Hi All

My 96 Felicia refuses to pass the emissions test on the MOT, the Garage has fitted a new sensor with no real improvement. Also fitted a Cat with again not much improvement, along with a fuel cleaner. I have the impression he's running out of ideas which leaves me rather in the soup. Its a marginal fail I'm told. Anybody got any suggestions please.

Cheers

Toby

Which engine does it have?

LXI Plus (1289 cc)

could be a burnt out exhaust valve

just another idea some times the exhaust manifold nuts can come a little loose worth checking them over even a slight leak before the lambda sensor can cause fuelling issues.

Have to say emissions failures on the 1300 engines arent something ive seen much of. Normally very good on emissions. Ive got them through MoT's without cats on the injection cars, and passing cat test levels running on carbs. dont normally have any problems.

the filter thingy on the garages tester. mine failed three times befor the bloke figured out it was the filter in his machine that was all crudded up.

What's the oil consumption like?

Actually oil consumption does seem quite high ???

Try cleaning the breather then; an engine will burn any HC source it gets, and cats can't compensate for some of the results of burning lubricating oils.

Does it get driven hard occasionally - get the engine nice and hot by giving it a good thrashing.

Also, what condition are the spark plugs in?

I was going to say the same as Tom vRS - a good run and plenty of thrashing, blast all the muck out of it.

Blocked air filter?, check the valve clearances. What are the actual emmission readings?

I would also add that it is worth squirting a bit of carb cleaner in the throttle body.

Well, lots of suggestions there, but we're all thinking on the same lines: "What causes an engine to have sub-optimal emissions and can be fixed easily?"

Well the mechanic reckons he's tried all these things, I've spent the weekend thrashing it as suggested. The thing that worries me is that the Car drives worse since I gave it to the mechanic. In for another emissions test today, fingers crossed. Trouble is, if it keeps failing then what to do?

Well its failing for a reason - and a good mechanic should be able to tell why.

Indeedy. Are we down to the obscure stuff, like PCB or vacumn hoses that are collapsing internally, whilst the external armour stays intact until squeezed with the engine running, or failed oil seals, yet?

Actually, is there any sign of a blue haze from the exhaust system?

Problem is its now in the hands of our mechanic who keeps trying things like a new sensor & new cat, these don't solve the problem but remain on the Car and are added to the bill. This seems a bit odd to me, and I'm beginning to lose patients. But we are a bit stuck as we now have a Car with no MOT and the tax runs out on thursday. At present we could be facing a bill for

No i think that the mechanic is being completely unreasonable putting all this on your car unless you said go ahead.

If the car cannot get through it's emissions all small avenues should be cornered first and considering changing the big bits (i.e the cat) has made no difference i would call into question the mechanics competence. You should not pay for parts that have not fixed the car as they are unecassary. Ask for your old bits to go back on your car and pay for labour only, not the new catalyst and sensors.

If you are unhappy with the mechanic you can contact the ministry of transport who are behind their MOT status if they have thie, but i would stress that this should be as a last resort and all attempts to resolve this should be with the mechanic in the first instance.

After this try another garage as a good garage will have all the necassary equipment and expertise to get to the bottom of it. It may well be that the engine itself is too far gone to get through emissions in the first place if it is burning a lot of oil. In this case you could either scrap the car or source a good S/H engine from a scrapper.

There is no excuse for parts that make no difference in the first place being left on your car :(

the cat costs the most, that would be the last thing i would try, your mech is a fool!

sorry, bad day.

Yeah, absolutely the cat is the last thing to try, esp with a marginal fail.

The function of the cat is to clean up the exhaust gases, but it's better to get a clean intake in the first place!

The trouble is the Tax is up tomorrow and without an MOT I can't renew it. Does anybody know a decent mechanic in the Sussex area, the Car is with a Garage in Hove at the moment.

Just bringing this URGENT matter to the top again. Hope someone can help re garage in Hove. It seems more important than requests for pics - 'appen.

JL

Well the mechanic finally got it through, only just. Final bill to me is

i never use garages for that very reason, costs the earth and they allwase manage to make, sorry, find new fault.