MOT Fail emissions.!?

[TonyZman129]

My 2004 Z has just failed its mot on emissions by 0.04 on LAMBDA reading. Only done 53K. The garage changed the middle secion of exhaust as it had a blow / corrosion at the join. Was expecting a successful re-test but still failed.

Garage now just guessing..could be this could be that all adding up to be the most expensive mot I've ever had..any ideas how to bring reading down or what could be?

Edited November 25, 2012 by TonyZman129

[Wookiee22]

Is the exhaust all OEM?

[glrnet]

hopefully one of the technical traders will be along soon, be nice if you introduced yourself properly too in the introductions section

[ddcboyle]

If you bought car 2nd hand, dcat or high flow pipes? A hole somewhere else ion exhaust?

[Vik54]

Stick a fuel cleaner in and take her for a blast down the motorway in fourth - don't let the revs go below 4k

[jumping350]

+1 on above take the car for a long trip really heat the cats up stick some cleaner in tank and go straight to m.o.t retest and should go through fine

Edited November 25, 2012 by jumping350

[TonyZman129]

Is the exhaust all OEM?

 

Yes

[Wookiee22]

Is the exhaust all OEM?

 

Yes

 

In which case, see the advice above.

[scubapics]

Stick a fuel cleaner in and take her for a blast down the motorway in fourth - don't let the revs go below 4k

 

Slight problem with that in that the car doesn't have a valid MOT certificate.

[jumping350]

if you take it out the day your having a retest your allowed to drive it on the road just make sure you book it with the garage so theres proof then do above before hand and go straight to m.o.t

[ddcboyle]

from what ive heard cleaners dont work. but if cops pull you over u got 7days leeway

[scubapics]

Just to explore this further... you are allowed to drive the vehicle to get it repaired or to a retest providing you have an appointment. It doubt that driving other than direct to either venues would be seen favourably by the law. I also doubt that you would be given a seven day wonder as the vehicle has failed an MOT, is on the MOT database and thus they know that you already know that the vehicle, in the eyes of the law, is not road worthy. You are more likely to have the vehicle confiscated, etc etc.

 

Also your insurance is invalid. If you have an accident you are screwed.

 

Go past any jam sandwiches and you are likely to be stopped immediately due to the use of ANPR cameras.

 

It's just not worth it IMHO.

[rtbiscuit]

Fuel additives are all good and well, but they take a good 2 tanks of fuel to work through, so if your willing to do the best part of 700 miles before turning up to the test centre i don;t thin thats going to work.

 

If it was me i'd get an OBDII on to it and check and see if the lamdas have kicked up a code, you might just need a new lamda sensor. they don;t always turn the CEL on; so a code reader is required. there are quiet a few of us on here with the kit that can do that for you, or a garage should be able to check it.

 

If its all clear my next trip would be to a terraclean provider

 

http://www.terraclean.co.uk/

 

I must admit i was sceptical when i first cam across this on wheeler dealers, but having donw some reading it seems to be very effective.

[spursmaddave]

Strange, I have had 3 different exausts with HFC's over 4 MOT's and nearly 40k and not had any problems at all

[ddcboyle]

ah my apologiea about 7day buffer, as the rest said, if ur driving to be tested

[coldel]

Mine went through with 50k and a Milltek and Berks HFCs on it, we stuck the reader in and went off to have a cup of tea, took about five-ten minutes for the reading to drop down enough.

[jumping350]

i had no cats in my old car and the reading came back well above 1 stuck some agent in it went for a 40minute burn and it came back at 0.02 or something so maybe worth a try its only a tenner i think anyway or like others say get codes read or find a friendly m.o.t man

Edited November 26, 2012 by jumping350

[Allan Zada]

What fuel are you using?

[TonyZman129]

Thanks all for overwhelming response.

 

Nice to see some true petrol Z heads out there.!

 

In the end I took it back to the mot station where they kindly re-tested the emissions for free after a little rant across country.! To my surprise it passed a subsequent mot so leads me to think that the new exhaust hadn't sealed itself properly or something prior to re-test.

 

In summary having added Forte Gas treatment & new middle section exhaust etc a re-mot brought the reading right down to 1.00 which smack bang in the middle allowed. I also put super unleaded fuel in the day before so wonder if that helped too.?

 

A lesson learned for next year perhaps?

 

Thanks again

[spursmaddave]

You should really only use Super Unleaded, have a search for the many many threads on here....