Pilotabroad

Well inspection passed with no issues but worth sharing that our perception of the test centres being headlight focused is indeed correct.

Literally more time spent doing headlight tests than the rest of the vehicle total, including new to me headlight lens temperature testing. This alone took 8mins as each headlight on each setting tested and it even seemed cool down was tested. Managed to get away with the toothpaste/bicarb polishing trick for headlight opacity. Everything else a cursery glance as usual.

Good luck all

dingg

Who did you go to in the end? , I'm taking mine in on Monday for a grilling, spent yesterday polishing one of the headlights that was suffering from sunstroke 😎

liveaboard

I've replaced the headlights on both my cars; polishing was no longer sufficient due to the tiniest little bit of fading of the reflectors.
My cars are old though.
Retest with the new lights at Portimao was swift, there was hardly anyone there; I used to have to wait an hour or more there, I wonder if everyone's going somewhere else now.

For those still working on their IPO;
Repair garages don't like you to bring your own parts, but if you're a DIY person then buy from auto-doc.pt, it's not expensive but takes a week or two to get the parts.
After installation the direction has to be set on a machine; go to a small shop with a few mechanics, because a big shop always has a kid or an idiot on staff, and they'll give the simple headlight job to that person, who will screw it up.
Ask how I know...
On my second try, I waited until my local old guy had his floor free and could do the simple task. It took 5 minutes.
Make sure that during the IPO, you have the same load on the car as during the alignment in the shop; a boot full of shopping will cause an error that leads to an IPO fail.

Pilotabroad

Mastertest as usual, though they have a strict appointment only system in place now.

Loafing Along

How times change, a couple of years ago one of my headlights was out of alignment and the inspecting technician just adjusted it while commenting on the poor state of the roads being a problem. That was a Cima site

BillBullock

Last week when my car was being inspected, I saw a female inspector adjusting the headlight alignment on another car being tested whilst the young lady owner stood next to her car chatting away to the lady inspector. I then saw it happening again 5 minutes later. Such good service!

Pilotabroad

As per Bill, when there yesterday I saw one inspector doing the same thing.
No idea if successfully, but I guess there's only so much help they can offer especially if there is a national focas on headlights.

dingg

Testing was a success, no temperature testing of headlights was done and no more than the usual scrutiny of the lights 😎

IAC caldas-da-rainha 👍

Fluffyhead

We just passed, having failed on cloudy headlights last year, this year we sanded them with 2500 wet and dry and it obviously did the trick - phew.