General Horse hair from exhaust

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General Horse hair from exhaust

dx90

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My son's Seicento 1.1 MPI 2002 has horse hair coming out of the exhaust. It barely went through the emissions test just before this happened.


Will this effect the emissions test?


Will I need to change both centre and rear boxs or will it just be coming from the rear silencer and only the rear one will need changing?

Thanks
 
The fibres (it's not horse hair) are most likely coming from the back box.

There's a fibre lining in there to prevent resonance, so your exhaust might be louder than usual, or more "boomy" (and the fibres escaping might suggest that the internals of the exhaust are failing) but none of it affects the emissions.

Your Tester may still fail the car on a defective silencer if they don't like the fibres, or if there's an exhaust leak or it's too noisy.

If your emissions are borderline then the likely culprits are going to be the air cleaner, the MAF, the lambda sensor and the catalytic converter.

If the car idles and runs perfectly, you can probably discount the MAF and lambda. The cat' should not fail but if it's the original (17 years old) Fiat one, it may have become contaminated/knackered over the years. A new/clean air-filter just before MOT time is a no-brainer.

Also, run the beast on a whole tankful of premium (98+ Octane) benzina before and then during the MOT. It tends to burn better and it has cleaning agents in it that can dissolve enough gum and goo from around the injectors to maybe make the difference between pass and fail.




Ralf S.
 
my cinq has always struggled passing on emissions. apart from the first year and it had a partially melted standard cat!

since fitting a new cheap cat, it has been borderline. even with a rebuilt engine being installed.
 
since fitting a new cheap cat, it has been borderline. even with a rebuilt engine being installed.


Cheapo cats are cheap because they have only a wafer thin layer of platinum/rhodium/ paladium plate on the honeycomb (though it's usually square) internal surface. They can also use other coatings instead, such as manganese, nickel or copper. These metals do the same job but not as well as platinum.

A standard Fiat cat' will tend to use platinum and it's just better plated. For all the aggro' emissions give me at MOT time, I wouldn't skimp on the cat' (it has even crossed my mind to buy a special "MOT Cat" just for MOT time... then fit a cheapo one for the rest of the year..) :D


Ralf S.
 
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The fibres (it's not horse hair) are most likely coming from the back box.

There's a fibre lining in there to prevent resonance, so your exhaust might be louder than usual, or more "boomy" (and the fibres escaping might suggest that the internals of the exhaust are failing) but none of it affects the emissions.

Your Tester may still fail the car on a defective silencer if they don't like the fibres, or if there's an exhaust leak or it's too noisy.

If your emissions are borderline then the likely culprits are going to be the air cleaner, the MAF, the lambda sensor and the catalytic converter.

If the car idles and runs perfectly, you can probably discount the MAF and lambda. The cat' should not fail but if it's the original (17 years old) Fiat one, it may have become contaminated/knackered over the years. A new/clean air-filter just before MOT time is a no-brainer.

Also, run the beast on a whole tankful of premium (98+ Octane) benzina before and then during the MOT. It tends to burn better and it has cleaning agents in it that can dissolve enough gum and goo from around the injectors to maybe make the difference between pass and fail.




Ralf S.

Yes its the original cat and the engines done around 62,000.


Hes been using cheap Asda petrol for years and only ever does very short local journeys in it. I'll ask him to put some decent stuff in before the MOT in May.


I'll look into the other stuff you have mentioned before then as well Ralf.

Thanks
 
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Just a quick question rather than start a new thread.

I've been using 10w40 Semi but just noticed I have none left in the shed. I do have 4 liters of Castrol 15w40 Semi. Is it OK to use this instead?
I live in the SW UK.
 
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Get the silencer changed asap.

The exhaust pulses. As the exhaust valve shuts, the gases are still moving away, creating a vacuum behind them. This causes the gas to pull back a bit towards the valve. A bit like two steps forward, one back.

This causes strange things to happen. When driving through a flood, if the revs are not kept up, it can draw water all the way up to the engine and kill it. Seems impossible, but it does happen.

Similarly, the escaping fluff can get drawn forward, and clog up the cat. So fix it soon.
Back in the seventies, the Morris Marina and Allegro suffered like this. The fluff in the back box would escape as the centre perforated tube rusted through. This would then clog the centre sliencer, requiring replacement of the whole system. Customers were reluctant to pay for the whole system when only the back box was failing, but if we didn't replace the centre box, it would stifle the performance.
Did take a while to diagnos the first one.
 
what mileage you got now, dac69er..?

The car has done about 110k miles, but the engine has less than 2k miles on it.

Next year it may be better on emissions once it's run in. I also had a high idle issue last year as I was still sorting some niggles after the rebuild.

I only fit the cat for mot. Maybe I should try it without to see if it is even doing anything!!!
 
Just a quick question rather than start a new thread.

I've been using 10w40 Semi but just noticed I have none left in the shed. I do have 4 liters of Castrol 15w40 Semi. Is it OK to use this instead?
I live in the SW UK.

Will be fine. The spi engine calls for 15w-40 anyway. Not sure about the mpi, but either is no problem.
 
How did you get a replacement engine with so-low miles, dac?

Is it 2k miles from-the-rebuild..?

That's interesting on the oil type. I always think the actual PRESENCE of oil- as in oil level, is ultimately more important that the type.
Not so say; I would use anything, but in an emergency situation anything could provide the lubrication.
These aren't high-revving turbo engines.

What kind of oil-consumption can I expect to see on the 1.1 Cinq unit?
 
Get the silencer changed asap.

The exhaust pulses. As the exhaust valve shuts, the gases are still moving away, creating a vacuum behind them. This causes the gas to pull back a bit towards the valve. A bit like two steps forward, one back.

This causes strange things to happen. When driving through a flood, if the revs are not kept up, it can draw water all the way up to the engine and kill it. Seems impossible, but it does happen.

Similarly, the escaping fluff can get drawn forward, and clog up the cat. So fix it soon.
Back in the seventies, the Morris Marina and Allegro suffered like this. The fluff in the back box would escape as the centre perforated tube rusted through. This would then clog the centre sliencer, requiring replacement of the whole system. Customers were reluctant to pay for the whole system when only the back box was failing, but if we didn't replace the centre box, it would stifle the performance.
Did take a while to diagnos the first one.

Thanks for your reply. I'll get a price for a new exhaust to replace the centre and rear boxes. (y) Any reconsideration on a good cheap brand/make?
 
How did you get a replacement engine with so-low miles, dac?

Is it 2k miles from-the-rebuild..?

That's interesting on the oil type. I always think the actual PRESENCE of oil- as in oil level, is ultimately more important that the type.
Not so say; I would use anything, but in an emergency situation anything could provide the lubrication.
These aren't high-revving turbo engines.

What kind of oil-consumption can I expect to see on the 1.1 Cinq unit?

That's 2k since the rebuild. The engine came out of a blokes shed (a member on here) so no idea on the mileage before that. Was in decent condition though so I would estimate around 70k miles.

Your right, some oil is better than no oil and for these engines it's less of an issue than newer ones.

Oil consumption should be very minimal, but does go up if you do lots of shorter journeys or the engine is worn. Anything less than half a litre between oil changes I wouldn't worry about.
 
Thanks for your reply. I'll get a price for a new exhaust to replace the centre and rear boxes. (y) Any reconsideration on a good cheap brand/make?

I bought the cheapest one I could off ebay and it was decent quality for my cinq sporting.

If it fits a sei and your local to me you can have it. It was only used for a year then I made my own stainless exhaust.
 
I bought the cheapest one I could off ebay and it was decent quality for my cinq sporting.

If it fits a sei and your local to me you can have it. It was only used for a year then I made my own stainless exhaust.

Thanks for the kind offer. Unfortunately I live in Bristol.
 
well the offer is there if you want to head this way. obviously worth checking a cinq sporting exhaust fits a sei, i believe it does.
 
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