C220 CDi Emissions failure - Is it time to say goodbye?

[Fastcar155]

WOW I just took the word of the technician where the MOT was done.

How do I find an answer to that thunderbolt of yours?

Happened to me many years ago , I though the macaniic wanted the car for himself.

 

[Petrol Pete]

Never done an Italian tune up, how will thrashing an engine clean it ?
It wouldn't get any hotter and the fuel pressure through the injectors would not rise to clean the internals, so does it do anything ?
Asking for a friend.

I have actually seen it work . Some years back I popped into my mates MOT garage , at the time he was a very small operator and if I remember correctly it was a Friday early evening.

POS small diesel van that was on it's last legs and possibly last MOT was not quite getting through tailpipe emission test. As the van belonged to his mate and it was getting late he asked me to mind the shop for a few minutes while he took the van for a 'burn' , he emptied the fuel filter and filled it with some sort of cleaner out of a sealed can and set off at speed.

I am not sure of the details but I believe the MOT test times out if the vehicle doesn't pass emissions within a certain time frame. Either way he was back in no time and the van passed (just) .

He knew the owner and that the van was only used on short journeys around town so maybe he knew he had a chance of success. I do know that now his business is much bigger and snowed under with work 'Italian tune ups' are no longer on the menu.

Not sure they work with more modern engines these days.

 

[Bellow]

I have actually seen it work . Some years back I popped into my mates MOT garage , at the time he was a very small operator and if I remember correctly it was a Friday early evening.

POS small diesel van that was on it's last legs and possibly last MOT was not quite getting through tailpipe emission test. As the van belonged to his mate and it was getting late he asked me to mind the shop for a few minutes while he took the van for a 'burn' , he emptied the fuel filter and filled it with some sort of cleaner out of a sealed can and set off at speed.

I am not sure of the details but I believe the MOT test times out if the vehicle doesn't pass emissions within a certain time frame. Either way he was back in no time and the van passed (just) .

He knew the owner and that the van was only used on short journeys around town so maybe he knew he had a chance of success. I do know that now his business is much bigger and snowed under with work 'Italian tune ups' are no longer on the menu.

Not sure they work with more modern engines these days.

The cleaner made the difference - not the thrashing.
Think about it. Thrashing a diesel is to increase the fuel to air ratio ie, introduce more fuel, carbon rich fuel. How can that ever clean anything?

 

[ALFAitalia]

It does.....lots of people poodle about in there dervs and the air flow is not enough to blow it through. A good thrashing....which is usually accompanied by a decend black cloud from the exhaust if not revved hard recently just blows it all through and improves air flow. My Jeep (cat but no DPF) needed this before every MOT or it would fail. My ALFA failed on emissions a few tests back....I gave the tester permission to thrash it a mile up the dual carriage way......passed easily after that. I do it before every MOT now!!! Dervs dont like slow driving....modern ones even less so.

 

[geoffus]

Most probably because it got up to its operating temperature, can’t see a mile of 4,000 rpm removing anything substantial to improve efficiency.

 

[Trickythemerc]

Back in the early eighties I took a Golf diesel in part ex against a new one. The car had done 40 odd thousand and never even seen a motorway let alone been driven on one. Because it had half a tank of diesel I decided to go home in it. It was flat as a witches watsit, dropped a gear and floored it on a dark stretch of road and chunks of red hot carbon could be seen in the mirror.

 

[W1ghty]

It does.....lots of people poodle about in there dervs and the air flow is not enough to blow it through. A good thrashing....which is usually accompanied by a decend black cloud from the exhaust if not revved hard recently just blows it all through and improves air flow. My Jeep (cat but no DPF) needed this before every MOT or it would fail. My ALFA failed on emissions a few tests back....I gave the tester permission to thrash it a mile up the dual carriage way......passed easily after that. I do it before every MOT now!!! Dervs dont like slow driving....modern ones even less so.

That’s my reasoning as well , my diesel is pretty much always in S mode .
If within the speed limit like joining a motorway I can bounce the rev needle up to maximum with an occasional odd fuel conditioner in the car , especially pre mot then that’s a load of dirt that won’t be there on MOT day .

 

[geoffus]

But why would revving it to 4,000 rpm burn off carbon that even walnut shells struggle with ?

 

[ALFAitalia]

Walnuts only do the intake side......Italian tune up mainly deals with the black dusty stuff in the cat/ dpf/ and exhaust manifold and possibly the exhaust valves. If the tester revs it hard and sees visible black smoke (on any car with a DPF) that a fail regardless of what the machine says....so blow it out before hand.

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[geoffus]

Interestingly, just walked past a Peugeot taxi as it started up in the town centre, great big puff of black smoke on initial start up.
How can it do that on a 67 plate, shouldn't the DPF stop all that, or has it been deleted ?

 

[ALFAitalia]

As a 7 year old taxi its probably done more miles than the Enterprise.

 

[Petrol Pete]

And gets an MOT every 6 months ....

 

[ToeKnee]

And gets an MOT every 6 months ....

Not necessarily, my licencing area have moved away from twice yearly compliance/MOT test to just the standard yearly MOT, saves money for the council although they still bill the driver the same.

 

[geoffus]

But surely it shouldn't smoke at all, isn't that why the DPF is fitted ?

 

[W1ghty]

But surely it shouldn't smoke at all, isn't that why the DPF is fitted ?

Yes it shouldn’t allow dirt through the dpf .

 

[ToeKnee]

But surely it shouldn't smoke at all, isn't that why the DPF is fitted ?

Probably one of the idiots who have removed the dpf from their car?

 

[markjay]

Check the Datacard for option 474 DIESEL PARTICULATE FILTER

 

[ALFAitalia]

Its a Peugeot!

 

[markjay]

Check the Datacard for option 474 DIESEL PARTICULATE FILTER

Its a Peugeot!

Of course it is

 

[Jonesy161]

Re: Fuel additive. I came across this amusing post which may be BS!

"Back in the early 80's while working as a mechanic, my boss did an experiment. We pulled heads off a daily driver and inspected the carbon build up. We put the engine back together and ran it up to temp. He then slowly poured cold water down the carb at about 3500 rpm. He poured about a cup, maybe more (I don't remember, its been a while). At the end of the day when the engine was cool enough, we pulled the heads off, most of the carbon deposits were gone."

This is the way we always de coked our cars in the carburettor era, never had any issues. Iirc it was the thermal shock that did the trick.