Emisions Question

Amaru KGB

I agreed to buy a car of a guy last week. He put it through the NCT and said it needed a tyre changed which he did.

When I viewed the car I found out it actually failed on Lambda emissions, it was about 2 (Pass between 0.97 & 1.03).

Now he says the reason it failed was because he hadn't drove the car in a while but what could be the problems with high lambda emissions, even if it re-passes the NCT. It's a good price but I'm a bit weary after him lying about it.

Thanks in advance

Max Power1

2 is a lot higher than the acceptable pass rate - points at something more serious imo.

I dont think the auld "italian tune up" could account for that?

What's the car? Surely there will be others around with an NCT.

Amaru KGB

It's a BMW 2007 320i coupe, yeah there are but I've bargained him down to 12,000 which is pretty good for the car. Just wondering even if he puts it through what underlying problems could there be

Pov06

High lambda emissions would mean the catalytic converter wasn't doing its job too well

He should have changed it if it passed?

djimi

€12000 is not a good price for the car if there is actually something wrong with it.

Have you brought a mechanic to take a look at it? €12k is a huge amount of money to spend on any car when you have virtually zero comeback after the sale (Im assuming that its a private sale), but especially when there is now a question mark over the cars ability to pass the NCT. For that kind of money Id always look to buy from a dealer where I can get a warranty, and in this case Id be doubley careful, and would strongly consider running a mile unless you can get a mechanic to verify what the problem is and how much it will cost to put right.

Amaru KGB

Yeah absolutely I can see what your saying. I suppose it's the model and colour I've always wanted and saved a long time for it. it's very disappointing as i thought I had it but it has to be a head over heart choice.

If I do decide to look at it again after the NCT it will be with my mechanic and also a receipt from his garage explaining what was done to fix the issue.

Max Power1

Here are two similar priced 3 series coupes from 2007

http://www.carzone.ie/search/BMW/3-Series/325-SE--/6913384740834550/advert?channel=CARS

http://www.carzone.ie/search/BMW/3-Series/320-I-SE/34813655070688720/advert?channel=CARS

One offering 12 month warranty and the other comes with 2 years NCT (Im not affiliated with either place btw)

Same money, no worrying about the high emissions.

Amaru KGB

Cheers Max, I'll have a look at them. As said the private sale has no warranty so your pretty fecked with any issues after it.

nct tester

What is the engine code of the BMW?? There is an exemption on certain bmw's for the lambda reading from 2007 onwards, where the limits are a lot different to the normal ones. Methinks this is what happened.