least motorway revving for Toyota.

How often do you service it? Regular servicing especially good quality oil changes will do it the most good. a fifteen mile motorway run once a month should let it get fully up to temperature and burn off some junk.

I've had a car in a similar position - all I did was run some stuff through with the petrol to clean the injectors and combustion chambers, and a week ago it was MOT'd again, this time with next to zero emissions!

I have to say I also ran several bottles of plain injector cleaner through, as the car had done 80k miles and was starting quite badly. They did

I suspect short journeys are going to varnish up the injectors faster, and if they're not balanced the cat is going to have a hard time of getting rid of any hydrocarbons left in the exhaust gases.

Andy.

There is a nice 1.5 mile steady ascent near me, which serves well to do the same thing.

Make sure it is otherwise healthy first i.e. fresh and correct amount of oil, coolant, no misfires etc and recently serviced before you put it under full load....

Tim..

Just go out and give it a good italian tune up down any roads for half an hour - it'll be a laugh if nothing else heh :-)

My car failed its MOT with a great cloud of black smoke every time it was revved, the tester told me to "thrash it a bit" so I went out and drove for about ten miles flat out in third gear. The car passed with no trouble at all after that.

One for the Mythbusters I think....

Are you using Tesco fuel too? If so, I would use a decent brand of fuel instead as this can make a difference.

I recommend Shell, Esso, BP or Texaco when people have problems.

Alan

Did he rev it really hard to get the cat _really_ hot? My tester explained this to me when I had a Carina of a similar age, some years back. The cats on these cars don't really get hot enough to do the business at low engine speeds, and in my experience most testers just idle the car through the test to keep the engine hot - it's not enough. A good thrash just before the test will help get the cat hot enough - as long as they don't leave it too long to cool again!

I've used Tesco fuel exclusively for the last couple of years, and never had a single issue with exhaust emissions on a 1998 era petrol 306. However, I have saved up enough Clubcard points to have a blast around a racetrack in a Ferrari and a few other cars. :)

I only use tesco super and I find it to be better than the other (98) supers.