MOT failed - something doesn't seem right!

[steveo3002]

all of the above re motorway blast in low gear , plus a new air filter and take it in for a booked test after a decent hard run so its tested hot , not after idling from stone cold for 2 mins in the car park

[Rich1973]

What does the exhaust look and smell like with the engine running. Surely it would have to be visibly smoking for the tester not to be able to run the test.

[Evercross]

I'm suspecting the car was in the middle of a DPF regeneration which was interrupted and restarted. This would have the effect of putting out higher than normal emissions.

IIRC Peugeot HDi's use additives to lower the passive regeneration temperature so forced regenerations occur less frequently and don't take as long, so those advising adding injector cleaners and such are giving bad advice as they can interfere with the DPF additive and cycle.

To the OP I would suggest giving the car a decent motorway run and get it tested again.

[Nickyboy]

CS Garth said:

Note I said short runs. Do you mainly do short runs?

I work 2.4 miles from home so yes

[Twig62]

A tank of Shell V Power & a blast down the Motorway in 4th gear should sort it !

[M_A_S]

DerBer said:

The mechanic said the emissions were off the scale so He couldn't run the test. I asked for a print out but He said He couldn't provide it as he couldn't run the test.

Does this seem right? Or should I still be able to have a reading? I'm worried he's trying to screw me for a huge bill.

Thanks in advance.

It's not right, no. You should have got a print out and the tester is not going to know the emissions are 'off the scale' without testing it. And unless you're leaving a visible smoke trail behind it's not going to be off any scale.

[bigvanfan]

Pay the man for the mot , take it away and do what’s been suggested then take it to another mot station

[Rich_W]

M_A_S said:

DerBer said:

The mechanic said the emissions were off the scale so He couldn't run the test. I asked for a print out but He said He couldn't provide it as he couldn't run the test.

Does this seem right? Or should I still be able to have a reading? I'm worried he's trying to screw me for a huge bill.

Thanks in advance.

It's not right, no. You should have got a print out and the tester is not going to know the emissions are 'off the scale' without testing it. And unless you're leaving a visible smoke trail behind it's not going to be off any scale.

THIS

Forget all the other bullst on this thread by people who don't know fk all!

The machine will give the opacity reading. Depending on the year of manufacture there's a limit. And most machines take an average of 3-7 accelerations. It will then average it out and give a result Pass or Fail. With the printout generated showing the same. If the tester hasn't given you this. Treat as suspicious IMO!

The problem is that most of these machines cant cope with modern far cleaner DPF equipped cars. So when the tester revs the engine. The meter probe doesn't see any soot. So it thinks the car wasn't revved at all. So just stalls at the "accelerate" message. It essentially has given a Zero reading. The DVSA are aware of this and there's a form to fill in which states the car was tested and the emissions were too clean to give a reading. The car automatically passes as a result.


Also, since as ever with the MOT people believe all sorts of ste. The NEW regulations and limits DO NOT APPLY retrospectively to cars that were not manufactured under those regs. So the OPs 2010 car will NOT be tested to the standard expected of a 2015 car

As ever, ALL The test information is available online at https://www.mot-testing.service.gov.uk/documents/m...

Note the different levels of soot permitted:

before 1980, (visual)
Between 1980 and 1 July 2008 (3.0m-1 for a turbocharged engine)
From '08 to 14 it was -1.5m. A
nd then tightened again from 1 Jan 14 (0.7M)

[civicduty]

Rich_W said:

THIS

Forget all the other bullst on this thread by people who don't know fk all!

The machine will give the opacity reading. Depending on the year of manufacture there's a limit. And most machines take an average of 3-7 accelerations. It will then average it out and give a result Pass or Fail. With the printout generated showing the same. If the tester hasn't given you this. Treat as suspicious IMO!

The problem is that most of these machines cant cope with modern far cleaner DPF equipped cars. So when the tester revs the engine. The meter probe doesn't see any soot. So it thinks the car wasn't revved at all. So just stalls at the "accelerate" message. It essentially has given a Zero reading. The DVSA are aware of this and there's a form to fill in which states the car was tested and the emissions were too clean to give a reading. The car automatically passes as a result.


Also, since as ever with the MOT people believe all sorts of ste. The NEW regulations and limits DO NOT APPLY retrospectively to cars that were not manufactured under those regs. So the OPs 2010 car will NOT be tested to the standard expected of a 2015 car

As ever, ALL The test information is available online at https://www.mot-testing.service.gov.uk/documents/m...

Note the different levels of soot permitted:

before 1980, (visual)
Between 1980 and 1 July 2008 (3.0m-1 for a turbocharged engine)
From '08 to 14 it was -1.5m. A
nd then tightened again from 1 Jan 14 (0.7M)

You said a lot of stuff but failed to mention the OP’s car will now be tested to the value on the manufactures plate which may be as low as 0.5m-1, which is a lot lower than 3.0m-1 it was last year.

Edited by civicduty on Saturday 12th January 21:41

[mighty kitten]

Manufacturers plate limit overrides the default smoke limits so this would be tested to 0.5 , test manual gives a failure option for aborting the test if smoke levels are significantly above the plate value . No paperwork needed for emission test if it was aborted .

[Who me ?]

Take it for a blast and continue to do it weekly. Even non DPF diesels suffer from problems without a decent bit of hot runing. I've noticed that since I've taken my small VAG type for a weekly thrash for 10 miles, my emissions levels have been falling.

[paintman]

Always the option to appeal the failure to DVSA.
You will need to tell the garage that you do not wish any repairs to be carried out.
https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/problems-with-yo...
"Appeal if your vehicle failed an MOT
You need to discuss your test results with the test centre before anyone starts repairs.

You can appeal against the failure if you think it’s wrong. Fill in the complaint form and send it to DVSA within 14 working days of the test.

DVSA will contact you within 5 days to discuss your appeal.

If DVSA decides to recheck your vehicle, you’ll need to arrange a date and pay the full test fee again. They’ll send you an inspection report listing any vehicle defects.

You should not have any repairs made until the appeal process has finished."

[Rich_W]

civicduty said:

You said a lot of stuff but failed to mention the OP’s car will now be tested to the value on the manufactures plate which may be as low as 0.5m-1, which is a lot lower than 3.0m-1 it was last year]

True. And I cant tell from Google what the value on the Pug 308 is. It's a Euro5 car if Google is correct. So it'll have a DPF anyway. So it should be low.

However, (with no facts at all) I do fear the OPs car has had the DPF removed. If it is really way too high. (But they should have still been given a test result sheet)

Whether they know that is another matter of course. I know 1 individual (cock) who removed his Pug DPF cause his wife was only ever driving around town in the car and he was constantly having to deal with it!

Edited by Rich_W on Sunday 13th January 00:18

[Steve91]

Rich_W said:

The problem is that most of these machines cant cope with modern far cleaner DPF equipped cars. So when the tester revs the engine. The meter probe doesn't see any soot. So it thinks the car wasn't revved at all. So just stalls at the "accelerate" message. It essentially has given a Zero reading. The DVSA are aware of this and there's a form to fill in which states the car was tested and the emissions were too clean to give a reading. The car automatically passes as a result.

Side note, a mate's V40 D4 picked up an advisory for this earlier this week, for not giving a reading. Is the advisory harsh or standard practice? Out of curiosity really.

[CS Garth]

Nickyboy said:

CS Garth said:

Note I said short runs. Do you mainly do short runs?

I work 2.4 miles from home so yes

In which case a diesel probably isn't the right car for you

[The Turbonator]

Rich_W said:

However, (with no facts at all) I do fear the OPs car has had the DPF removed. If it is really way too high. (But they should have still been given a test result sheet)

Whether they know that is another matter of course. I know 1 individual (cock) who removed his Pug DPF cause his wife was only ever driving around town in the car and he was constantly having to deal with it!

Edited by Rich_W on Sunday 13th January 00:18

DPF removal is the first thing I thought. In my experience, Pug's are very sensitive to emission increases and will throw up an engine code if they detect any slight increase in emissions. If the emissions really are "off the scale" then I would expect the ECU to have already detected that and have thrown up an "anti-pollution" error code. Unless a previous owner has had the DPF removed and the relevant software mapped out of the engine.

Is there any chance a previous owner has had the DPF removed op, how old was the car and what mileage did it have when you bought it?

[DerBer]

Thanks for your help everyone.

The car was 3 years old when I bought it with 11000 miles on the clock I'm doubting the previous owner removed anything.

[sasha320]

Given the apparently ilogical justification for being unable to complete / start the test, there’s a chance that the MOT tester didn’t have the capacity to finish the MOT on Friday or the emissions testing equipment threw up a glitch.

I’d hazard a guess that on Monday all will be fine.

Might be an idea to do the ‘Italian tune up’ as a precaution if you have time though.

Edited by sasha320 on Sunday 13th January 10:10

[mighty kitten]

Have you actually revved the car up hard once it’s warm to see if it is actually smoking ?

[RemyMartin81D]

CS Garth said:

Nickyboy said:

CS Garth said:

Note I said short runs. Do you mainly do short runs?

I work 2.4 miles from home so yes

In which case a diesel probably isn't the right car for you

2.4 miles? LOL needs a pushbike.