My punto 1997, 55sx 1.1 failed its MOT on emissions (and other things) managed to get a repair centre fix the other falts, which has costs £230 parts + fitting. Fail sheet says failed on emissions after 2cd idle test, but doesn't give a reading and he didn't give me a test print out. Put it this way, it can't be that bad because I've seen other punto with visual emissions twice than what mine have been giving out...

My dad has recommended some things to try and scrape it through the retest on emissions, otherwise it would be a waste of £230, does anyone else have any other tips to add to the following:

- Add redex (baught a small bottle) (is this enough or do i need more?)
- Check, clean and or replace spark plugs if necessary?
- Have baught a new air filter that has been fitted by the repair centre
- Fill tank to quarter
- Take car for drive on motorway (any advice on how long to drive for and how fast?)
- Keep engine warm when arriving for re-test and keep it running


Anyone got any other advice ? don't want to fail a re-test that another £50 down the drain! :bang:

hi! welcome to the forum
do an oil change aswell
as for m/way drive, spirited is one way to describe how to drive
redex is it a 250ml bottle or the one shot waste of time type?

Helloo, thanks for the welcome.

Oil change, thanks ! will do that too then if I get time tomorrow.

Redex small bottle, I think its the one where you put the whole lot in and it only covers 1 tank of fuel.... presume that is the small one your talking about lol ?

I did hint to my dad to get the bigger one he was adament that he was right and the small one will do? should i go get the bigger one tomorrow ?

welcome to the joys of car ownership and the forum of course
someone else will probably be more technically minded and give you more advice but with emissions its not easy to pinpoint ,,most of the advice given to you by your dad is common sence and wont be wasted --I can only think youve been told to take it for a drive so that any fuel addative (redex) will have had time to work its way through the fuel system, so 5/10 minutes will take care of that, however the garage should have given you a copy of the emission test, even on failing, well at least they do around here, and a retest shouldnt cost you another full test fee if its less than ten days since you had it done.only other thing I can think of (apart from have the garage do it for you-not much use in this case i know) would be to include a fuel filter change as well

hello, thanks for the welcome jaybee, will note that fuel filter down too. thanks!

Emissions only fail because the Lambda ("oxygen") sensor or the catalyst are knackered.

Air filter and new plugs will help, as will cleaning out the airbox and airbox/crank case vent tubes.. but even if the beast is fully bunged up with crud, the lamda should spot it's running rich and tell the ECU to lean off the mixture.

Change the lambda sensor and it'll be sorted. They're £30 from an auto factor .. probably nearer £60 from Fiat (but the Fiat ones come with a connector plug etc. and seem to be better quality. The cheaper ones need to be spliced in to the existing Fiat connector plug).

It's unlikely to be a dead catalyst... but if it's old, been beaten up, or if the car has been run on leaded fuel somehow, it could be deceased. They're blinkin' expensive so don't just rush out and buy one until you exhausted the other options.


Ralf S.

Thanks alot for that ralf s.

I will mention that also.

Car has been fixed so going to pick him up soon.

Hopefully after doing all of the above, the P reg will live for another year before being sent off to the scrappers...

Will let you all know how the MOT retest goes later... fingers crossed!

:worship:

Collected him from the repair centre, expectantly, all repairs had been done.

Had the MOT tester from the repair centre do a pre-emissions test on him before he went back into MOT Re-test, he added the redex, and it passed on his test! which was a more modern looking computer (which was callibrated last week)....

Took it into it's MOT Re-test, started going over the car more vigoursily, so my legs started to wobble a bit! anyway....

Passed on everything that needed repairing but failed on CO2 emissions, again!:bang: - but he was testing it at 4000 rps when the test computer was saying it should be tested at between 2500 and 3000.

cutting a long story short, putting in a fivers worth of fuel, taking it up and down the motorway in fourth gear doing 80 MPH at around 4000 revs for about 20 minutes (thinking the cctv cameras are probably thinking im going bonkers), took it back to re test centre where it passed with flying colours.... Strange. Anywhoo.... he lives to fight another 12 month with 6 month tax.

Thanks for all the help foalks :slayer:rockpunto on