NCT fail car on hole in emissions, garage says there's no hole

ceekay74

Hi There.

Old Micra fails NCT because NCT guy says they can't get a reading on emissions due to a hole in the exhaust. Doesn't specify where the hole was or anything.

Anyway, car gets examined at a fast fit garage and their guy says that there's no hole in the exhaust, and that maybe the car needs a service?

WTF?

Hal1

If you put your shoe or a rag over the exhaust briefly the pressure will build, and if it's leaking you will / should hear were it's leaking from. It can also leak from the flexi (down pipe) or manifold areas.

ceekay74

Had another place look at it, also says there's no hole. But, that the 'engine is burning petrol' and that's why it failed. (I thought this is how cars go). :pac:

Sounds like it's for the scrapyard.

Toyotafanboi

I'd say the problem is more like it isn't burning petrol.

Where was your second opinion from? Emissions can often be a simpler fix than people think, just a lot of people don't seem to be able to correctly interpret the readings.

Can you post up the emissions result?

ceekay74

Sorry, wasn't a different place, was a different guy in the same garage. He also said the car needs a new engine.

Don't have the emissions result with me, but pretty sure it failed because they couldn't get a reading. Can post it later though.

ba_barabus

Make/Model/Engine/Year/Mileage

Do you do long or short journeys?

ceekay74

ba_barabus wrote: »

Make/Model/Engine/Year/Mileage

Do you do long or short journeys?

1998 Nissan Micra GX (1ltr) circa 180,000 miles

Mostly used for short 10 min journeys, maybe one long trip a week, totalling 1.5 hrs

All in all, about 4 hours driving a week, these days anyway.

Toyotafanboi

i'd be shocked if it needs a new engine or anything close to that tbh.

ceekay74

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

i'd be shocked if it needs a new engine or anything close to that tbh.

It is 18 years old and pretty beaten up looking though. People routinely laugh at it. :pac:

ba_barabus

ceekay74 wrote: »

1998 Nissan Micra GX (1ltr) circa 180,000 miles

Mostly used for short 10 min journeys, maybe one long trip a week, totalling 1.5 hrs

All in all, about 4 hours driving a week, these days anyway.

If that's the driving I'd consider a bottle of injector cleaner and a hard extended motorway run.

It just needs an Italian tune up going on all the information supplied (nct cert would give a better picture of things).

ceekay74

ba_barabus wrote: »

If that's the driving I'd consider a bottle of injector cleaner and a hard extended motorway run.

It just needs an Italian tune up going on all the information supplied (nct cert would give a better picture of things).

Thanks for the opinions guys, will post it later.

Toyotafanboi

ceekay74 wrote: »

It is 18 years old and pretty beaten up looking though. People routinely laugh at it. :pac:

it might look tatty but the engine in those Micras is well capable of doing double that mileage. the main reason that they don't is because of "smart lads" laughing at your ****ty Micra making you want rid of it. those things would survive a nuclear blast.

if you get a chance, post up your emissions readings and we can take a look.

i'm not usually the one to say blanket statements like this, but in this instance i think it's true. your biggest mistake was bringing your car to FastFit with an issue like this. you may not even have been talking to a mechanic.

Yawns

Yup stay away from Fast - Fit. Post up a pic of the sheet. Those cars are lil stout things, can take a fair old mileage.

TeaBagMania

Wait, how did you get insurance on a car over 10 years old?

Toyotafanboi

TeaBagMania wrote: »

Wait, how did you get insurance on a car over 10 years old?

he paid through the nose for it because he had no choice.

Del2005

Fairly easy to find out if there's a whole in the exhaust. Get a glove or rag and hold it against the end of the exhaust pipe. The engine should start to labour with the back pressure, if there's no difference in engine noise there's a hole somewhere.

ceekay74

ba_barabus wrote: »

If that's the driving I'd consider a bottle of injector cleaner and a hard extended motorway run.

It just needs an Italian tune up going on all the information supplied (nct cert would give a better picture of things).

Here it is...

Toyotafanboi

I think attachments don't work at the moment. Host the image on postimage.org or similar.

ceekay74

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

I think attachments don't work at the moment. Host the image on postimage.org or similar.

ok...

http://postimg.org/image/9pqmzwycl/

LawlessBoy

Would i be right in thinking that the engine being cold may have effected it also? 13 degrees on oil temp.

Toyotafanboi

I don't think they measure engine oil temp any more. 13 celcius is the air tempurature in the test centre

ceekay74

Just back from Advance Pitstop, definitely no leak in the exhaust.

WTF are the NCT on about?

jelutong

Bring the car to a mechanic.

ceekay74

jelutong wrote: »

Bring the car to a mechanic.

Yeah I know. Would be nice to know why it failed though. NCT cert clearly says exhaust leaking.

I dropped into the NCT to see if the tester was there to clarify what the issue is. But he's not there today.

shietpilot

ceekay74 wrote: »

Yeah I know. Would be nice to know why it failed though. NCT cert clearly says exhaust leaking.

I dropped into the NCT to see if the tester was there to clarify what the issue is. But he's not there today.

Well even if there is no hole in the exhaust you still have a problem with emissions.

A decent mechanic should be able to diagnose the issue if you give him the NCT fail sheet

ceekay74

ceekay74 wrote: »

Just back from Advance Pitstop, definitely no leak in the exhaust.

WTF are the NCT on about?

In case anyones interested, didn't bring it to a mechanic, just brought the car back to NCT and they retested it. No problem this time. Car passed.

Toyotafanboi

Christ almighty.

LawlessBoy

I would definitely be putting in a complaint that's bad form if you just put it back through without work being done

jelutong

I had similar experience with my car. Failed on front suspension imbalance.
Put it through the retest without changing the shocks and Lo and behold it passed. I'm not complaining btw.

jelutong

I had similar experience with my car. Failed on front suspension imbalance.
Put it through the retest without changing the shocks and Lo and behold it passed. I'm not complaining btw.