Advice on Low Idle emissions fail

Julez

Above shows my readings, anyone have any advice as to what might be going on/how to fix? Would a fuel cleaner help? Car is 1.6 petrol 03 Nissan Primera.

Any advice appreciated,
Cheers

toyotaavensis

what sort of milage is on the car?
when was it serviced last? Has it good oil, filters plugs?
Did you think of using dipetane cataclean or similar?
Is there any other issues with the car?

enumbers

would really need the lambda reading at low idle to see if there is a fuelling issue

Julez

Little over 100k miles. No issues that I'm aware of, it was overheating last month but I had the thermostat replaced. Had it serviced; plugs, filters and oil about 3 months ago. It was overheating last month but had the thermostat replaced. Haven't used any dipetane or anything. I'm wondering that if it would be low enough to be able to do that and get a pass. Don't know anything about emmissions or how high 0.64% really is.

toyotaavensis

.64 is high
It would be worth getting the car checked out by a mechanic.
You could try a serious dose of a good additive which might help or might not - depends on the cause of the problem.

Emissions being off can be caused by a number of things.
Have you had a look at your oil and is the car using oil or causing it to change colour faster than normal?
Is the coolant still clean?
Hows the air filter? Pop this out and have a look.

Julez

toyotaavensis wrote: »

.64 is high
It would be worth getting the car checked out by a mechanic.
You could try a serious dose of a good additive which might help or might not - depends on the cause of the problem.

Emissions being off can be caused by a number of things.
Have you had a look at your oil and is the car using oil or causing it to change colour faster than normal?
Is the coolant still clean?
Hows the air filter? Pop this out and have a look.

Thanks for the responses. I will look into the oil and filters, only had it tested this evening so I'll give it a look in the daylight. Just one other thing that might be worth mentioning the car was actually only through the test three months ago (it was very late so has to be tested again now) and it came out at 0.29%, is that a big jump in just 3 months?

toyotaavensis

have you clocked up much milage in the three months?
Was the car overheating in this time?
It is hard not to think that the overheating has something to do with your emissions.

Julez

Not a great amount of mileage, one or two big trips and then just back and forth from work and stuff, 10 minute drive. Yes, the overheating was in the meantime between tests, but it hasn't been overheating since. I wonder if something was damaged when it did overheat.

toyotaavensis

Hard to say for sure but I would assume it had an effect.
A compression check might be worth doing to see if you have a head gasket issue.
Might be worth having a look at leads and coils too just in case the car overheating damaged them.

enumbers

the high idle readings would indicate that the system is working pretty much spot on at high idle. As I said earlier really need a low idle lambda reading to tell better whats going on. Could be as simple as the cat not been warmed up enough

Julez

True, its a very short journey to the NCT centre. Less than 5 minutes, maybe I should have driven for longer before the test.

toyotaavensis

OP might be worth driving the nuts off of it and having it retested.
Throw in some additive too just in case you end up borderline it might get you through.

Julez

toyotaavensis wrote: »

OP might be worth driving the nuts off of it and having it retested.
Throw in some additive too just in case you end up borderline it might get you through.

Yeah, i think I'll look over the basics and I'll give that a try and see what happens, I'll let you know how I get on, cheers lads,

Julez

Just an update lads, so last week a put a litre of Dipitane in the tank, drove it hardish for the week, then today about 45 mins before my test I put another litre in a drove her hard until the test and passed!! got the low idle from 0.64% down to 0.20%. So not sure if it was the Dipitane, the hotter engine or the dryer day (or a combination of all three) but I got the pass so thats all that matters, thanks for the advice guys, it's very much appreciated.

enumbers

thanks for update, would guess at the bit of harder driving was enough to restore the effectiveness of the cat enough to pass. A lot of short journeys and low revs tend to contaminate a cat.

Scruff

my car is just after failing on this low idle emissions too, "slighty" worse than the original poster though:
CO2: 2.12%
HC: 320ppm

03 Ford Focus, 122k, oil and filter service about 4 months ago (groupon type deal special at a garage chain...), pump and timing belt changed 2 months ago.

jimgoose

Scruff wrote: »

my car is just after failing on this low idle emissions too, "slighty" worse than the original poster though:
CO2: 2.12%
HC: 320ppm

03 Ford Focus, 122k, oil and filter service about 4 months ago (groupon type deal special at a garage chain...), pump and timing belt changed 2 months ago.

Hmm. It'd be worth checking for air leaks, particularly around the exhaust headers upstream of the Lambda sensor.

Scruff

brought it to my mechanic. He couldnt find anything wrong and only measured CO2 emissions at 0.1%
Reckons it was either the NCT equipment or there is an intermittent problem with something like the Coil pack. Just going to go for the retest and see it'll pass this time.