Am I in the wrong (NCT fun and games)

KrakityJones

KrakityJones

Well-known member
ISDC Club Member
Long story short, up at the nct centre just now - I was sitting watching as you do. Tester drove the car up with rear wheels onto the rollers, I see the rear wheels being spun while the front stayed stopped on the ground. I hopped up and challenged them that they could have done damage, it's AWD. Supervisor called etc and I was told they have special 4wd rollers and it is fine doing what they did. As far as I know that's not the case, but hey I'm no expert, though I've never seen them do that before. Cars driving fine after it but failed brake test.

Just after looking through all my old nct documentation and I think I'm right - that section (ovality/imbalance has always been at 0% which to me shows they didn't test for that)

Would appreciate ye're opinions on this.

cheers
 
So to add - this one is how every nct sheet I have previous to this (have every year since I bought the car) - all values at 0% which suggests that test wasn't done, I presume because of the rollers/awd situation.

PreviousNCT Brake.png

And this is the fail from today - all with values, the only time I've ever seen this. So either they've changed something in the nct, they forgot to test my brakes every year for the past 5 years or they messed up today.


NCTFailBrake.png
 
I've heard this whole new roller thing... And they say it works... But I don't buy it. There has to be slip somewhere. Both axels should be rolling in my eyes
 
Howdy Steve, when I went in for my own test, I made sure to mention that it was permanent all wheel drive and that it can't be turned off. The tester said they have the 4 wheel rollers now, and said thanks for letting him know as they are on autopilot most of the time.
He did in my case use the two rollers, he was able to move the rollers to suit the car and had them on both.

Just get the car looked at and make sure nothing's fuxked, and just keep it in the head to stress it every time you go back to the hellhole that is the NCT centre.

Here's my latest pass sheet, hand brake was poor but not completely gone. If anyone can tell me how to sort that out, I'd appreciate it:
1000022159.jpg
 
Was told by nct few years back rollers all ok for awd cars software upgrade apparently...

Brake test normally don't outside center I think
 
Hey Eoin,

Cheers for that, yeah he didn't have two rollers, just the one on the back wheel, fronts were sat on the ground and didn't move when the rears did.

Will get it checked out to make sure no damage done.
 
Thanks Ciaran, hmmm, maybe I'm in the wrong here so, I dunno. I guess either way next step is check it all over, go back again and this time make it 10000% clear when handing over the keys that it's AWD.
 
EoinF said:
Howdy Steve, when I went in for my own test, I made sure to mention that it was permanent all wheel drive and that it can't be turned off. The tester said they have the 4 wheel rollers now, and said thanks for letting him know as they are on autopilot most of the time.
He did in my case use the two rollers, he was able to move the rollers to suit the car and had them on both.

Just get the car looked at and make sure nothing's fuxked, and just keep it in the head to stress it every time you go back to the hellhole that is the NCT centre.

Here's my latest pass sheet, hand brake was poor but not completely gone. If anyone can tell me how to sort that out, I'd appreciate it:
View attachment 140173
Click to expand...
Just looking at yours. Service brake performance 69%. Mines 0%. Zero??? That can't be right, that's what they failed it on.

Anyone in the know as to what that is specifically?
 
KrakityJones said:
Just looking at yours. Service brake performance 69%. Mines 0%. Zero??? That can't be right, that's what they failed it on.

Anyone in the know as to what that is specifically?
Click to expand...
Its probably the fact they didn't test the car properly. Service brake is just regular middle pedal brakes. Make sure to tell them it's permanent AWD next time you're in. It's performance of the brakes. If they do it again, just call them out on it. They might rectify it straight away.
 
I always tell them AWD when handing in keys & when tester comes out to car.

They go for a spin for break test.
At least up until last October.

Even put a sticker on the dash.
Never failed on brakes.

But I did hear there is new software for the rollers for at least the last year or more.
 
Sorry now for banging on about this but i guess it's another opportunity to learn something new about the car.

So set aside the roller question of whether they do or don't have 4wd ones and all that. is it OK in general to have the rear wheels spinning and the fronts static? Or say the two on the left static and the two on the right spinning? I guess if you were stuck in a field or something that could happen?
 
last NCT I went through was on the 18th of July and the tester in clifden brought the car outside for brake test, they always do any year I brought it.

Not sure too much on the difference between the Forester and the Impreza with the diff setups etc, but the Impreza is permanently 50/50 afaik so shouldn't go on the rollers.

IMG-20250618-WA0020~2.jpg
 
Cheers for that, same permanent 50/50 on mine, your results same as my previous years so yeah I think they messed up, going to follow up with them Monday.
 
As I've said here before they can do it both ways use the brake meter which isn't fully accurate to get a reading but is allowed and the rollers which will give a true reading as you see on most test sheets.
It was explained to me before if they use the rollers for a 4wd one wheel spins forward and the other goes the opposite obviously on same axle that way it won't do harm to the drivetrain. My last NCT brake test was on rollers and was fine so depends on tester if he wants to use either test.
 
GORDON GT SERIES II said:
As I've said here before they can do it both ways use the brake meter which isn't fully accurate to get a reading but is allowed and the rollers which will give a true reading as you see on most test sheets.
It was explained to me before if they use the rollers for a 4wd one wheel spins forward and the other goes the opposite obviously on same axle that way it won't do harm to the drivetrain. My last NCT brake test was on rollers and was fine so depends on tester if he wants to use either test.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's what I thought re the axles, problem I have is the fronts didn't move at all, they were static on the ground only the rears were on rollers.

Anyways I'll stop banging on about it now, get it checked for any damage etc and put in a complaint for all the good it'll do.
 
KrakityJones said:
Yeah that's what I thought re the axles, problem I have is the fronts didn't move at all, they were static on the ground only the rears were on rollers.

Anyways I'll stop banging on about it now, get it checked for any damage etc and put in a complaint for all the good it'll do.
Click to expand...
That's what they're meant to do on the brake roller test as they only have a 1 roller test lane so it's perfectly fine provided they select the option on the system to say it's a 4wd
 
I always thought the opposite. I'm no expert lol but I always thought one axel turning and one static would make shite of the center diff
 
GORDON GT SERIES II said:
That's what they're meant to do on the brake roller test as they only have a 1 roller test lane so it's perfectly fine provided they select the option on the system to say it's a 4wd
Click to expand...

That's Interesting. I don't know enough about how the system works obviously, like Eoin said there I always thought the opposite, I can't get my head round how it could spin the back seperate, regardless of what option they choose but this is why I asked, far more knowledgeable folk than me here!
 
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