182 MOT - FAIL... Incredibly high emissions

[browno]

JUst spoken to my mechanic who has taken the 182 for MOT today, and it's failed specatcularly on emissions with the levels being:

6.18% CO (limit =0.3%)
231ppm HC (limit - 200ppm)

Emissions are apparently spot-on at idle, but rocket up at fast-idle...

It's completely standard apart from a prospeed cat-back exhaust system - no de-cat.

I'm guessing that it's either a dead lambda sensor (most likely?) or a crumbling cat...

anyone got any other thoughts... I've done a search and seen a few lambda fails giving 2% CO or thereabouts, but nothing as extreme as the 6+% here....

Hopefully it won't be too pricey either way!

 

[clio_luke]

lambada sensor i would think. im sure they are £40. could be wrong

 

[Fred@BTM]

more like £90 for a lambda

 

[mrangry]

£49 from gsf.

 

[sideways danny]

could well be a damaged cat caused by the lambda being faulty for some time

 

[lemonnobby]

lamdba sensor have seen a 172 that high before on emissions.

 

[browno]

Thanks for all the replies guys - guess the first thing is to replace the lambda sensor (presumably the pre-cat one first) - and see if it's better... if not, then I'll look at post cat lambda and/or a new (sports?) cat...

Will let you know what we find tomorrow...

 

[Fred@BTM]

get it on a diagnostic computer before you do anything, will save you in the long run

 

[browno]

Cheers Fred - forgot the most important part there really - car is indeed being hooked up to the computer this morning to see what that says before we start replacing parts needlessly!

 

[Darren S]

Are both the pre and post cat sensors the same item?

D.

 

[mark123]

They are different parts from Renault, potentially this is just due to the length of the wire though. It's an extra 10 quid for the 6 inches of extra wire if I remember correctly. lol.

 

[Darren S]

They are different parts from Renault, potentially this is just due to the length of the wire though. It's an extra 10 quid for the 6 inches of extra wire if I remember correctly. lol.

ROFL! Typical.

D.

 

[mattjk]

I'm sure they are different one way or another, although if your on the cheap you could probably get away with swapping them if they are the same.

 

[ben lee]

id say its a faulty engine senser prob collent temp causeing the engine to run cold start up map all the time.

 

[franx]

6,--% ..wow !

Maybe one of your plugs aint doing the job too, it wo'nt get complete combustion , therefor high emissions ?

 

[franx]

id say its a faulty engine senser prob collent temp causeing the engine to run cold start up map all the time.

^^ seems logical

 

[sideways danny]

I'm sure they are different one way or another, although if your on the cheap you could probably get away with swapping them if they are the same.

They are the same apart from wire length.

 

[Neal 182]

Thanks for all the replies guys - guess the first thing is to replace the lambda sensor (presumably the pre-cat one first) - and see if it's better... if not, then I'll look at post cat lambda and/or a new (sports?) cat...

Will let you know what we find tomorrow...

The post cat Lambda is only there to check the cat is doing it's Job if it's a Lambda that's at fault it will be the pre cat you can test them with a voltmeter even way.

 

[Hutchie]

get a friendly mot :rasp:

or you can get emission helping stuff you stick in fuel and i have seen it work

 

[ben lee]

haveing high hc means its not burning the fuel enouth and high co .

never replaced a lambda senser yet to get it thro an mot
most cars ive failed on a mot cars fail on co (dead cat) or lambda reading out (air leak) all all three readings out cars not hot enouth.

is the eml lamp on? get the fault codes checked.

 

[browno]

After more digging and testing - it looks 90% like the cat is dead which (as ben says above) seems fairly logical - the CO is through the roof, but HC's are only marginally high - which would say to me as a chemist that the cat isn't doing its job and oxidising the CO to CO2... but it's not massively over-fuelling as the HCs would be stupidly high too...

As a result I called up K-Tec this morning and ordered up a sports cat (and finally got around to renewing my membership so I can get my discount!)...

 

[franx]

After more digging and testing - it looks 90% like the cat is dead which (as ben says above) seems fairly logical - the CO is through the roof, but HC's are only marginally high - which would say to me as a chemist that the cat isn't doing its job and oxidising the CO to CO2... but it's not massively over-fuelling as the HCs would be stupidly high too...

As a result I called up K-Tec this morning and ordered up a sports cat (and finally got around to renewing my membership so I can get my discount!)...

sportcat .. only one time mine was ok on emissions, gave the car a good thrashing before so was good and hot, but mostly too high on CO, last time had to change cats to pass emissions.

Hope your lucky with yours..

 

[Neal 182]

Well good luck I can't see it being a cat myself as most cars with out a cat well be below 1% and your is way over that In the last mouth we have had 4 or 5 car fail mot's on CO and only one of them was down to the cat the others was Lumbda's

 

[franx]

^^ yes it is WAY to high.. cat is not gonna do the trick i'm thinking too

Te last check on mine with the sportscat was 1,2 , had to put back the original cat that time #$&#@
Car was'nt really hot though

 

[ben lee]

did you sort it?

 

[browno]

well - current update is that the emissions are sorted and it has an MOT - replacing the coolant temp sensor and the cat (which was definitely mullered) bought the emissions down to basically zero.

Unfortunately, it's had the engine management light coming on since with the error code P0130 (which I think is pre-cat lambda?), but was running okay.

However, on Friday the missus took it to work, and it now runs fine if you thrash it, but won't pull or rev over 1500rpm from time to time. I'm going to limp it in tomorrow so that we can fit a new lambda sensor - but other than that, we're a bit stumped... Anyone got any thoughts - this thing's driving me mad!!!

 

[Cookie]

Sounds like a new lambda, my 1.2 did that when my brother put dirty Tesco's fuel in the car