Irish Mini Owners Club

is there any major parts on the mini that you have to look over before the nct

Bulbs
Battery
Headlight alignment
Tracking
Handbrake adjustment
Full Service
Check for corrosion.
E mark on the tyre
Spare tyre
Make sure all the seats are secure.
Give it a clean

Emissions you will find out on the day, its *usually* handy to sort on a standard car. If you have modded it, it gets alot trickier

cheers for that lad .never know i had to put in the spare tyre

Spare wheel isn a test fail if it's not there only in caseof taxi's

The Ball-joints are a very common fail, most of the time you will get away with taking out a shim or two. Also radius arm play can sometimes cause a fail (but only if they spot it).
Oil leaks (but not if it is just a slight weep) are another mini problem.
My own approach is to put it through and then fix what they fail it for...I'm sure not everyone here will agree with this but at least you wont waste your time and money.
With an MPi engine emissions may possibly be a problem but dont lose sleep over it before you actually do the NCT.

I would get the lights set and do the tracking and get the front wheels balanced and let if off at that.If you want a mechanic to look at it Dick Mason in Tralee is a good man for minis.

don't forget to fill the washer bottle

Jack up each wheel and check for play, ball joints on the front ,radius arms on the rear, if you can feel any play the computer will deffo get it. visual inspection all lights and oil leaks, power hose engine. Check that car brakes in straight line . Fill and prime any rust hole no matter how small, a hole is a fail ,filler isn't.

Check your rear foglight is working! It's a new check on the NCT -- my bulb was gone & I hadn't checked it before the NCT.

We have a '84 and there is no foglight - is that OK?

That's not a problem. They will only check the operation of fog lights when fitted.

Cool.
Thanks mate, one thing less to worry about.

fail the frist time on small things here comes around 2 lost the fight but the war keeping on coming

What did she eventually fail on Seán ??

If you want to bring over your completed membership form to Clogherbrien, we'l be able to give it to the Club secretary for ya tmoro eve in Mizen save you posting it.


Tommy Jnr

marcexec wrote:We have a '84 and there is no foglight - is that OK?

Not ok, Rear fog lights are compulsory on all cars from 1st Jan 1980

http://www.ncts.ie/pdf/nctmanual.pdf

Scroll all the way down to page 89 and you will see that "where fitted" fog lights will be checked.
Fog lights may have been compulsory on all new cars sold here since 1980 but there were a large amount of second-hand imports (especially japanese) that did not have them fitted.
So rather than force a lot of people to retro fit them the NCT have just decided to check them if they are on the car.

Our 98 cooper, the "not working" fog light kinda fell off and I've passed 3 ncts with no mention of it