Control Technique Discoveries

Cars / Motoring / Insurance
1

The first Control Technique test I submitted our 2013 Honda CR - V for the owner pointed out that the existing headlights were illegal as they were designed for right hand drive use.

After some discussion in my best French and a couple of jars of my wife’s home made jam, it was agreed that if I returned the following day with some of the stick on beam blockers he would fit them and pass the vehicle.

30 minutes later the car was returned with the “unopened” pack on the front passenger seat and the new CT sticker on the screen.

Having moved house in the intervening two years I took the car to our local CT station for the test. I received a catalogue of faults including the headlights, shock absorbers, rusted chassis broken mirror etc; et:

When I mentioned the stick on beam deflectors the owner was adamant that they were unnaceptable.

Also having paid 96 euros for the CT test I was also told that after the car was repaired I would be charged a further 25 euros to check the remedial work.

Having read the extremely useful articles on this subject I researched and printed out the relevant regulation in both French and English stating that they were acceptable.

I also had the stickers checked by the HOnda main dealers who confirmed in writing that they met the requirements on their headlight geometry system completely.

The rest of the vehicle was thoroughly checked including the shock absorbers and chassis etc; and all was found to be perfectly acceptable.

Having made enquiries locally with other English residents, everyone said that the owner hates the English with a vengeance and boasts in the local bars that he never passes an English vehicle if he can possibly avoid it.

On the advice of other locals I submitted the vehicle to a different CT station this week where it passed with flying colours.

So here I sit with enough evidence to prove without any doubt whatsoever that this guy has lied.

However, my good lady wife has pointed out that we live in a small country village where everyone talks to everyone,

She is concerned that we would undoubtedly win the battle, but in doing so we could alienate ourselves in the process.

One English guy pointed out this week that like us when he first arrived he took his car there which was failed repeatedly, the last time was for a tear in the material of the front seat.

At the moment my thoughts are to simply never use the business again and to warn other off from it.

Many thanks for the folks who already contributed on this subject that I found very helpful.

I hope that this salutory tale helps others to avoid getting drawn into spending many thousands on replacement headlights when they are not necessary.

Kind regards

Pat Quinn

5 Likes
2

It would be interesting to know the code for that…:thinking:

2 Likes
3

Interesting. Our local CT places check the remedial work for free.

4

My Saxo passed 2 CTs with the lights plainly dipping the wrong way. I only changed them later beause it was a disadvantage to me driving on dark country lanes. But not with stickers.

Contre visites were always free, although it hardly ever happened, but this year I was charged €10 after cleaning up the emissions.

1 Like
5

We too had our car failed and when we took it to the garage in the next village, we were told that it was ok and told to go to a different testing centre, where it passed, no problems.

6

Nane and shame, @Obiwan , name and shame.

1 Like
7

I understand that’s a risky practice in France

1 Like
8

Oh yes, got convoqued to the Gendarmerie over something like that years ago my daughter put on FB as we were being persecuted and it was ignored by the law but warned not to do anything like it again. Be very careful, this is not the UK!

9

The CT procedure is heavily regulated. It is an offence for a CT tester to falsely declare anything that will fail a vehicle on the CT form…

I once sold a car were I had removed the original steering wheel that had the little motor that vibrated when the lane-assist was being violated, for a wood/leatrher wheel. Two years after I sold it, the buyer sent in a CT certificate saying the car was failed because of the missing warning device. Gave it to a buddy who called the tester who begged him to tear it up - it was only a prank to retrieve the original wheel and he would be in trouble if it got back to the Ct authority.

10

They got a warning not to do it again but it got out there to warn people, job done.

11

I think you were very fortunate to get away with stickers. My garagiste, who knew the CT technician very well, took my right hand drive car to him personally and tried very hard to get it passed without replacing the headlamps. No chance.

12

Hi Plod,

Very sorry to hear of your experience regarding headlights and yet the the stick on beam blockers are actually referred to in the rules.

As I understand it provided that by adding the beam blockers your lights do not stray outside the permitted area you are home and dry.

I had mine checked out at the main Honda dealership to make sure they were completely effective in deflecting the light from the prohibited area prior to taking it for the CT.

I also pointed the blockers out to the owner at the time of booking and also showed him the letter stamped by the main dealer stating that they were checked on their headlight geometry set up.

His comment was that was unusual because most people fitted the blockers themselves.

Not sure whether this info is useful to you or after the event inn your case, but hopefully will help others and the regulations are easy enough to find on Google.

Had I accepted the first guys “advice”, my replacement headlights were above £2500 plus fitting :exploding_head:

Hence my posting to try to help others. This site has always been my go to destination to try to seek answers. There are some extremely knowledgeable people who have taken the trouble to help others and having benefitted on several occasions myself I figure a little “pay it forward” can’t hurt.

Kind regards

Pat

3 Likes
13

It was a while ago. I got my lights from a company in Spain, about £400 plus fitting. Still a lot cheaper than buying second hand in France.

14

I’d the same issue registering my SL here about ten years ago I was told that stickers were no longer acceptable but I could still reregister her with a failed CT :roll_eyes: I had to to subsequently change the headlamps. Like you I bought OEM ones, in my case from Germany which were €1,000, half the price pf the MB ones.

Many cars have levers on the back of the lamps you can flick left to right and LEDs are S/W switchable.

Personally, I think using stickers as a temporary solution, during a vacation for example, is fine but from a safety perspective I wouldn’t use them permanently. So, bar the expense, I didn’t really mind changing the lights.

Obviously a different regime in your neck of the woods compared to mine. A couple of CTs ago the plonker that tested my Morgan was so disappointed there wasn’t a tear in the driver’s seat he put one in it, and then denied he’d done it.

15

Griffin and I have Jap imports with flat beams, I dont know about Griffin but I havent missed the LH uptick in the UK.
It would be much easier in the smaller world than 50 years ago to do away with the issue.

16

I find that the right uptick is very useful on French country roads, where a clear demarcation between road, verge and ditch is frequently non-existent!

3 Likes
17

Its why I posed the question to see what others think. I found in a hire car with turnable headlights far worse with a sudden brilliance increase whilst going around a sharp bend or corner. Back in the rallying days the Cibies just lit everything.

Maybe a separate low mounted fog light/kerb light would be better than silly beam blocking or multi hundreds replacement lights.

18

I doubt it as fog lights have very limited throw - mine certainly wouldn’t help in lighting the verge.

19

Dont get me wrong Brian, the flat beams still light the verge, the uptick seems to take it a bit higher thats all.

20

My Elgrand has ASF swivel flat lights and they are as good in France as the UK, but they are also xenon lights and use the fog lights individually as well, I don’t think I have ever been flashed once in France yet.