NCT fail on emissions, will dipetane fix it?

Maddenman

How ye, put the 2001 golf through the nct the last day. She failed on
-Parking break imbalance and performance
-Stop lamps ( Need new back unit)
- 1 tie rod
-Wishbone
And mainly emissions,
Low idle 0.48% (passed)
High idle CO 0.53% (failed) So I've to try get it down to below 0.30%, will dipetane do the job??
Also do ya think shes worth fixing up? Sell value now with no tax or nct,shes sporty and nice looking with 18" RS6's is around €900.
If i Get her nct'd would it be worth it? Cheers

Max Power1

Did you give her the aul "italian tuneup" on the way in?

If not, I would go for a spirited drive at higher revs (3500 for diesel, 5k for a petrol) for about 15-20 mins to clean her out.

Mixed reviews for the likes of dipetane, it works for some and not others it seems. Depends what the underlying problem is. You were not that far from a pass.

Shazzerduffy

I've had the same problem today, Car failed on emissions. Should i try Dipetane?

Honey-ec

Yeah, I failed on emissions last time. Added dipetane and flew the retest.

Still have the same car (2005 B6 TDi Passat) and put the dipetane in about three days before the test this time, passed with flying colours first time.

For the sake of a tenner, it's definitely worth giving a go.

Shazzerduffy

That's good to know. I will give it a go better to go with the cheapest solution first. thanks

jimgoose

Shazzerduffy wrote: »

I've had the same problem today, Car failed on emissions. Should i try Dipetane?

What were the exact emissions results?

Shazzerduffy

Hi Jim,
Low Idle CO 0.55% Above 30% Fail
High Idle CO 0.59% Above 0.20% Fail

jimgoose

Shazzerduffy wrote: »

Hi Jim,
Low Idle CO 0.55% Above 30% Fail
High Idle CO 0.59% Above 0.20% Fail

Mmm. High CO shouldn't be happening and it's unlikely a shot of injector cleaner will help much. How's your air filter? Any chance of getting the OBD codes read?

Shazzerduffy

umm not to sure how air filter is?
I had a problem with the engine management light coming on. i took it to a mechanic and he did diagnostics it was coming up as cataylic converter bin 1 or something like that. but he was able to delete it and light went off. However after driving 30 miles or so the light comes on again.
I got the light turned off again specifically for the nct and it failed today on emissions.
I cant afford a big job on the car and trying to look for other solutions for now.
Would you have any ideas?

jimgoose

Shazzerduffy wrote: »

umm not to sure how air filter is?
I had a problem with the engine management light coming on. i took it to a mechanic and he did diagnostics it was coming up as cataylic converter bin 1 or something like that. but he was able to delete it and light went off. However after driving 30 miles or so the light comes on again.
I got the light turned off again specifically for the nct and it failed today on emissions.
I cant afford a big job on the car and trying to look for other solutions for now.
Would you have any ideas?

This could be caused by one of a number of faulty sensors, as well as the cat itself. What make and year of car is it?

Shazzerduffy

It's a Ford Focus 05. the car itself is running fine and no strange noises or rattle from the engine. I really want it to pass the test its stressing me out thanks for your time Jim

jimgoose

Shazzerduffy wrote: »

It's a Ford Focus 05. the car itself is running fine and no strange noises or rattle from the engine. I really want it to pass the test its stressing me out thanks for your time Jim

You're going to need a mechanic who can read and interpret the fault codes and do a proper component-level debug-and-diag.

Shazzerduffy

Yes I think So Jim. However i will try the dipetane give her a good drive and see what happens if that fails il have to go down that route it get to the source of the problem. I shall let you know how it all goes

Maddenman

Putting the 01 golf through this saturday lads, will tell ye how she gets on

411 guy

Maddenman wrote: »

Putting the 01 golf through this saturday lads, will tell ye how she gets on

Any word on how you got on?

Cosmo K

411 guy wrote: »

Any word on how you got on?

Probably died from a Dipetane overdose...

flutered

it passed and he is conked out from the emmisions caused by celebrating.

Maddenman

Haha ye'll be happy to know she failed after that, dipetane dropped it a bit but it's not a miracle worker. Put a new catalytic converter in which set me back 150 fitted so was happy out. She's still going strong today!

Cosmo K

Sell the car, now. Was that a spurious cat you put in? If so, they usually only last a year or two if you are lucky.

Maddenman

Cosmo K wrote: »

Sell the car, now. Was that a spurious cat you put in? If so, they usually only last a year or two if you are lucky.

Trying to sell her at the moment, people want everything for nothing and don't like the 1.6's!

jim-mcdee

Tried dipetane for the first time last week for MPG consideration. I run a 1.8 petrol turbo. Absolutely no difference in running or mpg. Pure snake oil.

120_Minutes

Had a 97 corolla fail a few years ago on emissions. tried dipthane, no better. had to change the cat...cost 300 including fitting.

jca

jim-mcdee wrote: »

Tried dipetane for the first time last week for MPG consideration. I run a 1.8 petrol turbo. Absolutely no difference in running or mpg. Pure snake oil.

Exactly... Why do people fall for this ****e. They'd spend money on this crap sooner than an air filter element.... ever think lack of servicing might have something to do with it?

Maddenman

jca wrote: »

Exactly... Why do people fall for this ****e. They'd spend money on this crap sooner than an air filter element.... ever think lack of servicing might have something to do with it?

Dead right a mhac, money making racket!! Anyone wanna buy a 01 golf 1.6? :P

V.W.L 11

any advice on whether dipetane will work on a petrol car????the emissions were very very high when it failed its test yesterday,i am servicing it this week and hoping a bottle of diptane will cure the problem also

George Dalton

If the emissions are way off then it's not going to be solved by dipetane or any other fuel additive.

visual

V.W.L 11 wrote: »

any advice on whether dipetane will work on a petrol car????the emissions were very very high when it failed its test yesterday,i am servicing it this week and hoping a bottle of diptane will cure the problem also

No it wont fix it

V.W.L 11

visual wrote: »

No it wont fix it

hopefully major service and new cat will please god

jim-mcdee

V.W.L 11 wrote: »

any advice on whether dipetane will work on a petrol car????the emissions were very very high when it failed its test yesterday,i am servicing it this week and hoping a bottle of diptane will cure the problem also

There is only one thing diptane is good for, and that is lightening your wallet.

V.W.L 11

jim-mcdee wrote: »

There is only one thing diptane is good for, and that is lightening your wallet.

hearing conflicting stories on the stuff

jim-mcdee

V.W.L 11 wrote: »

hearing conflicting stories on the stuff

Its one of those "seems to work for some people/cars"

If it really worked as claimed, it would work in every car, every time.

I think it has a placebo effect on people, and the stuff actually does f all.

Did nothing for me anyway, and I gave it a proper try out.

V.W.L 11

jim-mcdee wrote: »

Its one of those "seems to work for some people/cars"

If it really worked as claimed, it would work in every car, every time.

I think it has a placebo effect on people, and the stuff actually does f all.

Did nothing for me anyway, and I gave it a proper try out.

with my readings am i better off changing the cat i wonder,it needs a major service also to be fair

visual

New air filter will help along with new plugs oil filter and oil is your starting point.

Its hard to know about CAT you probably need to replace it but using CAT cleaner might work.

Are you burning oil ? Is there any fault codes ?
something is causing the plugs to be black
Its either too rich or burning oil.

Does the car run up to temperature ?

jimgoose

jim-mcdee wrote: »

Its one of those "seems to work for some people/cars"...

That's the deal with Dipetane/Redex/BG44K/insert-injector-cleaner-of-choice - if you have an issue with carbon deposits and/or fouled injectors, you'll get benefit from them, and if not, as is in fairness more likely to be the case, you won't.

djimi

jim-mcdee wrote: »

I think it has a placebo effect on people, and the stuff actually does f all.

The general advice will be along the lines of a dose of Dipetane and an Italian tune-up; the latter of which Im sure does the majority of the benefit!

V.W.L 11

djimi wrote: »

The general advice will be along the lines of a dose of Dipetane and an Italian tune-up; the latter of which Im sure does the majority of the benefit!

i'm going to give it a full service this week,a fill bottle of dipetane and an itslian tune up,failing all of that a new cat is in order

V.W.L 11

visual wrote: »

New air filter will help along with new plugs oil filter and oil is your starting point.

Its hard to know about CAT you probably need to replace it but using CAT cleaner might work.

Are you burning oil ? Is there any fault codes ?
something is causing the plugs to be black
Its either too rich or burning oil.

Does the car run up to temperature ?

car running up to temperature,plugs and oil are black,its not burning oil (yet) i'm hoping the major service will sort it along with avlitre of fipetane and the italisn tune up,i really have no idea if the cat is gone

Chimaera

Soot means it's running too rich. So it's getting too much fuel or not enough air. Can you post the test results (all of the emissions ones)?

Definitely do a full service: plugs, oil, oil filter, air filter. Make sure to set the gaps on the spark plugs properly.

After that there a bunch of possibilities, but it's probably premature to discuss them without knowing how it failed.

V.W.L 11

Chimaera wrote: »

Soot means it's running too rich. So it's getting too much fuel or not enough air. Can you post the test results (all of the emissions ones)?

Definitely do a full service: plugs, oil, oil filter, air filter. Make sure to set the gaps on the spark plugs properly.

After that there a bunch of possibilities, but it's probably premature to discuss them without knowing how it failed.

it only failed on the high idle,low idle was fine and lambda also passed,the readings were:

CO 1.92% Vol above 0.30 fail
HC 757ppm above 200ppm
Lambda 1.01 between 0.97 & 1.03 pass

those were the only failures,upon opening up the.air filter,oil and oil filter and spark plugs lets just say the colour shocked me,but there was no burning of oil,no misfire,so i hope that with the service and a litre of dipetane and italian tune up i can cure it,engine oil temperature was 81 degrees,the test was at 8.30 last saturday and i drove the car to the test centre which is a 7-8 minute drive from my house so the engine was maybe not as warm as i would have liked.

jca

V.W.L 11 wrote: »

it only failed on the high idle,low idle was fine and lambda also passed,the readings were:

CO 1.92% Vol above 0.30 fail
HC 757ppm above 200ppm

those were the only failures,upon opening up the.air filter,oil and oil filter and spark plugs lets just say the colour shocked me,but there was no burning of oil,no misfire,so i hope that with the service and a litre of dipetane and italian tune up i can cure it

Don't bother with the snake oil. Just do the full service and give it a good long high speed drive.

V.W.L 11

jca wrote: »

Don't bother with the snake oil. Just do the full service and give it a good long high speed drive.

greasepalm recommends cataclean,where in gods name could i get that?is that also snake oil?

jimgoose

V.W.L 11 wrote: »

greasepalm recommends cataclean,where in gods name could i get that?is that also snake oil?

Dummind that. If you insist on a course of injector cleaner, get BG44K. It is a completely serious product that does what it says on the tin. Personally I think your cat is horlicksed.

Chimaera

V.W.L 11 wrote: »

it only failed on the high idle,low idle was fine and lambda also passed,the readings were:

CO 1.92% Vol above 0.30 fail
HC 757ppm above 200ppm
Lambda 1.01 between 0.97 & 1.03 pass

those were the only failures,upon opening up the.air filter,oil and oil filter and spark plugs lets just say the colour shocked me,but there was no burning of oil,no misfire,so i hope that with the service and a litre of dipetane and italian tune up i can cure it,engine oil temperature was 81 degrees,the test was at 8.30 last saturday and i drove the car to the test centre which is a 7-8 minute drive from my house so the engine was maybe not as warm as i would have liked.

Those results point towards very rich running. Given that the lambda reading is ok, it might just be badly in need of a service. Make sure you've driven for about 15-20 minutes before doing the Italian tuneup to make sure the car is up to operating temperature first.

Once you're warmed up, do a pull in 3rd from 2000 rpm up to the redline a few times - ideally on the motorway. On test day, make sure you take it for a good 20 minute drive before the test.

V.W.L 11

jimgoose wrote: »

Dummind that. If you insist on a course of injector cleaner, get BG44K. It is a completely serious product that does what it says on the tin. Personally I think your cat is horlicksed.

i'll service it and stick something in the tank then an italian tune up,after that i'll get the emissions tested in a garage and take it from there

V.W.L 11

Chimaera wrote: »

Those results point towards very rich running. Given that the lambda reading is ok, it might just be badly in need of a service. Make sure you've driven for about 15-20 minutes before doing the Italian tuneup to make sure the car is up to operating temperature first.

Once you're warmed up, do a pull in 3rd from 2000 rpm up to the redline a few times - ideally on the motorway. On test day, make sure you take it for a good 20 minute drive before the test.

would the lambda be gone if the cat was no more good???i'll post pictures of the old spark plugs and oil later on today so you can see exactly what i am seeing

Chimaera

The lambda sensor is mounted before the catalytic converter. It measures the amount of oxygen remaining in the exhaust to determine how well the fuel is combusting. It's what the engine uses to control mixture strength. Your reading is normal so it's not a significant worry.

Taking another look at your results, you have high CO and high HC. This points to incomplete combustion: not all the fuel is burning, and what is burning is not burning well enough. The black plugs and oil corroborate this (soot). The most likely culprit for this in a petrol engine is bad plugs - poor spark means the fuel doesn't light up on time. Your service should fix a lot of this. Throwing in a good fuel additive before the Italian tuneup will help clear out a lot of the soot that's probably built up in there.

A dead cat would show high CO readings but HC readings in the normal range.

V.W.L 11

Chimaera wrote: »

The lambda sensor is mounted before the catalytic converter. It measures the amount of oxygen remaining in the exhaust to determine how well the fuel is combusting. It's what the engine uses to control mixture strength. Your reading is normal so it's not a significant worry.

Taking another look at your results, you have high CO and high HC. This points to incomplete combustion: not all the fuel is burning, and what is burning is not burning well enough. The black plugs and oil corroborate this (soot). The most likely culprit for this in a petrol engine is bad plugs - poor spark means the fuel doesn't light up on time. Your service should fix a lot of this. Throwing in a good fuel additive before the Italian tuneup will help clear out a lot of the soot that's probably built up in there.

A dead cat would show high CO readings but HC readings in the normal range.

i was given a replacement lambda sensor also as a precaution,so by those readings the cat is alive???yeah the state of the plugs would go hand in hand with what you are saying,the oil is like liquid tar

V.W.L 11

spark plug from the bora post nct,not the greatest of pictures but it may give an indication

V.W.L 11

just drained

Chimaera

Chimaera wrote: »

Those results point towards very rich running. Given that the lambda reading is ok, it might just be badly in need of a service.

The lambda is actually 1.01 i.e. slightly lean so it is not running rich. OP, your car suffers from very incomplete combustion for some reason so service is sound advice. New cat definitely won't fix the emissions. I'd start from ignition system and engine timing. Did the car have e.g. a new timing belt between this and the last NCT?

V.W.L 11

samih wrote: »

The lambda is actually 1.01 i.e. slightly lean so it is not running rich. OP, your car suffers from very incomplete combustion for some reason so service is sound advice. New cat definitely won't fix the emissions. I'd start from ignition system and engine timing. Did the car have e.g. a new timing belt between this and the last NCT?

there is 145k on it,belt was changed at 138k,the car is not misfiring or anything