New MOT rules - bad news for some!

Iceweasel

Very bad news indeed for those who may have removed the DPF on their diesel engined vehicle.

A very popular mod as presently diesels only undergo a smoke test - not an emissions test.

The Government have announced they are to change the rules on checking for the existence of a DPF if the vehicle left the factory with one fitted.

To take effect from February 2014.

See here for their Press Release of 4th December:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-rules-for-mot-to-test-for-diesel-particulate-filter

Horizon81

Link doesn't work.

Just buy a proper car anyway (petrol).

albionrovers

Sounds like a change of ruling designed to change the current public perception of diesels. As in, go back to buying petrol because we're losing too much income via VED. Who cares about emissions, we want the cash.

jaydeeuk1

So nows a good time for the MiL to get shot of her renault grande espace?

On her car its been blanked off by the very same garage who will do the MOTs, so do they check if there is something physcially there (ie just a shell) or if it functions?

Iceweasel

I've fixed the link - hopefully.

The MOT testers are not allowed to dismantle anything - so if the DPF is still physically there - but has been gutted - an empty shell - they cannot tell if it actually does anything or not.

I reckon it's likely that they might include checking for an EGR by-pass or a de-activation mod too.

I've just had a PM asking what exactly are we discussing.

DPF = Diesel Particulate Filter to trap emission smoke particles.

EGR = Exhaust Gas Recirculation to help the engine meet the Euro emissions regulations by allowing some of the exhaust gasses to re-enter the engine.

Both of these things reduce the power/efficiency of the engine - so lots of folks have removed, de-activated, or by-passed them.

Stoke

If you've ever taken your inlet manifold off and seen lots of black crud, that's because of the EGR valve. Blanking the valve can help the engine run better.

londonTiger

just put a cover over where the dpf/egr delete is they cant dismantle anything

motorguy

Any "dpf removals" i've seen done have been taking the dpf off, cutting the top out of it, removing the guts and welding the plate back on and refitting.

Cant see this impacting

colino

This, like a lot of MOT changes, will get shifted back while they have another ponder. As has been said, most DPFs have been pretty skilfully removed and the engines remapped to get better performance from diesels. There isn't another change to the smoke test and most modern diesels pass that easily.
So NT does his under car walk round (following the arrowed route VOSA so kindly provide) see DPF in place, tick, car passes smoke test, tick, so nothing achieved.

mrmot

Iceweasel wrote: »

I've fixed the link - hopefully.

The MOT testers are not allowed to dismantle anything - so if the DPF is still physically there - but has been gutted - an empty shell - they cannot tell if it actually does anything or not.

A few minor points:

DPFs filter soot, so soot in the tailpipe would imply that a DPF is not present.

An empty DPF casing will sound hollow when tapped with something like the Corrosion Assessment Tool.

A welded patch on a DPF casing would be a little suspicious.

Testers do enough smoke tests to know that you can struggle to get a non DPF vehicle to pass and you can struggle to get a DPF equipped vehicle to even register anything on the smoke tester.

If in doubt the tester can always advise that they suspect that the DPF may have been tampered with, which will appear on the vehicles MOT record.

It may be wise not to take this too seriously until more is known, such as what age of vehicle it will apply to, will there be a change of smoke test limit, what will be the method of inspection and what will be the reason for refusal.

Iceweasel

I agree with mrmot - we'll perhaps find out in the next 'Special Notices ' update for Testing Stations.

If they were to give a diesel an emissions test the Tester would be able to spot an empty shell DPF right away.

One of the topics in the December issue was how to input foreign registration plates and county of registration.

Looks like we are heading for a standardized EU MOT type Inspection and another shared computer data base.

If you doubt it have a look here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/261325/SN_8-2013_ver_0.b.pdf