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Our 96 Toyota Corolla 1.3i had it's MOT today, all okay apart from emissions, CO and hydrocarbons were too high so it failed. I guess we just don't use it enough these days (less than 2000 miles in past year) but despite this we love it, worth nothing but always starts and nice to drive still. Until this nothing has gone wrong. We'd want to keep it but know it's not really worth spending any major money on.
Bloke at MOT station said try putting some posh petrol in, and a fuel additive/cleaner, take for an Italian tune up by thrashing it for a good few miles in lower gears and then bring it back for a re-test on Monday. Any recommended additives or other advice/tips? Cheers
Terraclean would get it through.
BG 44K fuel additive would do it but you won’t get it in time to make a difference.
.
Likely a sensor. Get codes read?
Advice from bloke at mot station is spot on, two years running my car has failed on emissions, this year well out, fuel additive and a damn good thrashing, service, filters and it passed
Molgrips, he said sensors all fine, no codes showing problems, said rest of car was really good for age.
Take it in properly warmed up, unless you've a decent run to the MOT station it might have been tested colder than ideal which could affect the mixture. Maybe.
Italian tune up would be my first thought given how little millage it's done recently..
You don't need to be mechanically unsympathetic, just stay in gear longer change gear a lot later and give it a good long drive.
Depends on your gear box ratios, you don't want to be red lining it, but cruise at higher revs than you would normally.
Also as above, make sure its had a good run and up to temperature pre test.
Yes, MOT station is only a mile away so that probably didn't help driving up there this morning, not warmed up and running rich still probably
Petrol or diesel? I'm guessing the former.
I had a Corolla of that vintage as a courtesy car once. One of the most hateful things I've ever driven. Personally I'd be thanking the stars and replacing it with something that wasn't 22 years old.
Yeh a 1 mile bimble on a stone cold engine won't give it chance to warm up properly.
Tank of shell V power new air filter and a really good thrash.
Cougar - Petrol (1.3i), it's great, yes not cool, old & battered, boring old farts car etc but does still go really well, always starts, runs quiet and nothing has gone wrong until this, 2 bikes fit in no problem. Not bad on fuel too and cheapish insurance. If we can keep it going for a few quid for another year, why not? It's a pool family car mainly used by kids when they come home, saving our newer ones, who gives a toss if it gets trashed.
What's not to like?
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New set of spark plugs would help as well
Or get the existing ones really clean and correctly gapped.
Maxtorque is the man for car tuning, but looking at those numbers a run through with no air filter might alos give you lower CO
The Hc numbers will improve with a hot engine , so 15min drive with load on engine ( load = more fuel .- ,more fuel = more heat ) so abit of left foot braking or accelerate / brake accelarate again should lean out the mixture.
Reminds me of
Long hard drive, properly heat soak the motor, maybe keep it in 4th rather than 5th on motorway. Try MOT again.
As other said, service, posh petrol and a thrash. Change the air filter and spark plugs as well as the oil and filter.
Could also be burning oil if its not warmed up, old cars leak down the valve stems whilst not running and it takes a while for it all to burn off.
My only worry would be the cat, between that and the lambda sensor it should be hard to fail an MOT with high emissions in a modern-ish car.
Not sure why people are suggesting buying new parts, it's an old car that's hardly done any miles in the last year, it probably only needs a good high rev drive and make sure it's warmed up for the retest.
My concern is why the second fast idle results were marginally worse than the first, as by the time you get to a second fast idle test, the engine should of been running at fast idle for a good few minutes. So even if it wasn't that warm to begin with, things should be improving for the second test.
However, first thing would a good run to get things well warmed up, then straight in for a gas test.
As others have said, give it a decent run, with higher than normal revs, and the occasional push to near the red line in lower gears, to blow out any cobwebs and get the cat nicely warmed up.
A service with new plugs wouldn't go a miss, but a decent run first is cheaper, provided there are no obvious faults like a misfire, or using more fuel than normal.
Yeah, get it through it's MOT then slowly get back to the important business of reducing air quality in your neighbourhood.
Nice touch.
If you were a car manufacturer your head would be on a pole by now
Yea because we can all afford a newer car that’s less polluting.
But then that new car takes a lot of energy and resources to make so maybe it’s better given how many miles the op does to keep the old one and not scrap/waste it
Exactly the same as happened to me last year. 16 year old car, short drive to the testing station, failed on emissions with very similar figures, including second fast idle being worse and lambda being OK (which suggests it's not a sensor). I put in a bottle of Cataclean from Halfords, good run, took it in warm, it passed with less than 50% of the permitted levels. I wouldn't bother with servicing to get it through the test, only if it needs it anyway based on mileage.
We run an 'old' Scenic, W reg year 2000. with 75k on the clock> 45k miles are ours as the 2nd owner.
Its old but not a banger, passes MOT every time. Any service parts are cheap, and easy DIY maintenance.
Get 4 bikes in the back standing upright with front wheels off only.
Why would I need to ever buy another run around? Perfectly good for another few years yet.
Too many cars are scrapped for all the wrong reasons.
As others have said, give it a good run, get the engine hot, then straight into MOT station.
Hey, let us know how you get on.
Yea because we can all afford a newer car that’s less polluting
No
If you live in a built up area, none of us can afford a car that is polluting. None of us
Yet this thread is suggesting that is is acceptable to drive a car that exceeds permitted emission levels. Yes, if it passes the test fine, but by the OP's admission his mileage is such that emissions will again exceed permitted levels at some point prior to the next MOT. And it's unlikely to be the night before.
Ouch, I'm pretty sure a an ancient Toyota has less environmental impact than a modern diesel VAG on a lease that'll get traded in when it's 3 yrs old having done 100k.
Not.
I read somewhere the greenest car manufacturer was Aston Martin as they had the highest percentage of cars still in use vs fuel economy.
How do you think the produce n import a new car? Magic?
Green party are against scrapping perfectly servicble cars for new cleaner models as 80 percent of the damage is in the creation of a new one.
Back on to the thread can of Forte fuel treat ment and a small service and go and get it proper hot it'll be fine.
Yet this thread is suggesting that is is acceptable to drive a car that exceeds permitted emission levels.
No, it really isn’t. It’s a thread suggesting how to fix a car that exceeds permitted emission levels. Wind your neck in and virtue signal somewhere else. Ta.
No, it really isn’t. It’s a thread suggesting how to fix a car that exceeds permitted emission levels. Wind your neck in and virtue signal somewhere else. Ta.
Yes, fix it so it passes the test. which is fine, but at some point based on the OP's mileage it will fall below the levels allowed. If you think wanting to live in an environment with better air quality is in someway virtue signalling then that is ridiculous. In fact I very much doubt you think that but it would appear based on your comment that you do.
bottle of Cataclean
mmmmmm, yummy - smells so good (as it takes a couple of layers off the mucosa inside your sinuses)
(if it's that low mileage, maybe use posher petrol or do the cataclean more than once a year, to assuage your guilt and kormoran's temper)
by the OP’s admission his mileage is such that emissions will again exceed permitted levels
They do 2,000 miles a year in it. It's almost certainly less polluting overall than a modern efficient engine doing 30k+.
kormoran: you sound like a decent bloke but you have no idea about how modern cars work. Emission tests are far fro the be all...
Yet this thread is suggesting that is is acceptable to drive a car that exceeds permitted emission levels.
Actually, most of the advice is to basically get the car up to its ideal operating conditions so that it is assessed fairly, and will probably pass. If it’s still emitting too much crap when it’s at optimum temperature then it will still fail. This is how emissions testing works. Do you think that car manufacturers, when submitting new models for testing, just strap on the apparatus to any old cold car from the cap park on a frosty morning and go straight into the test cycle? Come on now.
Was the oil changed before the test? Low mileage short journey petrol cars of a certain age usually contaminate their oil to the extent that it can push the emissions over the edge - oil change and good long run will bring emissions down.
I would be checking the exhaust doesn't have any holes in it, this could cause it to fail.
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Yes, fix it so it passes the test. which is fine, but at some point based on the OP’s mileage it will fall below the levels allowed
No, the regulations require it to be tested when the engine is at normal operating temperature. This thread is mostly suggesting that it may have been tested when it wasn't at normal temperature, and therefore the test is invalid and should be repeated when the car is warmed up properly. My own experience is exactly the same. All cars with internal combustion engines will have higher emissions before they are warmed up; that's accepted by the regulations - otherwise they wouldn't have to specify that the engine should be a operating temperature.
Clearly someone to young to remember manual chokes, engines have to run rich when cold.
Yes but the operating temperature can be below the ideal temperature. The test rig won’t let you test a car if it’s below 60 degrees but once at 60 it might not be as good as it is at 80 for the sake of argument. If you get the car nice and warm before the test you give it the best chance to pass.
I’d be surprised if it wasn’t up to temperature, I wince when I take my 32 year old turbocharged car to an mot place and they leave it idling for 1/2 hour. The heat soak actually causes it to start running richer according to o2 sensor. A good thrash and the oil warm is what you want.
The oil takes roughly twice as long to warm up than the coolant.
Yeah, get it through it’s MOT then slowly get back to the important business of reducing air quality in your neighbourhood.
In what way do you think the car is contributing to poor local air quality?
Two things - as per everyone except one above it is far better to keep an older car running (even if exhaust emissions are a bit high when it's engine is cold) than it is to scrap it, mine and refine all the raw materials for a new one, especially electric (just google lithium mining!) ship said material half way around the world, build a new car in a factory powered by yet more fossil fuels then ship the finished product halfway around the world again and gain what, 5mpg?
Main point which may help the OP - my old petrol Hyundai failed the MOT on emissions a few years ago, a bottle of Redex in the tank and it sailed through the retest. It's also a faily easy job to clean out the air intakes and filter and that will help, no mechanical skill required at all (do petrols have an EGR? The one on my current Transit was filing the intakes with tar and soot, ran much better when cleaned out, EGR now blanked off and that's passed every emissions test with flying colours, although has mostly failed the MOT on rust...)
<p>Yes, petrol cars have EGR's but not at that age. Blocking and passing emissions means nothing, NOX's aren't tested, cost me £80 and a couple of hours to put a new one in my C8, now have the old one to get cleaned out and kept as a spare.</p>
Yea, blanking the EGR is a bit of a dick thing to do, it solves the problem of a blocked EGR but then the engine has to run without it.
It's like blanking off your sewer pipe and just diverting shit into the neighbours garden because you had a blocked drain.
They're not even expensive parts, stripping and cleaning is probably cost effective at home but a new one is usually only £50-£150 which isn't going to impact on all but the most economic of bangernomic budgets.
Even at that mine was sticky more than jammed. If you leave it for ages it will bake open and burn out the valve seat but otherwise it just takes a good clean with carb cleaner to free them up. I'll probably chuck mine in the ultrasonic bath at work once the worst is out.
Changed the oil today, the air filter was very clean, put some posh petrol in and some of that cleaning additive, took for a long drive Italian tune-up holding in higher gears to blow the cobwebs out. Will give it a long hard drive to make sure it's thoroughly warmed up before it goes back for the re-test tomorrow, fingers crossed.
I wince when I take my 32 year old turbocharged car to an mot place
32 years old? WTF are you driving, a Mk4 RS Turbo?
A 1986 944 turbo. Speaking of which, I took it for an MOT today and it chose that moment for the starter to jam. I have a spare but understandably the garage won’t fit customer supplied parts, the recovery company will only take it to the nearest mot station, which is where it already is.
Looking like a big bill as a new starter is around £300 or pay for a low loader home as the MOT has expired.
Good luck with your MOT op.
Aren't you allowed to drive a car with no mot to and from a test?
You are, but it won’t start.
Yes.
But he has to start the engine first!
(Clue. Starter jammed).
@jamesoz. Can't you get somebody to tow you home?
Must admit I hadn’t thought of that, too busy being annoyed.
Push start it
OP,
I normally add a quarter of 2T motorbike engine oil to my 2005 Toyota Corolla automatic whenever I top up my petrol (£20 each time), and I have been adding 2T oil for 7 years now since my friend recommended me.
If you dare you might want to try it after all it is a Toyota.
Me mate in far east add 2T to all his cars/4x4 (most of his cars/4x4 are Toyota) regardless of whether they diesel or petrol.
🙂
p/s: adding 2t motorbike engine oil to the fuel ...
Give the solenoid on the starter motor a whack to free it off
We tried, there’s not a lot of space with customers cars coming in and out. I also jacked it up and tried the old hit the starter while the key was turned trick.
I’ll try and find a volunteer that’s available during the open hours tomorrow.
Chewkw - we don't have the shit watered down fuel you get in Philippines/Indonesia, 2 stroke oil is probably not doing much to help out other than making the mixture lean and shafting the catalytic converter.
Chewkw – we don’t have the shit watered down fuel you get in Philippines/Indonesia, 2 stroke oil is probably not doing much to help out other than making the mixture lean and shafting the catalytic converter.
I am using it here in the UK by mixing it with the petrol ... 🙂
Has it passed..........?
Need to know.
We need to know!
In other news I opted pay the garage to fit a shiny new starter and chalk it up to experience.
The garage have been very helpful and informed me the car should pass depending on brakes and emissions.
The price is good and it hopefully saves me a lot of arse ache, not to mention crawling about under a car eating rust and grease in the pissing rain.
Sorry for delay, it passed, all okay now. Oil change, posh petrol, a bit of additive and some long drives to warm it up properly did the job so good for another year at minmal cost. Thanks for your help all!
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👌
Result!
Excellent !
This place is still helpful ...
Excellent! Obviously you must flog yourself with organic sustainably sourced birch nightly to atone for the terrible damage that you are doing by not discarding this tonne and a half of highly manufactured, completely fit for purpose devil machine to replace it with a slightly less polluting tonne and a half highly manufactured wündermachine...
Nice, everybody loves a happy ending.
My 4 wheeled planet killer managed a co of 1.4% and hc of 104. Fine for a non cat 3L eighties car.
I’d forgotten how quickly it can turn an eighty litre tank of Shells finest into fire, noise and worrying smells.