Advice- NCT Failed

Ginger83

Hi all.
My dad brought his car to get it tested. Its a 2003 Hyundai Accent. The car was failed on 1 thing- excessive exaust smoke.

Everything else passed with no problems, even the exaust emissions passed. When the car is started from cold and revved, a light white smoke appears.
I'm confused as to what it could be as it seems strange that the emissions were fine.

Would anyone have any advice or suggestions on what could be done to sort this? The guy at the NCT centre said if its sorted and dropped back to him for 5mins within a certain time there would be no charge.

Thanks.

Atlantic Dawn

Is the car burning oil, when was the oil last changed? Any sign of white mayonaisse type subtance under the oil filler cap when you open it?

Ginger83

Hi, I think I remember my dad saying he put oil into it a few time between services, nothing major as far as I know. It was serviced 3 weeks before the test.

What would the white substance mean? I'll check for it.
What would be your opinion on the problem? I still can't understand how it passed the exaust emissions test.

Atlantic Dawn

Ginger83 wrote: »

What would the white substance mean? I'll check for it.
What would be your opinion on the problem? I still can't understand how it passed the exaust emissions test.

It usually indicates that water is mixing in with the oil and the head gasket needs to be replaced.

slinky2000

You need to figure out what type of smoke it is. Is is using any coolant? If it was this is usually white smoke. Loosing oil would point to blue smoke. White substance under the oil cap would mean there is water in your oil, in turn I would suspect a blown headgasket.

andyseadog

Ginger83 wrote: »

Hi, I think I remember my dad saying he put oil into it a few time between services, nothing major as far as I know. It was serviced 3 weeks before the test.

What would the white substance mean? I'll check for it.
What would be your opinion on the problem? I still can't understand how it passed the exaust emissions test.

if your seeing white 'smoke', that is more like steam, either condensation built up in your exhaust system which really shouldn't cause an NCT failure, or coolant being 'burnt'.

as was said, check the colour of the oil and coolant, make sure both look normal and that neither have begun to look frothy or gloopy.

you say you topped it up with oil between services a few times. i think valve stem oil seals were a bit of a soft spot on the early accents but if you didn't fail on emissions i cant really see that being the cause of the problem and they would produce blue smoke.

funny one this...

Leonard Hofstadter

If the car was driven a lot in town lately and the engine hasn't had a chance to properly warm up, wouldn't that cause there to be a lot of white smoke as well from condensation?

A good blast down a motorway could sort out the 'smoking' problem.

The OP should obviously go with the other advice mentioned first of all - if the gasket is going/gone then the last thing the OP needs to do is take the car for a high speed run:)!

decking

did you have the event memory read could be air mass meter or cracked manifold or cat not doing its job

If it passed the emissions test I don't see how they could fail it for excessive exhaust smoke.

flutered

RoverJames wrote: »

If it passed the emissions test I don't see how they could fail it for excessive exhaust smoke.

they done it to my old rav 4.

So they stick it under the visual fail section at the end?

-Corkie-

RoverJames wrote: »

So they stick it under the visual fail section at the end?

They would ya like a cracked windscreen. I think the car wants a good driving. I wonder how much oil the car is using?

Ginger83

Hi all, very interesting replies. Yes my dad tells me the car is using a small amount of oil. 2 different mechanics have looked at the carand said they both have added some sort of additive both time the nct crowd refused to accept this.

One mechanic reckons the valve seals are gone and its gona be an 850euro job :eek:

Not gona happen the father says,

Is there a quick fix I could try to get this nct cert?
I read about driving the car hard, should I try this? If it would work I live close to the m3 and would run the nuts out of it up and back down to kells nct centre