MOT Headlight Alignment Failure

gezod · 9 Jun 2018 at 20:46

Hi All, looking a bit of advice.

Took my car today to the MOT test centre in NI. Went through the usual checks however my car failed on MOT headlight alignment (too high).

No problem with this failure, up to me to sort this out.

Took it to local garage who said they can correct the alignment issue, great I thought so rebooked MOT test for that afternoon.
Took car back and it failed on the same thing!

Tried to contact garage to inform them of this but they had closed at this stage. Don't want them to try and correct this issue. Is it unreasonable to request a refund (£21) of the alignment and a refund of my MOT resit (£18.50) as they had not fixed the issue in the first place?

Got my car booked back in on Monday evening, now just to find a decent garage to correct this problem

Diagro · 9 Jun 2018 at 21:11

Take it back to the original place and tell them to do it again and check

tom_e · 9 Jun 2018 at 21:31

Sounds reasonable to request a refund on both parts considering, whether you'll get it without tipping the guy at the garage upside down and stealing his wallet is another matter though.

silverblack · 10 Jun 2018 at 00:57

Wife had the same thing with her car local garage sorted it for free and passed MOT.

Kaeo · 10 Jun 2018 at 10:51

Last time this happened with me (was alignment too low nearside), the garage I took it to get fixed at put it through a free MOT and passed it. Showed me the alignment against their wall chart too. Was totally fine.

jpaul · 10 Jun 2018 at 14:51

that's cheap for an MOT , but don't you get free re-tests ?

Evidently youy saw the mot being conducted ? i now avoid cheap mot services where they drive car to a test centre and typically found faults
Adjusting/checking lights yourself against a flat surface is not too difficult, did it following mot failure after switching from a continental dipped set./lhd

Thekwango · 10 Jun 2018 at 15:05

jpaul said:
that's cheap for an MOT , but don't you get free re-tests ?

No, NI has a slightly different MOT setup.

hominid · 10 Jun 2018 at 15:14

You should have got the MOT'ing garage to sort it as it's normally a few twists of a screwdriver.

tom_e · 10 Jun 2018 at 16:04

hominid said:
You should have got the MOT'ing garage to sort it as it's normally a few twists of a screwdriver.

Pretty sure in NI all the MOT places are just that, they won't touch the car to fix anything.

Hotwired · 10 Jun 2018 at 16:17

tom_e said:
Pretty sure in NI all the MOT places are just that, they won't touch the car to fix anything.

Sounds like a good way to get juggled between two places.

andy_mk3 · 10 Jun 2018 at 16:52

It should only really fail if something is broken not lowing the aim to be set. Headlight alignment is pretty much the only thing you are allowed to adjust on the mot, and an effort should me made to adjust it before failing it.

tom_e · 10 Jun 2018 at 17:19

Hotwired said:
Sounds like a good way to get juggled between two places.

A lot of people prefer them even hunting them out on the mainland as there's no kickback to them failing bits whereas garages can fail things and then hand you a bill to fix which most people will automatically agree to as it's easier than getting the car back and actually checking if they need doing or getting a better quote.

Resident · 10 Jun 2018 at 21:10

I think I must have a great garage.

My headlights were out of alignment and was the only fail point so he stopped the test, realigned them and then continued to pass the test.

Cob · 10 Jun 2018 at 21:27

Hotwired said:
Sounds like a good way to get juggled between two places.

Our MOT's are carried out by the DVA NI ie - on the same premises as your local driving test centre. There's only a handful in the whole country ( I think there's only 3 centres in the whole of Belfast).

Our testers are civil servants in overalls.

Iamzod · 10 Jun 2018 at 21:30

As above, I've had mine fail on headlights however they used to adjust them FOC then pass it.

The problem is i'd always find that afterwards they were pointing at the floor.

Lopéz · 11 Jun 2018 at 04:45

andy_mk3 said:
It should only really fail if something is broken not lowing the aim to be set. Headlight alignment is pretty much the only thing you are allowed to adjust on the mot, and an effort should me made to adjust it before failing it.

Northern Ireland doesn't have the same conventions as Great Britain. They can't/don't do any remedial work - at all.

jpaul · 11 Jun 2018 at 07:44

have not seen remedial work in the UK - depends on garage, familiarity with car type, historic-business, time slot available, (insurance ? what if they break something)
...and - might be like changing the bulbs, on some modern cars.

gezod · 11 Jun 2018 at 10:24

As a few others have pointed out, MOT tests in NI are different from the rest of the UK.
Your local garage cannot carry this test out for you. You have to go to a specific test centre for these checks to be done.

Retests are not free, £18.50 to rebook to test your car again on the point of failure

Spoke with the original garage this morning. Was expecting him to be quite defensive, he remembered me from Saturday. Explained this issue to him and he was quite apologetic.
Getting a refund for both the headlight alignment and the MOT failure. Very happy with this.

Headlights have now been adjusted correctly by another garage. I know this is done correctly as I watched that garage owner doing it. He also showed me it aligned up correctly.
Resit not booked in for this evening. All being well motor should pass

Dr Who · 11 Jun 2018 at 11:54

Last time I had a failure due to headlight alignment, the testing garage adjusted, passed and billed me for the alignment (£12). No-Retest fee.

This year a MIL came on during my test, O2 Sensor failed, new one being fitted friday with free re-test.

SC0TTRS · 11 Jun 2018 at 12:03

gezod said:
Is it unreasonable to request a refund (£21) of the alignment

Few twists of a screwdriver and they charged £21!!..jeez!