High Emissions in a petrol car.

missy2011

Volkswagen Golf petrol car failed the NCT yesterday based on high emissions.
Garage man has said that he is unable to reduce the emissions, anybody any ideas to reduce them? Any help would be gratefull appreciated.

Please help us first by giving us all the details: HC/CO/Lambda for low and high revs. What year is it?

dieselbug

samih wrote: »

Please help us first by giving us all the details: HC/CO/Lambda for low and high revs. What year is it?

I agree. Post as much information as possible.

Year. engine size (engine code would be great) mileage, service history.
NCT fail readings. What work did your mechanic carry out? What was his opinion? Are there any faults codes stored.

The more information you can give the more likely someone can help.

Nissan doctor

missy2011 wrote: »

Volkswagen Golf petrol car failed the NCT yesterday based on high emissions.
Garage man has said that he is unable to reduce the emissions, anybody any ideas to reduce them? Any help would be gratefull appreciated.

A car can fail the emissions test in many different ways with many different causes. Without at least knowing the results on the test sheet know one on here will be able to make any suggestions.

I will say, though, that a new garage is your first port of call as there is no excuse for your current mechanic not being at least able to tell you why your car is failing.

missy2011

Sorry in the delay. It is a 1999 1.4 petrol Volkswagen Golf. Mileage was at 185,425.
The results from the test are:
Exhaust Emissions for high idle -
Lambda was 1.04 when should be between 0.97 and 1.03
CO was 0.64 vol%, above 0.30 % is a fail
HC 254 pp, above 200 ppm is a fail.
The garage man has tried to reduce them by fitting a 'cat' on the exhaust and I do believe he has put some liquid stuff into the petrol. It is not my car but I said I would post a message here in the hope of maybe somebody coming up with an idea. Any help gratefull appreciated.

Nissan doctor

missy2011 wrote: »

Sorry in the delay. It is a 1999 1.4 petrol Volkswagen Golf. Mileage was at 185,425.
The results from the test are:
Exhaust Emissions for high idle -
Lambda was 1.04 when should be between 0.97 and 1.03
CO was 0.64 vol%, above 0.30 % is a fail
HC 254 pp, above 200 ppm is a fail.
The garage man has tried to reduce them by fitting a 'cat' on the exhaust and I do believe he has put some liquid stuff into the petrol. It is not my car but I said I would post a message here in the hope of maybe somebody coming up with an idea. Any help gratefull appreciated.

I think the garage man should go back to pumping petrol.

Those emissions where never going to be fixed by fitting a cat, in fact, the new cat will likely be damaged in a very short time.

I'd say the bulk of the problem is the car burning oil as is very common on those engines as they age.

dieselbug

I'd agree with the above, most likely engine wear at that mileage. A compression test or even better, a cylinder leakage test would tell a lot.

I posted a similar one on here before Christmas. The guy who owned it got it through the test by using some oil treatment. He works in a motor factors so has access to all sorts of magic potions. Not a long term solution but more a lucky stop gap.

A decent garage will be able to give an accurate diagnosis if only to confirm the above.

dh0011

dipetane helped me get emissions down before but your numbers are much worse than mine were.