Failed NCT due to bad service at Windsor Nissan

netman

I have my car serviced regularly, and it's used mainly for commuting and getting the groceries, so my annual mileage is under 2000 miles.

The car was last serviced at Windsor Airport (Nissan) about 3 months ago, and I gave them a checklist of things I want them to do, along with whatever they do regularly. One specific request was to check the lights, as I thought it was a bit odd that the right headlight is aiming higher than the left. This is very apparent every time you stop behind a car as you see the reflection of your own lights.

Anyways, they did a full service, charged for it, charged for realigning the lights and I noticed that the right headlight was still aiming high but I figured that must be the way it should be and didn't think twice of it.

Brought the car for an NCT yesterday and guess what, everything's perfect except for the lights, got failed because the right headlight is aiming too high!

I'll send in a formal letter of protest to Windsor but since it's been 3 months I doubt I'll get anywhere with them. Needless to say, I'm bringing my car to a different place now to get the lights aligned and then redoing the NCT.

I have two reasons for posting this - one to let people know about the muppets in Windsor Airport in case you're ever getting your car serviced there, and second to see if anyone has any suggestions what I can do.

To add a bit more to the Windsor story, I had problems changing gears on the car since I got it, it took a while for the gear change to "kick in" after fully releasing the clutch, and sometimes after accelerating rapidly the cluch would "kick in" on it's own. Brought the car in to Windsor a few times to have them fix it, and they've charged me for different things, like cleaning the duct where the clutch line goes etc. Every time they said it was fixed, and it wasn't.

In the end I brought the car to a different garage, within about 5 seconds they said - it's the clutch, had to replace it, and the car's been fine ever since.

After all that's happened to me there, I wouldn't trust them to service a bicycle, nevermind anything more complex.

quarryman

what kind of car have you got?

got my NCT on sunday. need to pass because i have my driving test a few days later.

is there a list of things that your car can fail on online somewhere?

more questions:

the lock on my drivers door won't work. i have central locking so its not a big problem.

my tracking is very slightly off to the left.

handbrake isn't very strong.

will these things fail me? I just got it back from the garaget the other day after a pre-test so they must have assumed they wouldn't be a factor or ignored em.

Gerry

As long as they can open the door when they get the car it should be ok.
tracking - dunno what you mean by slightly.
handbrake - again, dodgy. I thought my handbrake was reasonable, but it barely passed. Can it hold the car on a steep hill?
As mentioned elsewhere, you will help the braking tests by reducing the weight of the car, as the brakes effectiveness is judged against the weight of the car. So take everything that isn't essential out.

quarryman

Gerry wrote:

As long as they can open the door when they get the car it should be ok.
tracking - dunno what you mean by slightly.
handbrake - again, dodgy. I thought my handbrake was reasonable, but it barely passed. Can it hold the car on a steep hill?
As mentioned elsewhere, you will help the braking tests by reducing the weight of the car, as the brakes effectiveness is judged against the weight of the car. So take everything that isn't essential out.

tracking or alignment. always mix em up. whichever one makes the car drift to one side when you take you hands off the wheel. Its not TOO bad.

handbrake. its weird. normally its fine but i wouldn't trust it on a steep hill. at this stage i'm gonna just send it in and see what happens.

one more question: how long does the NCT actually take?

nellieswellies

Same thing happened to a mate of mine in Windsor in Bray a couple of years ago.

not sure what they failed him on though.

Out the cowboys!

causal

I had bad experiences with Windsor Tallaght and Windsor Deansgrange.
Details in this thread

causal

JOSSYJACOB

I Had My Nct Test For My Peogeot 206. I Went To Gowan Peogeot And Did Pre-nct Check And Did Servicing Including Airfilter Change Etc. When I Went For Nct Test I Failed Because Of Front Axil Allignment Failure And Also Due To Insecure Airfilter Assembly.

When I Went Back And Asked Them, They Told Me That They Dont Have The Equipment For Testing Axil Allignment - They Still R Doing Pre-nct Check !!!!

I Am Yet To Find A Good Dealer / Motor Garage Who Are Sincere To The Money Customer Pays.

I Yesterday Received A Customer Satisfaction Evaluation Questionaire From Them!!!

I Thnk seeing my answers they would never contact Me

eth0_

How long did it take you to type that post? Why do you need to capitalise every first letter of ever word? *boggle*

JOSSYJACOB

eth0_ wrote:

How long did it take you to type that post? Why do you need to capitalise every first letter of ever word? *boggle*

I didnt purposely type like that. I accidently typed every thing in uppercase letters. After that it came like that.

RicardoSmith

If a car fails on something that the garage says is fixed you should get a refund.

Personally I find most main dealers are dire.

JOSSYJACOB

RicardoSmith wrote:

If a car fails on something that the garage says is fixed you should get a refund.

Personally I find most main dealers are dire.

In the service report with bill they gave me after the PRE-NCT check and service they have written "We cannot guarantee a pass in NCT due to the extensive tests involved".

Crooked dealers !!! isnt it?

quarryman

well none of the above seemed to matter since i just passed.

woot!

iregk

No idea why anyone goes for a pre nct. The regular nct and the retest is cheaper!!!

Anyway my cousin works for nissan and I asked him about this after my gf's car failed on the very same thing. Garage alligned lights, nct failed due to light allign...

As he explained to me and this is just so ridiculous its unreal. As different cars are different shape and different lens shape on the head lamps the manufacturer says what way they should be set. Thing is the way the nct believes they should be set is totally different and this is a current battle runnign between nissan, mazda and fiat against the nct over it. The three brands most commonly failing due to this.

The garage set the lights to the specs of the car and the way they should be done. The manufacturer specs are usually higher than the nct so you roll up for the nct and fail due to your lights being to high. The garage will not set them to nct standard unless you ask and even then they will warn you that its not the correct setting for that car. But what can you do you have to pass your nct.

causal

Most cars nowadays have a little knob/dial on the dashboard that allows you to change the height of the beam (you're supposed to change it downwards if there are people in the back etc.)
So IF it's simply a case of being 'too high' then it's easy to set it for the test.

What bugs me is the people whose lights aren't aligned and you're blinded by by their lights shining right in your eye at night. These people I'm very glad to see fail, and have to correct the fault.

causal

Curran

My old man had a problem with his brand new Primera! The air con was leaking and was soaking the footwell on the passenger side!
He bought it down in Roscommon and when he rang the garage they said to bring it to Windsor Airport and that they'll fix it!
So my da broght it to them.....said they had fixed it......it wasnt!
Brought it back to them again.... said they had fixed it......it wasnt!
And again and it wasnt
And they were taking ages with it everytime cos the dash he to be taken out everytime!

So my da was a lil bit pi$$ed off to say the least! So he asked the garage that he bought the car from to write up a report on the work that was done the 3 times that it was in! They said that couldnt be done cos it was in the past and would have to be written on the day it was done so my da gave them said he'd give the car in again and that he wanted a full report of the work that would be done this time and that if the problem wasnt fixed that he would be going to Nissan Ireland with major complaints!
Needless to say they asked him if it would be possible to bring the car back down to Roscommon to have it checked there......problem sorted 1st time there!

There must be a bunch of cowboys working in Windsor Airport :eek:

Seth Brundle

causal wrote:

Most cars nowadays have a little knob/dial on the dashboard that allows you to change the height of the beam (you're supposed to change it downwards if there are people in the back etc.)
So IF it's simply a case of being 'too high' then it's easy to set it for the test.

It would be unusual for both lights to be mis-aligned in the same direction. For the test the lights should be scrolled to '0'. However, if one light is too high, then no amount of twirling the knob will get you through the test!

causal

kbannon wrote:

It would be unusual for both lights to be mis-aligned in the same direction.

But remember iregk said above that the NCT Inc. and some car manufacturers are at loggerheads over correct settings for headlamps - so the dealer aligns them to spec - but then they fail the NCT - ridiculous situation :rolleyes:

For the test the lights should be scrolled to '0'. However, if one light is too high, then no amount of twirling the knob will get you through the test!

Exactly, and long may those ignorant blinders of other drivers fail their NCT :mad:

causal