Fuel additive for better emissions?

[exitwound]

My trusty old 150k mile,'95 Honda Aerodeck has failed its MOT on emissions. Not by much I'm told, but that a fuel additive and a good thrash up the bypass(!) would sort it out.

Faced with an array of additives at varying prices, does anyone know what am best one for the job?

I use Comma injector cleaner once a year, but I'm told I need a specific emission control additive as well this time.

[PJ S]

BG Products 44K - job done.

[stevieturbo]

Another suggestion is finding out what it failed on, and why, then fixing the problem instead of wasting money on stupid additives.

[exitwound]

Many thanks for the suggestions.

The Honda runs perfectly in every respect, but it just needs a bit of a cheat to get it past the mot. It seems the government is moving the goalposts again to get old cars like mine off the road. Its just a mattern of its age, as there's no technical problem with the car to warrant a rebuild.

Cheers,

[stevieturbo]

How has the emissions test changed ??

A car of your age, should have no difficulty passing the MOT emissioins test if everything is working fine.

[GreenV8S]

exitwound said:

a fuel additive and a good thrash up the bypass(!) would sort it out.

Clean plugs and/or a good thrash up the dual carriageway is the traditional method, without spending on additives.

[paintman]

You could try this http://www.kalimex.co.uk/section.html?secpath=01.0...
Not used it myself, but I have used their K-Seal & that's one of the very few that does what it claims.

[Mr2Mike]

exitwound said:

It seems the government is moving the goalposts again to get old cars like mine off the road.

Not at all, the goal posts haven't moved since your car was manufactured. Far more likely that with 150k under it's belt the cat and/or lambda sensor are getting very tired.

[exitwound]

Hi,

I have new plugs (old ones were nice and light brown but old), oil, oil filter, cleaned out the inside of the throttle body, cleaned and re-oiled the airfilter (induction type). The exhaust is a straight through s/s unit fitted three years ago and before Xmas I had a new cat. fitted. Compression is ok too..

I tend to drive the car quite hard and fast in low gears as it pulls well and sounds nice, and occasionally it makes the 450 mile trip to Bognor.

The mot guy says its not far out but just enough for a fail, and possibly a can of cleaner may sort it, hence my first email. He also hinted that there is garage/mot station talk that the mot emissions regs. will change in the future for the purpose of making it harder to run older cars like mine. He and the Partco guy who sold me my plugs may be just bs-ing me, then again, maybe not!

I'll post what happens at the re-test this week....

Thanks again..

[stevieturbo]

And you still havent said why it failed, and what the emissions levels where.


There could be many things wrong with the car to cause a fail, but until the actual emission levels are known, its impossible to even start and diagnose the problem.

[exitwound]

I wasn't given a detailled report as to what the actual numbers were. Only a red failure sheet left when they dropped it off for me. (been using them, the same guys, same place ..personal friends for 35years, so I don't believe they'd be ripping me off..)

There's no running problems with the car and it gives me a decent 40mpg on the Bognor trip. So I don't see any reason to be stripping the motor for a £10 retest.

Cheers,

[steve-V8s]

Go back to them and ask for the gas test printout, you should have been given it anyway. We need to know if it failed because the mixture was wrong (CO too high) or because there was too much un burnt fuel left in the gas ( Missfire) without knowing which we can’t advise on the probable cause.

If you have been throwing lots of additives in that could well have upset an Oxygen sensor which is now causing the problem, assuming you car has them and the problem is CO.

[stevieturbo]

exitwound said:

I wasn't given a detailled report as to what the actual numbers were. Only a red failure sheet left when they dropped it off for me. (been using them, the same guys, same place ..personal friends for 35years, so I don't believe they'd be ripping me off..)

There's no running problems with the car and it gives me a decent 40mpg on the Bognor trip. So I don't see any reason to be stripping the motor for a £10 retest.

Cheers,

It has nothing to do with being ripped off.....well..maybe.

But if they dont give you a printout of the emissions failure, how on earth can anyone ever be expected to try and fix it ??

If they havent told you what is wrong, then friends or not, something isnt right there.

And nobody said to strip the motor. There are dozens of things that could cause an emissions fail...and there are various emissions failures too.

Without that information, you could retest forever, and still get nowhere.

[GreenV8S]

exitwound said:

Hi,
I have new plugs (old ones were nice and light brown but old), oil, oil filter, cleaned out the inside of the throttle body, cleaned and re-oiled the airfilter (induction type).

Oiled air filters are bad news for emissions, if you believe it's basically in good working order and only marginally failing, fit a plain paper filter.

[rev-erend]

GreenV8S said:

exitwound said:

Hi,
I have new plugs (old ones were nice and light brown but old), oil, oil filter, cleaned out the inside of the throttle body, cleaned and re-oiled the airfilter (induction type).

Oiled air filters are bad news for emissions, if you believe it's basically in good working order and only marginally failing, fit a plain paper filter.

Same think on an oil change and new oil filter .. if it's marginal .. doing this can make the difference.

[exitwound]

Thanks guys... some useful info there..

steveieturbo, ..lighten up mate, its only a car.

[stevieturbo]

exitwound said:

Thanks guys... some useful info there..

steveieturbo, ..lighten up mate, its only a car.

I am light.

But you are asking how to get your car to pass, when you either dont know, or simply arent telling us why it failed in the first place.


People may as well tell you to wash the car, as fill it full of additives, as they will all do the same thing, which is nothing.

In order to fix any problem...you first need to know what is wrong.

[taz turbo]

exitwound said:

steveieturbo, ..lighten up mate, its only a car.

Steady, stevieturbo it one of the most helpful, knowledgeable people on here, it's replies like yours that stop very helpful people here contributing. How do you expect people to help you when the symptoms aren't defined.

'My cars broken, do you fink a bottle of snake oil will cure all my problems?'

Be more specific, there's a bottle of snake oil for every problem you could encounter

[Pigeon]

If you insist on trying to fix it with additives you might be better off trying sticking 10% meths in the petrol (and use the rest of the tank up quickly after it's done). Still got no idea whether it'll actually help without knowing what exactly is wrong, but it's cheaper and stands a better chance of doing something than some concoction of magic monkey spunk.

[dmitsi]

I've got some low emissions fuses for sale on ebay, guaranteed to get you within the targets. Only £15 a pair, you'll need 5 all together. They're only sold in pairs though. Sorry. Send me your bank details.