mgcvk

Just had my ten year old Fiesta 1.25 zetec runabout fail its MOT. A few bits of sill welding apparently required, a velocity joint gaiter split and corroded brake pipe etc etc. However, centre section of exhaust was blowing so I knew that would need replacing but it has still failed emissions even with the new section. There is no point going ahead with all the repairs if this is going to end up being more than the car is worth. So far I have only spent £70 on MOT and exhaust.

The garage have hooked up to the ECU but aren't sure if this is a Lambda problem or a catalyst fault. They ran the car to get it hot and it still failed and they reckon a it is chucking out a lot of white smoke though it doesn't seem too bad to me and it has always burnt oil.. Car is now over revving when I come to a halt at junctions which it wasn't doing before so I don't know if this is a result of them checking for Lambda faults. Feels like you have left the choke out or have your foot lightly on accelerator - revs up then slowly drops to idle. Does this all together sound like Lambda fault or something else?? Advice gratefully received.

I reasonably trust this garage as they haven't been touting for the extra work and said they weren't sure it would be worth the extra cost of investigating the problem though car wasn't over revving previously though exhaust was blowing like a good un'.

ZEN Performance

Have they checked the coolant temperature sensor, if this has failed it would possibly overfuel AND not bother to use the lambda sensor.

As with all emissions failures, knowing the ALL the actual results in detail can help to pin down the fault.

mgcvk

Cheers Zen. Think I will have to go get it looked at by another garage. Seems too much of a coincidence that the overfueling is worse after the previous place looked at it and changed pipework. You wouldn't happen to know where the Lambda would sit in a Fiesta?

prodriverules

iTrader: (52)

The ford range are quite prone to air leaks on split manifold pipes which can cause over reving problems mate,also the idle speed control valves get very carboned up as the engines do have a tendency of breathing heavy and pumping excess oil into the inlet manifold and subsequently into the iscv,but if she is abit of a oil burner then it wouldnt suprise me to see the cat fooked,but as stated the emission read out would help as we could see the co and hc levels

KickboxingCrazy

iTrader: (15)

defo check for a vaccum leak that would give you probs with high revs

mgcvk

Great. Thanks for the tips. Emissions results here from original test before the new centre section, but I don't think that changed things really.

prodriverules

iTrader: (52)

have you had an oil change recently mate?if not id change the oil and get the tank down nice and low and put some forte gas treatment and injector cleaner in and give it agood run and then go back for a retest mate and think she would prob pass but defo check for an air leak as the high rev's is prob caused by a split pipe and from the test results i wouldnt think the lamba is at fault there,more than likely if the above doesnt do it then its the cat mate

mgcvk

Good advice. Not had oil change for a while so will try the above. Cheers.

prodriverules

iTrader: (52)

no worries mate id check the little pipe just underneth the inlet mani first as that is a common one to split from oil contamination,usually splits and collapses on the bend

mgcvk

To cut a long story short ( also MOT thread in here https://www.scoobynet.com/non-scooby...ml#post9588612 ) I have had the car MOT'd elsewhere and, to quote the tester "it has sailed through emissions" no problems at all though this tester has found more faults.

I am starting to wonder if the first garage could have had some oil in the newly fitted centre section which was causing the white smoke they reckon was billowing out (which I have never noticed) and the emissions fail. Could they be this stupid??

I also reckon they revved the **** off it to try to warm up the cat and might have somehow created my overfuelling overrevving problem which I hadn't noticed previously. Do I have a leg to stand on if I go back and accuse them of the above?