I hadn’t been able to take the Precious (a Mk2.5) for a decent run for ages (for boring reasons I won’t go into) and it’s only had a weekly tootle around town for a couple of months to keep some volts in the battery.
Last time out, a couple of days ago, the old girl had developed a really lumpy tickover. Not ideal as it was booked in for an MOT yesterday. So I took her up the dual carriageway and, to quote Basil Fawlty, gave her a ‘damn good thrashing’. (And my, don’t those 1.8 engines sound sooo sweet as you get near the redline.)
Back home and it must have done the trick because she was ticking over sweet as a snoring baby. Took her out a couple of hours later and from cold she was still purring away sweetly. Passed the MOT (phew!), and it must have cleared out some cobwebs too, because the emissions readings were nice and low. She’s had a service and now we’re ready for another year of adventures.
Folks do tend to poo poo it, but all I can say is, pre MOT I usually popped a bottle of Forte cleaner in a tank with maybe only 2 gallons in to concentrate it (This refers to both out 5s…we ran a 2002 Sport & a 1840 93 Mk1) and gave them both a good stretch the day before. Never had and issue Gas test wise…I put it down to the CAT in the Sport getting a good clean up …but the Mk1 did not even have a CAT! But, my MOT guy knew how to test under import regs. I doubt it would make a difference with super-clean SkyActives though…or NCs for that matter. Much leaner and cleaner burns I’d have thought. But, they both “felt better” and ticked over from cold next day much more smoothly.
I think…!
I do love that little car. It’s such a tonic. We’re both getting on and we were both nearly written off in 2023. Both still alive and kicking and 2024 is panning out to be a WHOLE lot better.
My Defender struggled to get though the emissions test one year so the next year I put some injector cleaner in and it sailed through so I use it every year now
How do you manage to get the MOT tester to complete the test under the ‘Import regs’ rather than just a normal MX5 which is on my V5. I am asking because my car fails the emissions test yearly but a friendly tester gets it nice and hot then tests it again until it passes. I would rather it just passes without the friendly tester aspect in case I switch garages in the future. Cheers.
They have an official & different book of allowed gas perameters to work from…probably from DVLA or some such. Written in stone and properly legal. These “allowances” seemed much more broadband so to speak, There’s no cheeky guessing involved…just a different level of official leniency. Some MOT guys know their stuff…some unfortunately dont have a foggy anf they are the culprits. Year after year after year…
I wonder what my MOT man has been testing against. He always tells me it failed an emissions test and then he ‘got it fecking hot’ and tried again. Maybe its something to do with the aftermarket exhaust and a CAT from 1997 that doesn’t do much anymore.
Or it could be him. Looks to me like he has not been asked about what is what with imports. Just ask him. " Doyou test my car the same as any ( cough)“MX5”. That will lay the trap with no wiggle room,.
I had an old V70 2.5 diesel. I used to join junc 2 of the M27, and red line it down to Junc 1 in 3rd gear at about 70.
Dasterdly and Mutley would have been proud of me… a huge cloud of black smoke, then it cleared, then straight to the MOT… always was low on the emissions test
Daft not too!!
