Vehicle Safety Testing

jack_christie

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Only five EU Member States do obligatory suspension testing when doing annual or biannual car test.

They are Belgium, Greece, France, Portugal and Ireland.

Germany and Slovak Republic do non obligatory suspension testing.

A couple of years an Irish 1995 Mazda 121 was in fatal crash.

Technical inspection of the car revealed that there was no oil in both rear shocks and was likely to have passed the National Car Test safety check in such a condition!

Very sad tragedy.


Definitely an area that more countries need to test.

TRL report below is good technical overview of suspension testing.



NCT operator told to trial new suspension test

Road safety chiefs have directed the NCT operator to trial a new vehicle suspension test after a grieving mother’s campaign exposed potentially deadly flaws in the system.

Road Safety Authority (RSA) has required NCT contractor Applus, in conjunction with its equipment supplier, to develop a “new suspension tester”, to trial it through a large-scale pilot project, and assess it by June 2021.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/break...told-to-trial-new-suspension-test-973764.html




Ireland’s NCT is Completely Reliable
https://www.rsa.ie/en/Utility/News/News-2016/Irelands-NCT-is-Completely-Reliable/

National Car Test
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Car_Test

Transport Research laboratory (TRL) report
https://www.rsa.ie/Documents/Press Office/TRL Report.pdf

NCT Technical Facts
https://www.rsa.ie/Documents/Press Office/NCT -Technical Facts Supplied to RTE's Prime Time.pdf

Pass/Fail rates at NCTS
https://www.rsa.ie/Documents/Press Office/Note regarding the variances in Pass and fail rates at NCTS.pdf
 
i had no idea that wasn't a standard all over europe!
working shock absorbers and unbroken coils are quite essential for a safe drive...
 
i had no idea that wasn't a standard all over europe!
working shock absorbers and unbroken coils are quite essential for a safe drive...

How often do coil springs break? Sag, yes but actually break? This is a new one for me.
 
in 15yo cars, more often than you would imagine
many cars running around with a broken coil, or the lower ring missing, having lost it somewhere
 
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UK cars will fail an MOT for leaking shocks or broken springs.
 
UK cars will fail an MOT for leaking shocks or broken springs.

On page 13 of TRL report, the car in this case had "no evidence of recent fluid leaks from the dampers"!
 
You guys would laugh at Missouri's safety inspection. First, vehicles aged 10 and under aren't required to get a safety inspection, as long as they have less than 150k miles. Even when they are required, they are only required every other year (even year vehicles on even years, etc.). It's supposed to be fairly involved and take about an hour, but since it's a whopping $12, no one checks everything they are supposed to. Mostly they look at your tires and brakes. It's pathetic.
 
On page 13 of TRL report, the car in this case had "no evidence of recent fluid leaks from the dampers"!
Well to be fair it had no fluid at all :p

I think most safety inspections would check suspension for issues, seems like a pretty basic check.
 
They definately do damper test in Finland too. I've been caught on that my self
 
I read up on the UK test earlier, they apparently ditched the ‘bounce’ test and rely on leaks to check dampers, it wouldn’t surprise me of cars with empty dampers get missed.

Saw a bit of broken coil spring on the counter of the local tyre fitting centre I was at last week, they will usually find that and will definitely fail it. Smarts are apparently quite bad for it...
 
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