I have a 15 year old Peugeot 207 diesel that needs one, and it is my first one. I don’t really expect them to find anything major and I will go around and check that all the lights work etc first.
I looked at the website of one of the national firms and they seemed to suggest that the car needs to be cleaned. I mean, it isn’t filthy (which would connote poor maintenance on my part) but I wasn’t planning on washing or vacuuming it. I live in the city and the car is parked on the street so doing much of anything to it is a PITA . How far should I go with this? Do I need to check tire pressures (including spare) etc etc.
As a fail and re-test is not expensive, depending where you take it, no need to go to too much trouble as a fail will answer your question. If you think it is a bit smoky, put some Wynns in the tank and run it around in low gear high revs for a bit but other than that and the obvious (lights working etc) I wouldn’t worry.
We tend to take the car to our local garage for a service and, as part of it all , they take it off for a CT (and deal with anything arising). However, that’s because our little local garage is wonderful and are happy to do that sort of thing.
My very first CT just involved making an appointment and taking the car to the nearest test centre, then hanging around while they tested it. It didn’t need anything, so all was well.
My partner always cleans the inside of his car when getting it tested, but I don’t. We were warned when we first came here that the regulations were a bit tighter than we were used to e.g. you need more tread on the tyres than you do in the UK to pass the test.
We don’t do any car cleaning either. But I think it was last year that we had to change all the tyres and do a retest. After a change of tyres it passed with flying colours.
The next thing coming up is the regular service. The car has already let us know that that time is approaching. Once that’s done we can relax.
I have no idea if it’s worth it but I heard that it’s a good idea to give it a bit of a drive before the test. The emissions bit is what always worries me!
I am a pretty decent mechanic myself and I have been driving it quite a bit so I’m reasonably sure it is OK. Doesn’t smoke excessively for a diesel. Brakes good. Tires good and worn evenly. No wheel bearing or CVJ noises. They might tell me I need new shocks/dampers possibly though they aren’t horrible.
I really want to avoid having the car tied up fixing some minor thing. If they don’t like my wiper blades, I can fix that sort of thing myself.
One thing that worries me is the headlight alignment. A couple of people flashed me as if my brights (high beams… long distance lights…what do you Brits call them?) were on, but they weren’t. I can see that my left one is slightly higher than my right. I had to change that light bulb last year, but I didn’t change the adjustment. The car was just repainted before I bought it and it is possible that the garage took the headlight clusters off to repaint (before the last CT) and didn’t seat them properly or realign the lights.
One thing my Berlingo failed on this time was a warning light lit on the dash for the airbags. It wouldn’t go off. My mechanic replaced some parts (I didn’t realise a wire or something runs along inside the door sills) but it didn’t always clear the light. I found that stopping the engine and restarting did the trick, and it obviously was off for the tester, because it passed.
For heavens sake - a CT is to ensure the car is roadworthy. So yes, you check your tyre pressures (and of course your spare - why would you think otherwise?) and yes, if your beams sre out of adjustment, you get them adjusted to be considerate to others on the road. You say your wheel bearings are not noisy - so what? Are they correctly adjusted?
As for cleaning, imagine it is you - you say you are a mechanic - who was given the job. Would you prefer to work on a clean or dirty car? Exactly. So be a bit considerate and clean the thing.
The engine bay is clean as I just changed the oil and filter (myself). There’s always a bit of dirt on the floor mats so it won’t win at concours because it lives on the street in a heavily trafficked area. I can’t see how its slight lack of cleanliness affects it’s roadworthiness.
I tried to snag the one parking spot nearest the house that I could reach with the Hoover, but it is taken, as usual.
There’s a good choice of economical small to medium / cyclonic vacuum cleaners on Lidl.fr right now. Most are battery operated - internal rechargeable battery or their 20V clip-on battery system. Sucking power ratings are given on each. I’d expect them to have some sort of offer or a free ship coupon on their app next week.
Well, sure, I can spend an hour and a couple of euros and drive over to Leclerc and vacuum and wash the car, if I have to. To please a ‘‘safety’’ inspector?
But, the question remains, to put it more directly…has anyone ever had to do a contra visit specifically because the car was DIRTY? Because my car isn’t spotless, but it isn’t nasty, full of trash and beer cans, covered in bird poop, etc etc. It’s a functional 15 year old car that on any given day looks as good if not better than the average 15 year old car.
I half live in my car so it gets messy as I’m rubbish at taking stuff out. I tend to remove all the clothes from the back seat and give it a general tidy, more so it looks like we care about it. Our recent CT was enthusiastically passed, the guy was so happy to be able to krrp a nearly 350,000 km car on the road and not another sent to scrap.
I don’t bother for CTs unless my car is super filthy.
I do jet wash before taking it in to a garage or tyre shop as not having a winter’s worth of mud under the wheel arches and on suspension/steering components is just common sense.
Quite possibly. But the owner of the car might not have known.
All it takes is a fault where it could possibly be called something to be noted on the CT rather than as a fail, perhaps with a little indulgence, but it gets written up as a fail without further ambiguity potentially being considered.
Already cost you more than a small hand held vacuum cleaner on a battery that could be used right outside your door And a half bucket of water and any old cloth just to wipe the outside down.
