1.1 Fiesta failing on emmissions - will a cat fix it?

First of all, check the air filter is completely clean, chuck in a strong FI cleaner and take it for a damn good thrash before an emissions retest (see if a garage will do this for you without a full MoT retest fee, and only take it back for the restest if it's OK). You want a good half hour at 70mph, redlining it a few times. I'm assuming the old certificate is valid long enough for you to drive the car like this, of course.

If that doesn't work, £80 is worth paying if the car is otherwise OK. Secondhand car values don't represent what the car is worth to you as a good runner. You could look long and hard before finding another good £250 car.

Try removing the air filter. If it is burning oil, it could be pulling oil fumes through the air intake from the crank case breather which will block the filter with oil. Also remove the breather pipes and clean them through. This used to be a common fault on the old Fiestas. Then take it for a good run to burn the oil off from inside the manifold.

Not a goood idea to go for a second hand CAT- they are very fragile items and you don't really know the condition of them (i.e. have they been dropped, bashed etc.)

I agree with the others and if you are happy with the car, spending =A380 is a worthwhile expense to keep it running for at least another year.

I had a similar dilemma with a Rover 416 that was failing the emissions, eventually got it sorted and ran happily until the day I sold it.

At L reg, it doesn't need a cat test, was this place not one of the online ones, I don't know how many are left now. I took my daughters M reg 1.1 in on Friday and the computer said no cat test.

Not that this helps you now of course. I would agree with the air filter suggestion.

Steve

Er...no, it needs a cat test unless it was *manufactured* pre-1992. Your daughter's car must have been sitting in an airfield for over a year (it happens, especially with Fords and Vauxhalls).

Cheers for advice so far guys.

So far advice seems to be:

1. Put redex in the petrol, clean/replace/remove the air filter and clean breather pipes and take it for a good thrash.
2. Take it for an emissions test
3. If it fails buy and fit a CAT (not 2nd hand)
4. Take it for a test

Someone else has suggested getting a lambda sensor from a scrappy, thoughts on this? And should I do that at stage 1, or stage 3 ??

Cheers for the help so far - appreciated

Are you sure about that? My daughters VIN has the letters RS before the last group of numerals, which means it was manufactured March 1994. The tester said something about the engine code being the relevant factor. I was surprised because it has had the full works for the last two years at least. He put the details in the computer and it just went for the short test.

Steve

As for replacing the Lambda Sensoor, this is possibly one road to take. DON'T buy 2nd hand, for the same reasons as the CAT.

I repalced the sensor on my Rover and it only cost me =A327 from my local Autoparts store.

CK

As for replacing the Lambda Sensoor, this is possibly one road to take. DON'T buy 2nd hand, for the same reasons as the CAT.

I repalced the sensor on my Rover and it only cost me =A327 from my local Autoparts store.

CK

shazzbat ( snipped-for-privacy@spamlessness.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Cats were compulsory on all UK petrol cars registered after 1/8/92 (K-reg) unless there was some esoteric reason they couldn't have one.

"Short test" isn't the same as a no-cat-test.

AIUI, the first test is to the strongest standards for the age of car. If it passes that, fine. If it fails that, it fails back to standards specific to that particular model of car. If it passes that, fine. If it fails that, it fails.

An ex-work colleague had an L-reg Lotus Elan that didn't need a cat. He had to jump through a lot of hoops to prove it was manufactured before the cut-off date.

At stage 3, assuming you can get a garage to do an emissions test for small change. The idea is to spend no more than necessary, I assume. I would use fuel injector cleaner (e.g. Wynns or STP) rather than Redex, and at a higher concentration than normal. I think your car has throttle-body injection.

Cheers mate

Will do tomorrow

I replaced air filter, cleaned the carb, cleaned all sensors in the carb, cleaned all pipes going into air filter including the one from the rocker cover (covered in detergent and grease). Cleaned all inside the air filter cover (inside the air filter loop) and reassembled.

Then took the lambda out and realisd it was all covered in soot, so cleaned that and realised I could now see grooves in the end that were not there before. Put togeter.

Started much nicer and idled better.

Put 250ml redex (had some left over) AND 250ml STP in half a tank of fuel and drove 4-up for 90 mins. Drives much faster!

Gonna ensure lambda is still clean, put some more fuel in (don't kno if high concentration of redex/stp will alter emissions results) and take for a restest.

Fingers crossed