MOT - Emissions advice please

eira

Am currently embroiled in a nightmare re my car. A garage in rang suggested that I book a mobile visit from an auto electrician for a diagnostic test,it cost £40.I was really impressed-he suggested a few things the garage had failed to notice (that were cheap to fix) that could have affected the emissions-and the Cat-which is under warranty was failing.

AliceBanned

eira wrote: »

Am currently embroiled in a nightmare re my car. A garage in rang suggested that I book a mobile visit from an auto electrician for a diagnostic test,it cost £40.I was really impressed-he suggested a few things the garage had failed to notice (that were cheap to fix) that could have affected the emissions-and the Cat-which is under warranty was failing.

I am taking it to a third person on Weds - the garage which suggested it didn't need a cat, now say it does. I am not going back to either garage and just hope the third time it is better. I've been so angry at how I've been treated.

Motmac

Ive read through this thread and it seems to me that you arnt giving any garage a fair chance to sort your problem.it sounds to me like your being a proper pain in the arris to them to be quite honest.the co readings you give of 0.5 ish would suggest a replacement cat is needed if the car was allowed to get up to proper temperature.these older cars have cats located further back on the exhaust system and take some warming up.i'm amazed that such an old car didnt fail on anything else,so in actual fact you are very lucky in that respect.
If it had a new cat fitted last year then you should find out if it was a cheapy one or not.cheapy cats can fail in a year and i'm sure you will have sought to get the bill down as low as possible if this years overreaction is anything to go by;)

AliceBanned

Motmac wrote: »

Ive read through this thread and it seems to me that you arnt giving any garage a fair chance to sort your problem.it sounds to me like your being a proper pain in the arris to them to be quite honest.the co readings you give of 0.5 ish would suggest a replacement cat is needed if the car was allowed to get up to proper temperature.these older cars have cats located further back on the exhaust system and take some warming up.i'm amazed that such an old car didnt fail on anything else,so in actual fact you are very lucky in that respect.
If it had a new cat fitted last year then you should find out if it was a cheapy one or not.cheapy cats can fail in a year and i'm sure you will have sought to get the bill down as low as possible if this years overreaction is anything to go by;)

pain in the !!!!? You're no angel exactly. what is the purpose of saying that, to make me feel even worse than I already do? Your attitude is much the same as some of the mechanics' I've dealt with. You don't know anything about what I am going through on top of this, so please suspend your judgement when you post to people in distress, you are just making matters worse.

AliceBanned

PS it may be an "old" car but common sense tells us that a car is only the age of its mileage and upkeep. I paid a commensurate price for that when i bought it. You've never even seen the car or its service history so how can you assume it would fail on loads of things?!

The second garage I went to made a mistake on interpreting the readings, and put me in a difficult position. i am new to area, suffering an illness and living alone, hence needing to find support on this site. I wouldn't say my perspective is as clear as it could be, but to say I am a pain in the !!!! shows what an insensitive oaf you are.

Motmac

AliceBanned wrote: »

PS it may be an "old" car but common sense tells us that a car is only the age of its mileage and upkeep. I paid a commensurate price for that when i bought it. You've never even seen the car or its service history so how can you assume it would fail on loads of things?!

The second garage I went to made a mistake on interpreting the readings, and put me in a difficult position. i am new to area, suffering an illness and living alone, hence needing to find support on this site. I wouldn't say my perspective is as clear as it could be, but to say I am a pain in the !!!! shows what an insensitive oaf you are.

Please try to calm down.i'm an MOT tester myself and see this all the time.i was simply pointing out that taking it from one garage to another and trusting no one will not solve this problem.you will have to trust someone's judgement in the end.not every garage is out to rip people off,so please try to give them a chance.

P.s i'm not an insensitive oaf

goldspanners

AliceBanned wrote: »

PS it may be an "old" car but common sense tells us that a car is only the age of its mileage and upkeep. I paid a commensurate price for that when i bought it. You've never even seen the car or its service history so how can you assume it would fail on loads of things?!

thats not entirely true, lots of things on your can will wear out and perish quicker with low mileage. like suspension and steering bushes. oh and exhausts tend to last a good bit less with only short journeys.

eira

Originally posted under garage problems but thought an update might be more helpful here.My c from this testerar failed on emissions and original garage refused to rpovide warranty details. Took it after MOT failure (emissions and 2 tyres) to garage that fitted cat.It had the car for 4 days and did 34 miles in it 'testing it' and said it was overheating. It had no fault when I took it for the MOT and the garage had already had it in 3 times for overheating before fitting a new radiator in July.

Am very fond of my car so I pulled it out.The garage's parting shot was that the MOT test had probably blown the head gasket. The mobile diagnostician indicated a possible cat failure/Lamda (?) sensor and a small hole in the exhaust. Couldn't move it as a trip up the road brought on overheating (never mind 34 miles!).Got the AA out who were fantastic-full pressure test and a 'sniffer test' for the head gasket. The AA took the car to a specialist (but not main dealership) garage

Worth every penny-and it wasn't that expensive because they knew what they weredoing. Needed a new Lamda(?) sensor and the AA paid for the water pump and a new belt for the overheating (have their warranty).It passed the MOT-with no fail for the tyres.But a specialist print out indicated
that although the emissions passed that the cat was not good.I now have to try and get the original garage to hand over details of the cat they fitted----