Steaming over garage and NCT

DublinWriter

I booked my car into a local garage for a service last Monday as I had the NCT tonight. It's a BMW 320D E46.

I used a local garage because I got pranged for €850 for a service from a Main-Stealer the last time.

Anyway, had the NCT tonight and failed. Guess why? Too much oil in the engine so they couldn't do the emissions test. My car passed every other test.

I mean what kind of muppet garage would do this when I told them I had an NCT coming up?

I'll dip the car myself in the morning to see just how much oil is in there, but I have about 60 miles of driving to do at the weekend and I'm wondering how safe would it be to drive around will too much oil in the engine?

cantdecide

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!

What kind of muppet, indeed!! Borrow a car for your trip.

groupb

Do not drive it with too much oil in it.

astraboy

Dip the car now! Too much oil can be as bad as too little, causes a lot of damage! Do not drive it if the level is above the max. Get it towed to a garage and have them drain some of the oil. And ask for a refund on your service from the last garage for not providing a serivce that was "fit for the purpose".

DublinWriter

Thanks for the advice all.

A happy ending of sorts - went fuming back to the garage on Saturday morning.

The owner/mechanic was very contrite, he did a complete oil change again, gave me €30 in cash for the retest plus a €100 credit note (like I'll ever be using that!).

I probably did about 200+ miles with the engine over-oiled between service and NCT. Hopefully it didn't cause too much long term damage.

Seems like I've gone from one extreme (Main Stealers) to another (cow-barn mechanics). Either way, it's just another reminder to me that Ireland is full of unprofessional cowboys.

towel401

The NCT is just a scam where you pay the garage to take your car for an hour, do all they can to break it, rev the sh*t out of it. What they try to do is damage a few components so that its not completely obvious and hope that when they break you come crawling back to them paying them even more to fix the things they broke. if they break it at the test in trouble so they don't do that

Laredo

Pre-NCT services are a waste of money anyway, the NCT will tell you exactly what if anything needs doing to pass and even if you do need a re-test the €30 fee will be more than saved with all the things the garage does not need to do as they have already tested OK.

Having said that, regular servicing should be done at or before the intervals reccomended by the manufacturer and if that is done competently throughout the life of the car then chances are the car will pass numerous NCTs 1st time.

unkel

Laredo wrote: »

Pre-NCT services are a waste of money anyway, the NCT will tell you exactly what if anything needs doing to pass and even if you do need a re-test the €30 fee will be more than saved with all the things the garage does not need to do as they have already tested OK.

Having said that, regular servicing should be done at or before the intervals reccomended by the manufacturer and if that is done competently throughout the life of the car then chances are the car will pass numerous NCTs 1st time.

Well said!

Henry Ford III

It's easy enough to use a vacuum pump to draw excess oil out of an engine via the dipstick.

I agree though it was shoddy to have had a mechanic overfill it.

CharlieCroker

DublinWriter wrote: »

Thanks for the advice all.

A happy ending of sorts - went fuming back to the garage on Saturday morning.

The owner/mechanic was very contrite, he did a complete oil change again, gave me €30 in cash for the retest plus a €100 credit note (like I'll ever be using that!).

I probably did about 200+ miles with the engine over-oiled between service and NCT. Hopefully it didn't cause too much long term damage.

Seems like I've gone from one extreme (Main Stealers) to another (cow-barn mechanics). Either way, it's just another reminder to me that Ireland is full of unprofessional cowboys.

To be honest, i wouldn't count out that mechanic yet. He made a mistake, but by the sounds of it he handled it perfectly!! If that happened at a main dealer it would take solicitors letters to get a similar outcome!!
Plus, the local guy will be a lot more careful the next time knowing what happened this time. Use the credit note the next time its due a service and see how you get on.

mondeo

I never go back to the same garage if I had initial problems with them. I always try somewhere else.

FuzzyWuzzyWazza

mondeo wrote: »

I never go back to the same garage if I had initial problems with them. I always try somewhere else.

No second chance for anyone then? or is it just garages?:D

colm_mcm

towel401 wrote: »

The NCT is just a scam where you pay the garage to take your car for an hour, do all they can to break it, rev the sh*t out of it. What they try to do is damage a few components so that its not completely obvious and hope that when they break you come crawling back to them paying them even more to fix the things they broke. if they break it at the test in trouble so they don't do that

To be fair, that's a load of nonsense

Lord Nikon

I would recommend a independent BMW garage, AC Car Sales are good, know what there doing and dont charge $tealer prices either. Instead of a cowbow.

Tbh, hats off to guy who made the initial mistake with your oil change, and what he did about rectifying the problem, you don't hear that very often.

TheBigLebowski

neuromancer wrote: »

I would recommend a independent BMW garage, AC Car Sales are good, know what there doing and dont charge $tealer prices either. Instead of a cowbow.

Tbh, hats off to guy who made the initial mistake with your oil change, and what he did about rectifying the problem, you don't hear that very often.

I went to AC Car Sales for a BMW service. Don't think I'd bother going back. OK, they don't charge main stealer prices, but they don't do much for the money either. All they done for my service was oil and filters. 220€ to drain the oil out of a car, stick in a new filter and pour in some oil. They didn't look at anything else. I know this because my coolant level light came on and brakes started screetching for a change a month later. You could hardly call that a 'service'.

Lord Nikon

There are different levels of service, that being the basic one. Oil for my Bm is €100+, filter €20 and labour is whatever. Anyway, I'm not defending anyone, and i guess your in the same boat as a load of people, they ask for work to be done and expect it to be a certain price, and it;s never costs what they were hoping to pay.

I got screwed royally with head light allignment, thinking there was no way it would cost €50(what i had in my wallet), it cost be €80 and i was sick, but kind of had to pay it since the work was done.