My Beloved Berlingo

Today I brought in my beloved Berlingo to for inspection, as one has to do yearly (yes, it’s already been a year since I’ve bought her).

Before doing so, I took my car to the garage last Thursday and let the mechanic do his job: tweak the beauty so she’d pass the tests. Whilst he was at it, I also let him take a look at the heating, cos’ it has some funny smell whenever it needs to blow hot air. Seven hours of work and more than 100 Euro later she was mine again, yet the heater problem wasn’t fixed … he just couldn’t find it (and checked about everything he said).

Today at last, I brought her in at the local SBAT office, where the inspection takes place. Planned on going around 7AM to get it checked, but whilst visiting their (horrifying) site, I noticed a nice small graph indicating the best hours to go. Turns out it’s very busy at 7AM, and very calm at 8AM. Next to the graphs their site also provides webcams, so one can see if they’d have to queue or not. Just ingenious and very customer friendly!

Stijn & Cédric posing

Anywho, got there at around 8AM; waited a while and drove her in. Since I’m not familiar with these tests (before I bought her, my dealer went to get it inspected) I was very interested in what they’re all doing. Checking the exhaust-fumes, light check, tire check and then they finally drove her onto some elevation thing to check what’s underneath. The dude inspecting it immediately said “you better get this oil-leak fixed” to me, pointing to the front of my car where the engine is. Saw it with my own eyes and it was quite a huge stain …

Whilst at the reception to pay (36 Euro *eeek*) my fears became reality: I had given them a green paper before the inspection and now I received a red one in return … *that can’t be good*. Yips, my car didn’t pass the tests: “Oil or cooling fluid leaking” was the reason given.

“Oilcan! Oilcan!”

Hmmz … oil leaking? I just went to the mechanic last week ffs! And then all of the sudden it hit me: since about half a year ago, I always had to go back to my car dealer to check my oil level, cos’ I always had too little. And maybe that’s what’s causing the smell when blowing hot air through the heaters. Yet, I don’t quite know why my mechanic didn’t see this problem before because:

• He knows that I always come back to get some more oil.
• The smell of the heating in fact is kinda oily.
• The smudges of oil on the bottom of my car are really big and cannot be missed.

Now, one could say that I did something wrong between last Thursday and now, yet I didn’t hit anything nor did anything stupid with her, etc.

Do I have to look for a new mechanic now?

Bramus! (who seems to be ranting a bit)