Car advice - emissions

[yambabe]

My car has just failed its MOT.

Apparently the emissions are nearly 10 times what they should be for it.

Currently getting the lamda sensor and ecu checked out to see if either of them could be to blame, but I was just wondering if anyone has any other suggestions.

10x over seems a hell of a lot.

It's a T-reg (1999) 1.4 petrol Peugeot 306.
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[Mrs Kickstart]

Hi,

My 155 failed on emissions last year was a bit worried so Keith drove I junction up the motorway in 3rd at 70 and straight to the test station for a retest. It was nice and hot and had all the crap blown out and passed (and it passed this year too).

On a old car we had once we put something called stop smoke in the oil, that worked we sold the car but It was still running ok a good while later.

This might be worth trying if you have been doing a fair pit of pootling.

Regards
C
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[LustyLew]

It's always a good idea to go for a good long drive before an MOT. If the engine is still running a bit cold when they do the test, the fuel mixture will be richer than normal and thus fail.

They are supposed to let the engine warm up to it's running temperature, but who knows.

The Lamba sensor/probe may just be dirty and making the engine run rich. Slosh some RedEx for FI engines in the tank and then go for a spin, should help.
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[lilredmachine]

When we took the Camaro for it's MOT my Dad was bricking it, it had had the catalytic converters removed, and a 3 inch straight through dual exhaust on it. Fortunatly, being a 1980's large v8 it barely registered on the scale, causing them to check over their machine and it's calibration, only to discover that this old american v8 was running cleaner than any new car.
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[Kickstart]

Hi

Lambda probes fail and the car then adjusts the mixture to based on the faulty readings (until it gets bad enough that it just says stuff it and ignores the lambda probe). 10x is not that bad, depending on whether that is CO or hydrocarbons. Limit for a non cat car was 3.5% CO and 1200ppm hydrocarbons (from memory), while a cat car is is something like 0.5% CO (and often a lot lower for different cars) and 50ppm hydrocarbons, so failing by a ten fold margin could still put it well within what would pass for a catalysed car.

By the way, thought your 306 was a diesel? If so does it even have a lambda probe, and any ECU is not likely to do much. Diesel pumps are horribly expensive though.

[Bendy]

I thrashed ol' smokey round for about 40 mins before I took it to its MOT in December... then MOT man didn't bother with an emissions test.

5 minute MOTs rule.

[veeeffarr]

Hope you've booked a nice meal at a posh restaurant for tomorrow Keith!

[Kickstart]

[veeeffarr]

[Kickstart]

Well, one or other of us would get it free because delivery had taken too long.

All the best

Keith
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[Mrs Kickstart]

[veeeffarr]

[Nb]

What part of the emissions has it failed on ? Co, hydrocarbons or lambda? Cat cars are now tested using a bets test first (basic emissions test) with a limit on co of 0.200co, if it fails this you put further car details in such as engine number cc etc and the limit goes up to 0.300 co.

Most cars pass by this stage because they are hot enough. But quite often cars/cats take ages to warm up and some mot testers dont give them enough time if they are busy so just fail them....
Ive had a few peugeots where i had to sit there with the car at about 4 k for 10 mins just to get them warm.


If it really is bad, lamdba would be the first place i would look at. Only ever had one ecu cause emissions failure and that was due to being an import. Perhaps get your emissions tested elsewhere ? Probably do it for a fiver, dont take long.

[lilredmachine]

it was registering under 10ppm... Probably something to do with running a huge dirty motor disguising air pump to dilute the immense amount of hydro carbons it pumps out
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[ZRX61]

First rule of passing emission tests:
New oil, oil filter & air cleaner etc.

[jok]

[Kickstart]

Hi

No emissions tests on the MOT for bikes (yet).

All the best

Keith
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