Before my MOT, I remove the air filter box from the throttle body, clean the throttle body, inside the air filter box and the breather pipe (Make sure the fire trap (wire mesh) is replaced).

I clean and check the spark plug gap (likes 0.85 best on the SPI set-up).

With new oil, oil and air filters (knock on wood) my Uno has always passed its MOT on emissions.

Do you have a print out of the emissions results? Maybe if you could say which part of the gasses are excessive, another member may be able to be more specific:-

Best of luck!
Louie.

Did they give you any advice on why it failed, eg cat, lamba probe, mixture, when we get an emmission fail, firstly the car (cat) has to be hot hot! for it to work so we blast it around town, then leave it on the ramp and wait for the fan to kick in a few times, we will then try and adjust the mix if all fails a new probe they seem to last around 50k then maybe the catalyst, i have chopped my cat off and stick the probe emmission tester up another cars arse give everything a clean and a service

wow that helped not: right the main reason for emissions to fail is the cattalitic converter (if fitted). or the lamda probe (also if fitted cat only models) but in some cases the air filter and fuel filter are to blame. but to be honest the car is now 12 yrs old and the value of the car is not much. i would say your best off saving your money and buying a new car as i cannot see the justice in the expence to fix the car plus the cost of the mot for one more years driving. there are plenty of good puntos about like the one i picked up on a T plate with 45k for under a grand. i know its not what you want to hear but with the new emissions rate at under 1% co at idle its near impossible to achive for a car thats 12yrs old so i would put the car on ebay get some money back and buy a new car.

Stephan1 said:

wow that helped not: right the main reason for emissions to fail is the cattalitic converter (if fitted). or the lamda probe (also if fitted cat only models) but in some cases the air filter and fuel filter are to blame. but to be honest the car is now 12 yrs old and the value of the car is not much. i would say your best off saving your money and buying a new car as i cannot see the justice in the expence to fix the car plus the cost of the mot for one more years driving. there are plenty of good puntos about like the one i picked up on a T plate with 45k for under a grand. i know its not what you want to hear but with the new emissions rate at under 1% co at idle its near impossible to achive for a car thats 12yrs old so i would put the car on ebay get some money back and buy a new car.

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A 12 year old car won't be required to achieve under 1% CO. The age of the car has to be taken into consideration when checking MOT emissions as they vary depending on the year they were made. A 1995 Uno will only have to reach the levels required for the mid 1990's, not the latest required for new cars.

Unless the engine is badly worn, most emission problems are fairly easy to deal with. Biggest culprit is a dirty air filter, cheap and easy to replace. Same applies with the spark plugs, and possibly dizzy cap and rotor arm.

Check the valve clearances, as incorrectly set valves can affect emissions. Saying that, in 60K miles of driving FIRE engined Unos I've never had to adjust the valves!

Later Unos will then need to have things like Catalytic Converters and lambda probes checked, and possibly the injection system.

To get rid of a car because it failed the emissions and then replacing it with a £1K Punto is like cutting off your arm because you hurt your finger! If the Uno can be brought up to scratch with a little time and money (£30 on servicing parts if you do the basics yourself) then there is no reason why it can't go on and give another years service.

And a £1K Punto can potentially harbor even more problems (being more modern and complicated) and can cost a lot more to repair as a result.

My little Uno is 21 years old in May 2007 and has passed the last four MOT's with nothing needed doing other than a tiny bit of welding in 33K miles of my ownership. I look after it, service it regularly and it costs pennies to run. I bet not many £1K Puntos can achieve that

I agree with 1986Uno45S. Better the devil you know than the one you don't. Incidentally, Puntos are rather more than '1K' here...

My Uno Turbo needed most of today spent (by jjhepburn) welding significant areas of the floor, generally much worse than the bit that could be seen from underneath that caused a failure of the WOF. The inner sill (inside the car) was completely detached from the floor over a 20cm length. In front of this, the jacking point had completely lost its strength since the floor above was rusty and cracked. The other side of the floor had also rusted away from the sill.

James fixed all these with proper continous welding, so now I can seal it all up and replace/upgrade the soundproofing, which will probably take another day or two.

Was it worth it? Of course! That rust has probably been rusting for several years. In that time I've repainted and repaired accident damage, replaced my clutch and rebuilt the suspension; I'm also fully-confident of the brakes and the engine's running sweetly. You just can't replace a car like this at the drop of a hat; most Mk1 Uno Turbos will be a complete unknown at this age.

My Stilo cost ten times as much, but that would buy a large amount of time and parts for the Uno, and the Stilo is thus hardly a worthwhile solution. Perhaps also browse the Stilo forums for gearbox replacements, broken springs, airbag failure warnings, coil pack changes, and various other ailments that seldom affect the Uno.

Puntos may not rust, but there will be plenty of other surprises in wait (SteveNZ had quite a task of stripping the front off his Punto GT so that the chassis rails could be straightened).

Now to get back on topic... an emissions failure is not to be looked at as a hideous inconvenience, since fixing it will often also improve the economy and possibly the performance in many cases.

Budda - we need a little more info, such as whether it is Hydrocarbons or CO that is too high, and by how much. Has anything been done to the car since the last MOT - i.e. has anyone adjusted the idle etc.?

You can still tell a bit from the state of the spark plugs. Too rich will give carbon-fouling after a drive. If on the other hand the insulator is very white with the electrodes slightly blackened, that means the engine is running lean (and the plugs hot), so this suggests to me the catalytic convertor at fault if CO emissions are still too high. But you would expect HC to be low in this case (less unburned fuel).

Try gently tapping or shaking the catalytic convertor/exhaust pipe, listening for rattles. If the exhaust has been grounded (maybe with evidence of damage) there is a possibility of the catalytic convertor matrix having broken up. Usually there would be a drop in performance (blocked exhaust). You didn't say if the car drives 'normally'?

I think Louie's advice was best - check and replace the things that you can, and get more details to try and identify if the lambda sensor or catalytic convertor could be faulty. If engine performance is erratic, perhaps remove the single fuel injector and get it cleaned ultrasonically.

It's common to suspect the unfamiliar parts, but usually it's the familiar old culprits; spark plugs, air filter...

-Alex