NCT failing cars because of current lift debacle?

I

IsleOfMan

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I would be interested to hear from anyone who has had to bring their car in for it's NCT test recently.

My wife's car was due her test last week. I knew beforehand that we would get a "partial fail" because they would not be able to check the under body of the car due to problems with their lifts.

My wife's car also failed because one of her windscreen wipers was seen as worn. This involves her having to replace the wiper and bring it back for a visual inspection. No fee for this. However there is absolutely nothing wrong with the windscreen wiper that failed. We have been using the car in the recent rain/downpours and the wiper is working perfectly. How can they get away with stuff like this?

So we have brought her car once for her test. We have to bring it back again with a new wiper for a visual inspection. We then have to bring it back again for the under carriage to be inspected. It is possible that we may have to bring it back a 4th time if there is a problem here.

Anyone else have similar problems?
 
I was only talking about this the other day.

My fail was also for a worn windscreen wiper. Yet the wiper was tested in a dry environment. I noticed that the windscreen was dry when I got the car back. The tester did not even use the washer thingy when testing the wiper. How can he test a wiper in a dry environment?
 
How do they test car tyres?

I presume that they inspect or measure the thread depth.

They don't have to simulate breaking on a wet road.

It would be the same with wipers. They look at the amount of "thread" left.

Brendan
 
Kimmagegirl said:
My fail was also for a worn windscreen wiper.
Click to expand...

As above, the condition of the wiper blades is a visual inspection as well as an assessment of how effectively they wipe the area covered.

When were they last changed?
 
IsleOfMan said:
I would be interested to hear from anyone who has had to bring their car in for it's NCT test recently.

My wife's car was due her test last week. I knew beforehand that we would get a "partial fail" because they would not be able to check the under body of the car due to problems with their lifts.

My wife's car also failed because one of her windscreen wipers was seen as worn. This involves her having to replace the wiper and bring it back for a visual inspection. No fee for this. However there is absolutely nothing wrong with the windscreen wiper that failed. We have been using the car in the recent rain/downpours and the wiper is working perfectly. How can they get away with stuff like this?

So we have brought her car once for her test. We have to bring it back again with a new wiper for a visual inspection. We then have to bring it back again for the under carriage to be inspected. It is possible that we may have to bring it back a 4th time if there is a problem here.

Anyone else have similar problems?
Click to expand...
Are you trying to suggest that they raised the wiper as an observation because of the lift issue?
 
Alkers86 said:
Are you trying to suggest that they raised the wiper as an observation because of the lift issue?
Click to expand...

My take is their use of the word 'also' suggests not. The lift issue and how they are handling it has been well publicised.
 
But that's the issue @Leo ,IMHO they are not handling it, at least not well. The motorist is the customer here and Applus the service provider and as such have been paid to supply a service. They are presently not in a position to provide that service to the customer who has paid for same. To expect a paying customer to put themselves out and incur increased costs in doing so, without any form of compensation for (whatever the reason) them failing to supply what they are/were contracted to provide is both unbelievable and unacceptable.
At the very least the NCT should be ceased for the time being (as the MOT is in NI) and all monies returned until they are in a position to supply what they are being paid for.
 
SparkRite said:
But that's the issue @Leo ,IMHO they are not handling it, at least not well.
Click to expand...

Oh I didn't suggest they were handling it well, it's a complete mess. It's a fairly poor state of affairs when faults like this somehow become endemic in an environment where they are being used on a daily basis by those entrusted with assessing the safety of vehicles.

All that said though, I don't think they are going out of their way failing cars for wiper blade wear in some attempt to mask the mess they are in.
 
Leo said:
As above, the condition of the wiper blades is a visual inspection as well as an assessment of how effectively they wipe the area covered.

When were they last changed?
Click to expand...
Update. As I said the wiper has been working perfectly. No swipe marks across the windscreen when on. Clearing all the rain perfectly. So I don't know how he tested it.
Anyhow I brought the car to my mechanic and he said that there was nothing wrong with the wiper. But because one individual in the NCT centre decided that it was worn, I have to replace it.

I handed over €15 to my mechanic and put on the new blade, kept the receipt......just so that it will pass an inspection.

I have to bring the car back by early March for this visual inspection. I see that the lifts won't be back in operation until April. So that will involve yet another trip.

Directly across the road from the NCT centre there is a garage that sells tyres, does servicing of cars etc. After my fail I asked could I purchase a wiper blade "now" and have the car visually tested "now". This was refused by the NCT staff. They said that as you have to come back to get the under carriage tested, I should leave both tests until then.
 
Hi,

In my view, all NCT testing should be deferred, with no impact on motorists, until they get all of their equipment sorted out.

It is disgraceful that the public are suffering because of this.

If someone suspended all testing until the NCT equipment problems were sorted out, so the test centres were getting no money, you can be sure the problems would be resolved much faster.

In fact, I think the operator of the test centres should be fined for every week that they fail to provide the service that they are obligated to provide.
 
I think it is a money racket.
Has anyone looked at the statistics on the nct site on average 50%fail the test.
In 2019 92k cars are marked as dangerous. 2018 37k marked as dangerous and 2017 5k. Earlier years dangerous around 5k. They cannot be a sudden jump in 'dangerous' in a space of a few months and years.
[broken link removed]

I bought my car up to the test centre a while back and 5other diesel cars all failed brake lines. Got mine checked by mechanic and nothing wrong with them. Tyres are visual so down to test inspector. I was told I had a bald tyre and a fail. Went to a garage to get a replacement and the tyre centre said the tyre was good for another 5kmiles.
They obviously are trying to get older diesel cars off the road. They have to make sure cars fail so they get extra money for each test.

Also they are still taking bookings and they will do part of the tests and leave the rest and creating a back log for ramp tests.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
How do they test car tyres?

I presume that they inspect or measure the thread depth.

They don't have to simulate breaking on a wet road.

It would be the same with wipers. They look at the amount of "thread" left.
Click to expand...
The thread depth on a car should be no less that 1.6 mm I believe. This can be measured.
Is there a legal limit for wipers? How do you measure?
 
Not all the test centres have this restriction, if you can travel you could select a centre where the issue has been resolved.
 
I had to bring my car back for a visual. I also arranged for the 2nd test on the under carriage to be held at the same time. When I called to the NCT Deansgrange I was told that I had to have two separate tests?

Hard to believe that the one tester could not have done both tests at the same time.
 
Did I miss any comment at all by the RSA on this issue?
I'm amazed that the APPLUS+ are getting away with this.

I wonder whether you could go to the small claims court where you pay for a test and are told to come back a 2nd time?
 
Just to clarify that I'm understanding you correctly.

Are you saying that you

1.booked NCT at a centre where the operating company had published that the lift issue was resolved.

2. On the day of the NCT you were told that the lift issue had not in fact been resolved to that centre
 
Yes. The website says Northpoint has lifts but it is only Northpoint 2 that has operational lifts. Northpoint 1 doesn't.
 
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