Scottish Elises

The car is in for the dreaded MOT and has failed on the emissions . They are high on CO2 but not massively. I have had them do an engine fuel flush but that has not brought the CO2 figure down.

My thinking is that I probably need a new cat, any other thoughts?

Graham

PS late 1999 111s with 38K running well, otherwise

I had this.

Thought it was the lambda so got it changed.

As we were changing it, noticed a leak (burst) in the exhaust.

It was probably the burst which sent the emissions high. We changed the lambda an welded up the burst and all was well.

Try these two before I new cat I reckon.

Graham,

I've got my cat off at the mo from my S1. It will need the bolts drilled and new ones put in but you're welcome to borrow it for however long it takes until my MOT

Greg

Tuscan thunder, do you remember whether the crack in the exhaust caused a slight increase or a massive increase in the figures? The guys still have the car at the garage so I might have them take a look for exhaust problems.

Does anybody know whether the lambda sensor would put the CO2 out of kilter or does that just cause lambda reading problems.

GregR, I may well take you up on that, knew I should have taken it off and put it somewhere safe.

I think it was a wee bit over - not crazy but over tolerance by a bit. It was burst where it comes into the backbox just on the bend (Janspeed).

I didn't know the exhaust was burst - didn't notice it blowing. Obviously, it had slowly gotten worse so I didn't notice. When it was fixed, the note was deeper - less zizz about it.

Not the easiest of things to check

The emissions values checked for MOT are CO %, HC ppm and Lambda.

The cat, exhaust leak and/or lambda sensor could potentially affect CO % (I imagine that's what you're failing on, not CO2)

Do you have the numbers of the above three values from your fail sheet?

Simon

The readings are:
first fast idle CO 0.48
Second 0.6
Idle 0.46

The Lambda reading is OK.

The guy at the garage, who is defiantly not a specialist, thought that it was unlikely that the problem was with the exhaust since that would cause Lambda problems, although I'm not so sure cos I have a vague notion that it has got louder, I'll be having a look at the exhaust this evening.

The guy at the garage also asked what kind of Lambda sensor the VVC has, is it a standard zirconia O2 sensor? Any body know where I could get one in the Glasgow area? Take it that there is not much to fitting one.

Appreciate the help guys.

Graham

Some cheap lambdas on flea bay if you can work out which it is....

I have a gas tight flexi you can have and a cat you can borrow if you are desperate.

HTH
Rich

I think you should start with a borrowed cat.

Simon

Thanks for the help guys, sounds like the borrowed cat is the place to start, I’ll check over the exhaust system while the under tray is off.

GregR and Rich, thanks for the offer of a loan, Greg, am I right in thinking that you are Edinburgh based? If so it would probably be easier to meet up with you for a handover.

PS Does anybody have the link to the web based workshop manual. (I need to work out which lambda sensor the VVC takes.

Mine had high CO2 when the flexi was broke letting air in.

scott

Graham,
I am in Glasgow and have the cat off of mine at the moment if you want to borrow it.

You can have my cat if you need it mate am in cumbernauld. Just another option.

Cheers
Craig

Thanks for all the offers guys, I have made arrangements to borrow GregR’s so hopefully that will help.

The flexi sounds like it might be the problem, I have a notion that the car is making a wee bit more noise than it did so it might be that when I take the under tray off that the problem will become clear. If it is that I recon that I’ll bodge it with a quick weld to get it though the MOT meantime.

Will update on progress.

Graham

For a suitable donation to my retirement fund (ie cash!) you can have my nearly new Lizbitz flexi if you want. Is has only done about 3k miles. Or you can have the door stop version with an annoying tizz at 2k rpm for nowt.

Rich