Mot Failure - Emissions !

[Guest smudge.g]

My 96 2.0 Galaxy has just failed its MOT on the emissions and my local garage cannot find a reason why this is. I have looked at a few previous posts for ideas and several mention air filter, MAF sensor etc but my garage said the high emissions could have been caused by a long-standing ABS fault. He thinks the ABS system may have been sending wrong signals to the engine management system which in turn has possibly affected fuel/air mixtures and hence emissions.

I must admit that I have never heard of an ABS system being linked to the engine in this way - has anyone ever heard of this or is he clearly bonkers???

Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated as he has also suggested that I get rid of my gal as soon as possible as the problem would probably cost too much to fix!!! :(

[Guest smudge.g]

The car is still with the garage so I will have to wait until I get it back later in the week before I can see the readings. The strange thing is that I have had no problems with the car before - no power loss or excess fuel usage as described in previous posts. And the last I want to do is get rid of my gal, its been great for over 3 1/2 years! Would changing the air filter/oil have an effect on emissions? (I know the air filter hasnt been changed for yonks and quite a while for the oil).

[johnb80]

Emmisions is a pretty broad description so more detail is definately required. It's unlikely that the airfilter would cause the problem, if it was so bad that it affected readings at the relatively low rpm and no load that the test uses it would be undriveable on the road. If it's that close, take the air filter out and retest. Pretty much the same with the oil, if a significant amount of contaminated oil was killing the readings you would have killed the CAT by now so that too would need replacing. The air pump is used to bring the cat up to temp quick but isn't used under normal running so again, I wouldn't think it was that either.

 

Lets have the details and then we can go from there.

 

Regards - JB

P.S. The garage thats linking ABS to engine emmissions should be given a very wide berth, in fact I wouldn't pay their bill, thats gross incompetence.

[soptom]

I would agree that changing the air and oil filters won't do any harm, although the couple of times I've had emmisions problems with the cars I've had, it's been failing lambda sensors. it does sound a bit vague about the ABS too.

[Mr Poisson]

hi all

 

after reading this im wondering if the car has really failed, or if the garage is pulling a fast one. linking a.b.s to emissions is strange and makes the cynical side of me wonder!

as previously posted don't pay them and maybe try another garage who actually know the interactions between the various systems and associated symptoms?

 

just a thought

 

regards

[Guest smudge.g]

Thanks guys for your inputs and ideas, I have a few more things to try when the car comes back.

regards.

[arryp0tter]

firstly your garage sound ameaturs

would i be right in saying you have high emissions and the oxysensor reading failed if so then try a new lambda sensor ( usually haver to buy a universal) also they have a habit of the lambda sensor loosing its earth. secondly try the air flow metre

when looking at the air flow metre wiring connection ( think i have this right) the left hand pin ( looking at it face on) should have a reading of 0.5 volts at tick over and i belive 1.5 volts at 3000 rpm if this is incorrect it CAN cause excessively high emission readings try all of these

[michael274]

may miles has it done?

as can be simply down to the cat beind done

had a car similar o very high emisions put new cat and lamba probe and now it is excellent emissions

as if you only do short journeys tha cat has not got up it operating temperature and will lessen it life.

but if the car has few miles on it may still be that

hope this of use

[Guest smudge.g]

Car is a 96 2.0i with around 100k on the clock.

Well car finally passed MOT. Garage tried changing cat. and this made no difference. But they changed the lamda sensor and readings eventually came dow. They suggested keeping an eye on this for next time as these can be quite problematic. But am a happy chappy now and no need to worry for another year!

 

Thanks for all the help/tips.