Isuzu Grafter

[swinny]

41 minutes ago, Dean Lofthouse said:

Probably the test centre didn't warm the engine enough.

I've had numerous failures on emissions. Never had to do anything more than take the vehicle for a good run to warm the engine up properly. In fact twice I've picked up the motor, drove six or seven miles and straight back to the test centre and passed easily.

My ranger was like that this year! Garage couldnt fit it in for mot when needed and its mainly used as a saturday quoting motor so sat about a lot. so Mot lapsed by a couple of weeks... then another week or so before mot then Fail..... I tried to rebook for first thing in the morning so I could give it a good run up to temp etc but they couldnt. I dropped it in with them and they left it running whilst they finished off an mot >30mins or so and it passed no problem.

 

Never had an issue with emmisions before. My issues was it was sat about and then not brought properly up to operating temperature when tested thats all. 

[doobin]

Leaving it running isn't really what it needs. Generally it just needs a good thrash, 50mph in third up a hill sort of thing in order to clear out carbon from the exhaust system. It never hurts to run some decent (ie. not Redex) injector cleaner either- I add it to the bulk tank.

 

If a motor is not used too often or only for running around, there's a few little things like this you need to do in order to get them through the MOT. Handbrakes for example- my Vito van needs a bit of enthusiastic handrake action on the way to the test centre otherwise the efficiency isn't enough. There's nothing wrong with the emmissions or the handbrake in this instance- both just need a bit of thrashing.