Failed MOT - Now Passed!!

[Liz]

Just got back from having 40k service, with MOT which failed on emissions, my fault of course for not having a proper air filter or exhaust   s:roll: :roll: s:roll:   , cost me £282.00 (did have coolant and brake fluid done), they also proudly told me that they have "given" me a litre of oil for topping up between services, then charged me for it, and it wasn't in the car when I looked when I got home.  s:evil: :evil: s:evil:  They have so p'd me off today that I will probably never darken their sh!tty dealership again. Took car in at 0900, asked for it to be done asap, went back as passing at 1600, ready at 17.15 they told me, back on time for that, finally left at 18.10, I could go on but I think I may have a coronary I was so annoyed, and don't even start me on the salesman who told me that the '2 has got a secondary alarm which sounds the hooter  s:?: :?: s:?:   Well not mine....rant over   s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

[Anonymous]

Just got back from having 40k service, with MOT which failed on emissions, my fault of course for not having a proper air filter or exhaust   s:roll: :roll: s:roll:  

It did pass though - right?

[Liz]

Nope. My CO readings are too high on Fast idle reading 0.40% vol and 2nd fast idle 0.48% vol, I thought that they may of tried to sort it out, but no, just blamed my mods!

Sorry topic drift   s:oops: :oops: s:oops:    s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

[SteveJ]

<admin> Topic split due to drift </admin>

[Liz]

Sorry   s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

[Anonymous]

Nope. My CO readings are too high on Fast idle reading 0.40% vol and 2nd fast idle 0.48% vol, I thought that they may of tried to sort it out, but no, just blamed my mods!

Sorry topic drift   s:oops: :oops: s:oops:    s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

Sorry SteveJ  s:oops: :oops: s:oops:  

Surely it's just a screwdriver job to sort the emissions???

[SteveJ]

Nope. My CO readings are too high on Fast idle reading 0.40% vol and 2nd fast idle 0.48% vol, I thought that they may of tried to sort it out, but no, just blamed my mods!

Sorry topic drift   s:oops: :oops: s:oops:    s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

Absolute BOLLOCKS! There I've said it!

The airfilter and the backbox will NOT have caused you to fail the MOT by such a wide margin.

2 things to check :-

1) Clean the MAF - this will help quite a bit, because if it is dirty, the engine will be getting more air than it thinks, so it will be running lean

2) Check the O2's for contamination / failure. The O2's do degrade over time (in particular if they are running hot due to under-fueling - see point 1 above). They are also prone to contamination from Lead and Silicon in fuel. Proving it's the O2's that are causing the problem is going to be difficult and also costly to fix - I believe MrT want something like £170 each for them, and there are 2 that will need to be replaced.

If neither of the above fix it, get a Dastek UniChip, and get Millway to create an MOT map for you - that should fix it. Should also get an extra 21bhp with a performance map too (assuming the same gains as Martin got pre-turbo).

[SteveJ]

Surely it's just a screwdriver job to sort the emissions???

If the car had a carburettor and no ECU - yep it would be.

See my previous post for possible causes.

[Liz]

Sam took out my MAF for me when he came over to borrow my airbox and it wasn't dirty, are the O2 sensors a warranty item? only got a few days left on Mr T warranty!

[SteveJ]

Sam took out my MAF for me when he came over to borrow my airbox and it wasn't dirty, are the O2 sensors a warranty item? only got a few days left on Mr T warranty!

The MAF doesn't look dirty until you clean it - believe me if you havent cleaned it since you bought the car, it IS dirty.

O2's are going to be difficult. Because you failed the MOT whilst under warranty, the dealer HAS to fix it - make their life HELL until they do so  s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:

[SteveJ]

PS. I would put the stock air box in for the warranty work - that way they can't blame the a'Pexi

[Anonymous]

O2's are going to be difficult. Because you failed the MOT whilst under warranty, the dealer HAS to fix it - make their life HELL until they do so  s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:

That I like  s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:  

My warranty is out in Sept - Looks like MOT is August then  s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

[Tem]

The MAF doesn't look dirty until you clean it - believe me if you havent cleaned it since you bought the car, it IS dirty.

What he said!  s8) s8)

Just cleaned mine and it looked ok before, but after cleaning it looked like new. And I don't even have 20k miles yet...

[Liz]

Anyone bringing a screwdriver tomorrow??

[Liz]

I am tempted to put the stock airbox on - get one of those pipe things that Mark is doing and sell the Apexi.

[Anonymous]

im sure we will have enogth time to put the air box back on !

shame tho as i agree with steve as the A'exi wont effect the emmitions

[Anonymous]

Same problem a couple of us have had. High emmisions, turned out to be the O2 sensors. If you don't get them covered under warranty then DO NOT buy from Mr T. They can be bought for about £35 IIRC.

[Liz]

I have got to call them today about a few matters relating to service, I shall ask them to check the O2 sensors before the warranty runs out!

[GSB]

Nope. My CO readings are too high on Fast idle reading 0.40% vol and 2nd fast idle 0.48% vol, I thought that they may of tried to sort it out, but no, just blamed my mods!

Sorry topic drift   s:oops: :oops: s:oops:    s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

Absolute BOLLOCKS! There I've said it!

Possibly a little un-P.C. but it cannot be denied the man speaks sense...

You can add whatever intake and exhaust arrangement you like to the car, and it will compensate accordingly. To do this it measures the airflow into the engine, and the oxygen content of the gasses out, and alters the mount of fuel and ignition timing to bring the oxygen reading within a specified range. At this range the car will pass all emmisions tests with ease.

Therefore the only thing that will cause a deviation in the emmisions will be a "false" reading from one of these two points. As the primary concern on all modern cars is the O2 content of the exhaust gasses (O2 is very simple to measure, and the amont of 02 present is direcly proportional to the efficiecy of the fuel burning in your engine) that would be my first place to look... (I knew that all these years of learning combustion control systems would come in handy one day...)

[SteveJ]

I managed to get one of the O2's out at the Treasure Hunt (the right hand one), and it seemed to have a strange pink colour to it - all of the sensors I've looked at previously have either been white (OK) or black (engine too rich) so I'm not sure what to make of pink  s:? :? s:?

The left hand O2 refused to budge, and I didn't fancy having to explain to Liz why she couldn't drive the car if it sheared off, so discretion was the order of the day with that one - let MrT fix it  s:) s:)

I would have been interested to get the left-hand one out, as out of 4 cars that I have looked at recently, the left-hand pre-cat on 3 of them has been showing signs of the surface breaking up (the right hand pre-cat has been fine on all of them) - the worst one was jonboy's, and he is now reporting consuming all of his oil in about 1500 miles. Conicidence? I think NOT!

[Liz]

Thanks for the advice, I am going to Mr T tomorrow armed with this, not going to take any sh!t off of them about mods etc, Grants post was very informative and will be quoted!

I shall add that to my list of - the oil that they  "gave" me and then charged me for was not in the car.

Steve J when looking at my O2 sensors saw that my coolant was empty - despite being changed the previous day

Lights behind my heater control are still out, despite them being on the job sheet to be done

Only thing they done right was changing the shock over, must say that it is driving alot better now.

Hopefully I will keep my dignity and not lose my rag, but if I don't get any satisfaction I am going to speak to the service manager and get answers as to exactly what they play at when you take the car in there, considering it was taken in at 0900 and was not ready until 18.10 despite me being told that it would be ready asap.

Let you know how I get on!  If you don't hear from me means that I got arrested for public order and will need bailing out!

[SteveJ]

I managed to get one of the O2's out at the Treasure Hunt (the right hand one), and it seemed to have a strange pink colour to it - all of the sensors I've looked at previously have either been white (OK) or black (engine too rich) so I'm not sure what to make of pink  s:? :? s:?

Urk - just found this - http://www.tomco-inc.com/tip4.htm If it is leaded fuel that has done this, then the cats are all toast too, which could also explain the failed MOT, although the cat failure should be picked up by the 3rd O2 sensor (Liz's car is UK spec and does have the 3rd O2 unlike J-Spec cars)

[Liz]

I'm not sure what to make of pink  s:? :? s:?

I use optimax all the time, could this be a problem?

[markiii]

Thanks for the advice, I am going to Mr T tomorrow armed with this, not going to take any sh!t off of them about mods etc, Grants post was very informative and will be quoted!

I shall add that to my list of - the oil that they  "gave" me and then charged me for was not in the car.

Steve J when looking at my O2 sensors saw that my coolant was empty - despite being changed the previous day

Lights behind my heater control are still out, despite them being on the job sheet to be done

Only thing they done right was changing the shock over, must say that it is driving alot better now.

Hopefully I will keep my dignity and not lose my rag, but if I don't get any satisfaction I am going to speak to the service manager and get answers as to exactly what they play at when you take the car in there, considering it was taken in at 0900 and was not ready until 18.10 despite me being told that it would be ready asap.

Let you know how I get on!  If you don't hear from me means that I got arrested for public order and will need bailing out!

be nice toi teh service manager, to be taken seriosuly you need to be seen to reasonable, and his techs incompetent.

[markiii]

well Mike used optimax all teh while and his engine has recently gone pop.

so I'd guess and say yes.