroll..........

he couldn't see my licence plate!