Felicia emission problems..

[Cepheuz]

and if anything might even look a bit lean,

excuse me, how did you come to the conclusion that they look lean? i ask, because those plug SHOW sings of Rich mix (base ring black, center electrode black)

if your arriving to that conclusion because of the white ceramic, or the fact that the ground strap is ash white, those are signs of advance timing and high combustion chamber heat due to the advance timing.

i recomend all the readers and the owner to read all the pages he can on spark plug reading, an informed desicion would be best.

apart from that, i´m butting myself out, to avoid a feud.

[djaychela]

Centre electrode didn't look black to me, I thought it was just from the poor photo - without a decent one with flash then you'd not know. The ceramic doesn't look too happy, look slike it's been hot to me.

Better photos, please, OP.

[Cepheuz]

Centre electrode didn't look black to me, I thought it was just from the poor photo - without a decent one with flash then you'd not know. The ceramic doesn't look too happy, look slike it's been hot to me.

Better photos, please, OP.

picture are ok for reading, unless you want to read the entire ceramic witch is needed if the plugs are ok and you want to check the jetting on all RPMs

i forgot to mention, #3 and 4 look like they weren´t tighnen good (all thread dirty) #1 has 3 thread discolored (exelent Heat range) so what are the plug serial, im tempted to buy those same plugs for my car on my next services (witch i´ll do next moth)

also the marking on those plugs are diferent, witch tell me you have a odd load, maybe is as simple as a under inflated tyre on your right side. but did you check the valve clearances?, remember all valve are 0.20mm (8 thou) unless you have alloy push rods, common on intake valves, those would be 0.25mm (10 thou)

i wanted to ask, if its posible for you to take vacuum readings on a non ported manifold vacuum. these are the measurement i want

vacuum @ idle 800-1200 rpm

vacuum @ 3500 rpm

max and min vacuum readings when you bleep the throttle

vacuum reading while stating the engine (ignition system disconected)

all readings with a warm engine.

the last reading is to rule out worn piston ring, the first is to confirm advance timing, the second is to confirm engine health and base torque values and the tird to check your valve timing.

remember that how the needle moves is as important(or more) as the readings you get

sorry if i´m troubling you, i´m just shooting in the dark, cus you are correct, thats a beautifull car to be spraping. and those tyre look good on it. (cus they fill the ark perfect)

and i can tell that you do havea dizzy cus of the spark cables and the fact that you said that you replace the coil)

If you want a way to test emisions on a car without the sensors warm the engine and put your hand on the exhaust path, air should be luke warm (it should feel good) but not hot or burn, and on the morning or cold days you should see vapor coming out (even water) after putting your hand on the exhaust path smell it, if it smells like acid, oil or like petrol is bad, it should have no disernable smell, i used to put my nose on the exhaust path cus as a kid i used to love the smell and the warm feeling in my face and look at the water coming out(yes, that souds crazy but non harmfull unless you get too close)

Edited 13 September, 2009 by Cepheuz

[steve200]

also the marking on those plugs are diferent, witch tell me you have a odd load, maybe is as simple as a under inflated tyre on your right side.

>> wouldn't this just generally increase load on the engine?

I think it would be worth trying another garage! especially if its always been within limits on previous tests. Could just be the set up of their equipment.

good luck:thumbup:

[Cepheuz]

>> wouldn't this just generally increase load on the engine?

I think it would be worth trying another garage! especially if its always been within limits on previous tests. Could just be the set up of their equipment.

good luck:thumbup:

Good one,

[KenONeill]

I agree with Tonny - those plugs look they're running on a rich and/or oil-fouled mixture.

For the OP, are the plug electrodes matt and sooty or slightly glossy and oily in appearance (hard to tell from photos)?

[Cepheuz]

I agree with Tonny - those plugs look they're running on a rich and/or oil-fouled mixture.

For the OP, are the plug electrodes matt and sooty or slightly glossy and oily in appearance (hard to tell from photos)?

when its oil instead of Over Fueling the spark plug does´nt have that consistency, as you can tell from the pic the dark ring is not even, plus if it where oil it would show on the ceramic no matter the heat range of the plug. i dont have testing equipment or ODBII fault code reading due to my car being a carb, and i relied on vacuum and plug reading to fix all of my feli´s problem.

another sign of over advance timing on a car is that the exhaust gases are too cold and that the car´s engine sounds a little like a VW Beatle engine (poping instead of puffing) now this can be cure with redicing the exhaust valve´s clearance, leading to worst emission problems thats why i asked him to check his valve.

[KenONeill]

when its oil instead of Over Fueling the spark plug does´nt have that consistency, as you can tell from the pic the dark ring is not even, plus if it where oil it would show on the ceramic no matter the heat range of the plug. i dont have testing equipment or ODBII fault code reading due to my car being a carb, and i relied on vacuum and plug reading to fix all of my feli´s problem.

another sign of over advance timing on a car is that the exhaust gases are too cold and that the car´s engine sounds a little like a VW Beatle engine (poping instead of puffing) now this can be cure with redicing the exhaust valve´s clearance, leading to worst emission problems thats why i asked him to check his valve.

Cheers mate; I've never seen oil-fouled plugs for real, only pics.

[TeflonTom]

this can be cure with redicing the exhaust valve´s clearance, leading to worst emission problems thats why i asked him to check his valve.

you cant adjust the valve clearance on the 1.6 engine because it has hydraulic lifters

[KenONeill]

you cant adjust the valve clearance on the 1.6 engine because it has hydraulic lifters

Which gives me an off the wall sort of an idea; when was the oil last changed? Only, really old engine oil gets thicker, which will tend to give you wide gaps when cold, and tappet pump up at high revs when hot.

[Cepheuz]

Cheers mate; I've never seen oil-fouled plugs for real, only pics.

my valve seals are leaking oil, mine are oiled due to that, but not for long (in a month they´ll be changed)

[Skodillac_fi]

I have come to conclusion that this skoda engine is really irrational.. You can't adjust anything and everything is working but something isn't. Now after flushing the engine and oil changing, emissions at the idle speed would be nearly inside the limits and local Skoda dealer said that it seems like cat isn't working at all.. Maybe I should change the cat next but the original spare part cat from Skoda dealer costs 860 euros!! Quite a stunning price, so I think I buy that cat from some other place =)

[Phil-E]

I noticed some CAT's for the felly going very cheap on ebay. Around £80 (100 euros?).

Phil

[djaychela]

Yeah, loads of cats about for that sort of money. And that's where we came in. Try it with a known good lambda sensor and a known good (read new) cat.

[Skodillac_fi]

Cat has been changed, no improvement.. We are getting closer to the moment when I have to officially pronounce this Skoda dead.

[richardsfavorit]

Is the charcoal cannister working? Isn't it related to the emissions? Im only throwiing my two pence in now as I know your having a lot of trouble with this. It seems a shame to scrap it.

[GentleGiant]

I would SERIOUS suggest trying a different garage for testing before you scrap it; ONE of our 5 Toyotas has failed its envisions test at our local Ford 3 years running, but we take it over the hill to the Toyota garage and it passes with flying colours,

And the Ford garage readings were FAR worse than the ones you have posted.

If the car is as good as people are saying, I would look at a recon engine before even thinking about scrapping it.

[TeflonTom]

tbh i still think those plugs look normal, although the black soot might point to the engine needing a good de-coke, i suppose a good dose of built u carbon deposits could be affecting the quality of the combustion process a little leading to high emmisions/un-burned fuel

[Cepheuz]

tbh i still think those plugs look normal, although the black soot might point to the engine needing a good de-coke, i suppose a good dose of built u carbon deposits could be affecting the quality of the combustion process a little leading to high emmisions/un-burned fuel

well, i know that those plugs are runing rich, but just that, running rich and a little hot,

if you can give us the reading after the oil change and the normal reading i think whe may come up with new ideas, and i agree big time, go to a diferent garage for testing and always wait until full warm up for the readings

[Skodillac_fi]

Problem solved. Now I know that one should always think what has changed from the earlier emission check.. Ignition coil ,that I changed earlier, cut off ignition randomly and therefore emissions were so high. After changing ignition coil everything went back to normal as it was in the earlier emission checks. So the conclusion is that the ignition coil which wasn't original skoda part went off in 4 months or it didn't fit at all with the magneti marelli engine control unit. After all, this was quite an expensive fault detection when the actual fault was this simple:mad:

Thanks everyone for interest and good hints:thumbup:

[GentleGiant]

My mum had an engine rebuild, scrapped a car, and nearly scrapped the rebuilt engine before the garage figured out it was a faulty cold start valve.

It cost about £3000 for a £15 part, she was NOT happy.