Hello. I would really appreciate a bit of help here.

 

Took my 107k miles 2006 VRS to Halfords this morning for an MOT. Car was serviced at independent VAG specialist two weeks ago, so I thought it would be a formality. An hour later I had a call saying it had lost power while they were moving it to the emissions test, and they were trying to find out what was wrong. After a few hours they told me the turbo had blown.

 

I've done 70k miles in it, and looked after it well (annual services at either main dealer or VAG garages). I know turbos go, but during an MOT? If it was something that followed an error in the earlier service (Halfords suggested they used the wrong oil, but the invoice says Castrol SLX 3, which seems to meet the spec based on my searches) then surely it would have happened in the last fortnight, not in the 20 minutes Halfords had it?

 

Spoke to Grey Gables near Witney, who are my old garage and in my opinion straight speaking. They assumed it must have happened during the emissions test (I assume he also considered this not necessarily to be blameworthy), but Halfords say not.

 

Any opinions very gratefully received. Can I ask Halford's to pay for a new turbo (which is going to be £500-£700, isn't it?).

Hey is you turbo standard pd130 or has it been changed? Any mods you running?

It's completely stock.

I would try and get them to pay for its a long shot but at the end of the day you took to them running so you expect to get it back running that's IMO

Yeh, absolutely. Sounds like a simple argument, doesn't it? 

Whether or not I can get them to pay, is it even reasonable for this to happen during an MOT? Sounds mad to me.

Could happen anytime.

Same as timing belts failing during an MOT.

Did they have leaflets or posters up saying it isn't their responsibility if anything happens?

Either way I dout they will pay, they might offer a discount as a good will gesture but that's it.

Blummin' heck that's some bad luck there fella...  :S

 

I can't be much help here, but fingers crossed that you get to the bottom of it and get it sorted.

Probably revving the T**ts off it to warm it up before emissions test. See this alot.

Edited 16 August, 201411 yr by gazpot0111645

Thanks. I just find it weird. I've had the car for 5 years, they had it for 20 minutes...

 

I suppose if you revved it very hard from cold - for an emissions test in an MOT at 8:30am, say - then that might increase the risk of a failure...

Gazpot,

 

Really? That is what I assumed. Surely that's negligent?

 

Interestingly, my wife bought her Octavia (1.9TDI - clearly some sort of addiction in the family) to the same Halfords 30 minutes later. When she got it back the trip meter showed it had been running 46 minutes, which made me think they decided against revving that so hard after they broke mine.

Unlike the petrol emissions test, during the diesel smoke test, a diesel engine is revved to maximum RPM and held against the governor for a short time. They should make sure the engine is at operating temperature before the smoke test. There are disclaimers around every MOT centre I've been to that advises the test centre is not liable for damage to the engine sustained during the test because if the car has low oil level, not had a recent cambelt change there is a big risk that something is going to break during the test.

 

It is quiet possible for a turbo to blow as it may have been on its way out before the test. Chances are it would have blown soon anyway even without the test.

Thanks Mannyo. I do understand that turbos go, and I know the car's got a few miles on it, too. I'd just like to know if there's any indication they did something daft (i.e. they could have given it some time to come to temperature, rather than blitzing it).

They would usually leave the engine running for the whole test and do the emissions bit towards the end, I guess thats why the other car run for 46mins. Your Fabia has the same trip computer, you could have checked its runtime before the turbo failure.

You will never know.

They arnt going to say "yeah... We drove it in and

Bounced it off it's limiter for a while, ooopsie!"

They are probably lieing already saying it was before the test. If you want to kick up a fuss call some sort of head office and ask for the garage CCTV and see when they pulled it in and at what time etc etc...

Another reason I have dashcams. If it shows the car start up and it's immediately held on the limiter, they wouldn't get away with saying that it just happens. I always check how our cars are treated.

If the car was well maintained and serviced to spec, I would say the onus is on them to prove they didn't do anything stupid, though, since it was damaged in their care in what should be a standard procedure.

I don't have the car back yet, but it would be interesting to see what the trip says. A favourable interpretation is that both cars got a proper run in, and mine went bang anyway.

 

The point about its excellent (and unmodded) history then becomes a bit more relevant, but even then, if a turbo goes at 107k I don't think many garages would feel exposed.

We don't get emission tests on a diesel here in Northern Ireland.

On my last MOT, a brake bulb blew as the tester was reversing it out of the parking area.

The rev limiter is set where it is so that issues with the timing belt, turbo and other components don't arise. It's just bad luck I'm afraid.

It either blew up under standard test conditions (which you could call bad luck/timing) OR it blew up because it was poorly handled by the testers (which is bad something else).

Maybe I'll move to Lisburn.

...it blew up because it was poorly handled by the testers...

And what would this 'poor handling' be then?

Revving it ridiculously hard from cold.

Did you not warm the car up before you took it there?

 

Does the MKI Fabia vRS not have a low rev limiter when the car is stationary, or is that only on the newer cars?

It's only a mile down the road, so it wasn't especially warm by the time it got there (the dashboard would't have been showing temperature by then). Good point, but I think the garage needs to ensure the car is ready to test (I shouldn't be at higher risk of parts failing just because I live next door).

 

I've never tried to rev it really hard stationary (well, not REALLY hard), so I've never experienced a limiter for that.