...about taking the specialist Coupe to an unfamiliar garage.

This may be a lengthy post, but I wanted to share my current experience and also get a couple of opinions on possible issues.

Warning: This is not the script for an episode of On the Buses (Even though it may seem like it!).

I booked my Coupe in for its MOT at a local big name garage (Bosch Academy Group), which took place on the 25th May. A couple of days later, I received a phonecall from them saying it had failed on two points. 1) Tyres on the front needed replacing and 2) Emissions were a little high.
No problems really if that is all there is. They recommended an oil and filter change to bring down the emissions, which I instructed them to carry out. I specified that I use part synth and to use the bottle in my boot as a weight guide. I also asked them to source tyres and replace.

Another day or two later, they rang to say they couldn’t source tyres from anywhere in that size. (Should have been my first warning). Not a problem though as I rang another local garage (AWR) and they ordered some in. A week after my car initially went in for its MOT, I retrieved it from them to take it across town to AWR, where the new tyres were put on. Whilst at AWR and up on a jack, there was a noticeable fast drip of a brown liquid from under the engine. I immediately took it back to Academy (it still needed to go through its re-test) and dropped it off after complaining about the leak, they assured me they would take a look and resolve it. At this stage, I was presented for an invoice for the oil and filter change, which is when I saw the invoice said that Fully Synthetic oil had been used.

A few days passed and after several phone calls and excuses (they initially said the MOT ramp was broke) the Managing Director called me to tell me it had passed its MOT retest, but unfortunately whilst being taken of the ramp, the inspector reversed it into a wall! Causing damage to the boot and rear bumper. After inspecting it, they obviously said they would send it away to a body shop to be repaired and in the meantime, they would provide me with a courtesy car.

After a few days a courtesy car had still not been provided, much to my kicking off, as getting to work was a real nightmare without a car. They had several excuses as to why they were struggling to provide me one (none of which made sense).

Anyway, 3 whole weeks after taking my car in for its MOT, I finally get a call to say that it is ready for collection. The bodyshop (In fairness) have done a really good repair and it is as good as it was before hand, however the problems don’t end there.

A few days after it had been back from them, I noticed on two occasions the odd plume of whitish smoke from the exhaust. This disappeared straight away, but I vowed to keep my eye on it.

Tonight, whilst driving the car, there was all of a sudden, lots of smoke from the exhaust, with an acrid smell. It’s been parked up now and I’m waiting for it too cool so I can check the oil levels. Obviously unhappy.
An email has been fired off, to the MD of Academy. I am fuming and venting because there was nothing at all wrong with my car and certainly I have never seen any sign of smoke before.

So, I am now left wondering what they have done and what the potential issues are. Worst case I am thinking, is either something to do with the turbo, or manifold. Either way is expensive.

Further looking around the internet, I came across info suggesting that because of the thinner viscosity of fully synth oil, there is a potential in older engines to leak through, causing it to burn through the exhaust, causing lots of smoke (Unsure whether this is even possible??).

So, apart from being a very trying time and with, I have no doubt, lots of wallet aching in the immediate future, I guess the moral of the story, is not to take a specialist car such as the coupe, to a standard garage, let alone an unfamiliar one, even if it is just for an MOT!

Sounds like one of the staff took it out for a thrash round the block and pranged it into the bagain.

Reg Varney RIP

Rotten luck chap. I had exactly the same issues with my first car. Fingers crossed the whitish smoke is just the oil seeping past the oil turbo seals, a common problem using thinner viscosity oil on an old turbo. Leave her idling for 5-10 mins once warm and see if that causes it to smoke more

Maybe they overfilled it with oil? Or maybe it's coolant and not oil meaning your headgasket is gone(see if your coolant level drops).

Maybe this has nothing to do with the garage and is totally coincidental. Things always happen in two's with my Coupe. And it's always totally unrelated!!

It definitely sounds like you've smelt coolant.

Get her to your regular garage for a once over. Fingers crossed for a simple fix.

Thanks all, well all negotions with this 'Academy Group' have broken down - so onto a regular garage, that I couldn't get into for my MOT due to work load.

I am hoping it is just a simple case of wrong oil used, rather than anything related to turbo, or manifold.

Coolant levels look ok. The smoke disappears once it has warmed up, only large surges of acceleration produces it, which could well the something getting past the seals.

On a related note; what test is carried out to check whether the turbo seals are gone? Can they be replaced, or does the entire turbo need binning?

I thought I had got away lucky, owning a Coupe for 11 months without issue lol

In which case, you were long overdue a problem....

I would get your coolant checked with a "sniffer test" - this checks for combustion gasses in the cooling system, which points to a headgasket failure. Another clue is the inside of the coolant header tank gradually gaining black deposits. If the sniffer test shows positive, then you'll need a compression test.

Do you know what grade of oil they used? If they couldn't follow your instructions for the type of oil, there's a good chance they won't have heeded your advice for the grade - there could be something silly like 5W30 in there, which is not suitable.

I'd second what nigel says, they'll have bucket loads of standard modern car oil (5 -30) and once warm it'll be passing through your hot side. I never leave my car at an MOT station, I always sit (actually I stand in the freezing cold) and wait.

Turbo referb (once off) is between £220 - how much you got

My guess would be wrong and excessive oil as well, having been through a few scares myself.

Thanks all.

Nigel, thanks for the advice - i'll ensure a sniffer test is carried out to rule out any issues with the head gasket.

It's a strange one, because i tentatively went out in it earlier and there was no smoke at all.

I checked the level the other day and they are correct.

I suspect, at the moment that muzzie may be right, as they are avoiding telling me what weight was used - all the MD keeps saying is that they checked their fiat specs and used the correct oil. I've just fired off another to the MD demanding a straight answer on oil weight.

So, I need a reputable garage now, that is local to Manchester (Ideally i'd take it to Midlands Car Service), who knows about these cars, or at least performance cars, who I can trust. I have been seriously put off standard garages. If a turbo refurb is needed, then I'll count myself lucky that I have got off lightly and happily have done.