NCT emissions Advice

angrybeaver

Hi All, hoping someone can advise. My wife’s 2014 Kia Sportage 1.6 petrol failed the nct on emissions yesterday. 

high idle 

lambda 0.98

CO 0.69 vol% max limit allowed 0.20 vol%

she took it herself and we never did a thing to it. Passed on all else only a wheel nut. She does little mileage on it and wouldn’t be a hard driver. 

Is Dipetane and the Italian tune up worth a shot? 

thanks

Bigus

Definitely worth a €28 euro retest shot . However I’d get a local mechanic to do an emissions test after your Italian tune up, maybe an exhaust sensor needed too .

Perhaps an oil and filter first too , if not done in the last year .

as a matter of interest what was the oil temp on the nct fail sheet ? Maybe the engine wasn’t hot enough.

angrybeaver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121850496#Comment_121850496

Hey thanks for the reply.

Temp was only at 80c, doing a bit of Googling found out it needs to be 90c+? Would that be right? Does this have a decent effect ?

My wife hates to be late and typically showed up early. Let it cool down.

ill be taking it this time.

I think you’re right about the exhaust sensor too, I think the lambda should be perfect 1 ideally.

thanks for the tips.

greasepalm

Dipetane is not a quick cure , slow drivers and to the shops and back means exhaust system gets clogged up.

I would be doing a motorway run to burn the crap out of the exhaust and to get it good and hot.

You never mentioned any dash lights on so assume its ok.

The amount of cars we had in just needing a good drive to clear it out made a big difference.

angrybeaver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851408#Comment_121851408

Hey thanks for the reply,

no lights at all on the dash. Car running 100% never misses a beat!

It’s the reason we got petrol version rather than the diesel due to the short drives it does.

Have a bottle of Cataclean ready to go and will give it a decent blast. NCT is 40kms away on mostly motorway so will give it welly.

Fingers crossed!

angrybeaver

No Joy with the Italian Tune up and Cataclean,

improved but still off the mark.

high idle 

lambda 0.99

CO 0.50 vol% max limit allowed 0.20 vol%

engine/oil temp. 82c

off the the garage with me it looks like.

greasepalm

Cant remember what the engine bay looks like on them , have a look to see if there is a rubber elephants trunk from air filter housing to inlet manifold with a split. Any small rubber vacuum hoses around manifold splitting drawing in air.

mk7r

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121862902#Comment_121862902

That would throw off the lambda reading though, in this case the car needs a new cat unfortunately

greasepalm

Would the 2nd lambda probe not put a light on with cat gone?

mk7r

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121863108#Comment_121863108

It may eventually throw a catalyst below effeciency code if it gets worse but in many cars that's a silent code and won't put the engine light on

angrybeaver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121863040#Comment_121863040

The garage gave it a once over. Changed the plugs and changed the oil and filters. Apparently the plugs were in a bad way. They did an emissions test and now passing. They produced a print out. So have it booked in next week for retest. Fingers crossed! again

greasepalm

We have Known old oil and filter can harbour residue from the engine , worn plugs yes and no mention of air filter.

Printout is handy to have .