Cleaning up a 300TDi's exhaust emissions?

Enter your vehicle details on this form :-

And it will tell you if it's affected.

Then relax, as nothing's now due to happen until 2012 for Land Rover size vehicles.

As per:-

With a couple of useful links.

Basically, you'll need to get it to comply with at least Euro III standards by 2012. This may involve nasty expensive stuff like particulate traps in the exhaust system, and it may be cheaper just to put a Euro III or Euro IV compliant engine in.

Yes, I've seen it before, back in 2008 it told me my Defender 110

300TDI would be non-compliant (i.e. liable to pay) in 2009, now it says 2010. I'd assumed the 2009 date was still valid and hadn't bothered re-checking.

Shame the "check your vehicle" tool still says 2010 for my Defender, and there's no statement on which takes precedent, the bit that says I am exempt until 2012 and the bit that says I'm liable in 2010.

Being a cynical sort, I don't trust them to not charge me come October

2010, still at least it's a year away!

I wonder if I can wangle it as a mainly-off-road vehicle ;-) I suspect not!

Failing that, the Pinzgauer is exempt, being petrol and military, it does 13.5MPG, about half that of the Defender.

I wonder if an ex-MOD 90 would get through on the "military" basis even if it's been painted civvy colours? If I ever replace the 110 it'll be with another Defender so that might work.

I was driving around there this week in my old Lotus, blimey, you need a 4x4 for some of those roads! I think the car came out of town a few kilos lighter what with all the bits that must have rattled off.

Isn't this what they call 'retrospective legislation' and so not allowed?

I await the first case with interest.

Apparently, the date's been put back as a lot of small businesses can't afford new vehicles at the moment.

Try that, and you'll likely get pulled by HMRC for a fuel check every time they see you. There have been a few reports of any agricultural type vehicle being pulled in for a "random" check recently.

I worked out that if we take the diesel engines out of our older coaches and put petrol ones in, they'd be exempt, as the LEZ only applies to diesel engines. I wonder if there'd be enough room for a Merlin?

They'll have that covered by defining military as being owned and/or operated by the military, I think.

It's not retrospective. It has been announced that in the future, with a clearly defined timetable, certain vehicles will be prohibited on certain roads or subject to a defined financial penalty. It's the same system they used for closing all the BOATs a while ago.

Basically, it's just a form of traffic restriction order.

Just put mine through the check ....

"Not subject to LEZ - Based on the information you have entered and information held by Transport for London (TfL), the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) does not apply to this vehicle. As long as the vehicle remains not subject to the LEZ the daily charge does not have to be paid for this vehicle when it is used in the zone.

Emissions classification for these dates is based on the Vehicle Type and the age of the vehicle. "

Nice .. but how can it tell that I've taken off the egr, de-catted the zorst and tweaked the pump then? ;)

I'm not so sure about that as the military enthusiast lobby has a decent amount of clout, although it may be the case that you're right and the military stuff in private hands is covered under the age rules (the ones that were supposed to be rolling but ended up fixed in

1973).

Does anyone have a modern ex-military Defender reg plate they can type in to the checker box?

Just sort of proves how well thought out the LEZ is, doesn't it?

It also can't tell how worn the injectors are. I don't know what would happen if you got pulled in by VOSA for a roadside emissions check, either. ;-)

Last MOT, and the one before that, showed the emissions to actually be cleaner than before I removed everything .. ;)

And if you add a bit of ferrocene to the fuel you'll get a far better result on the smoke test despite the actual emissions being unchanged.

I heard that has been happening round here, possibly because of the amount of local tractors being used for other than farm use. I also heard that the 'red', tax reduced diesel will no longer be available as farmers and all plant operators etc.will have to use d.e.r.v and apply for a refund of the tax instead of paying a reduced purchase price for the fuel initially. More paperwork to catch just a few illegal users but I suppose it *will* have the desired effect.

Sometimes I'm glad that mine is (a) petrol and (b) old enough that if you can see through the exhaust, it passes the emissions test.

Then I go and fill it up.....

It's also been noticed by VOSA that the ones using red diesel illegally are often the ones that don't maintain their vehicles. If it discourages them, I count that as a bonus.

As for the refund bit, the company I work for already do it to a degree, as we've a fleet of 30 or so buses, and we can reclaim most of the fuel duty paid on the fuel they use. That takes one bloke most of a day every month to work out. If you've just one vehicle, it's not too bad.

I'm glad that NZ doesn't have emissions testing at all so I just drive it.

As do I, at around 45p/litre for diesel and 78p/litre for petrol....

I find I get pulled for a red diesel check every time I pass a check-point anyway.

Run a Defender over ten years old and you come to expect it.

They also seem to pull open builder's trucks a lot, but never seem to go after 'white van man'.

Grumph!!!!

Still, we're cheaper than France for petrol, it's about GBP 1.3 a litre this weekend. Diesel's about GBP 0.96.

"Ian Rawlings" wrote >

People often moan about the local Mums in their 4x4s but I think you may have realised why they buy them, the roads around here are in a dreadful state. My BMW with it's hard sports suspension can really rattle you sometimes, there are some deep potholes locally we all drive round.

Just entered my registration number into the form and it says "Enter a valid Vehicle Registration Mark" - it has a Northern Ireland registration KHZnnnn (where nnnn is a number between 0000 and 9999). Anyone else had this?

It's bloody 'foreign' ain't it?

Seriously, NI registrations are counted as separate to GB registrations and they have their own branch of the DVLA

I wonder if Boris has refused to pay the NI authorities for access to their database ....