[R8SRGR8]

Hi all

My 214 Cabbie has failed MOT on CO and hydracarbon emissons. The Cat has been changed and several checks have been carried out by my local garage including a replacement lambda sensor. The mechanic said that when he removed the vacuum advance pipe the emissions were at a pass rate but when he replaced it the car was above emissions levels. He seems to think that this could point to a fault with the ECU but his diagnostic equipment was not able to talk to the ECU due to its age, Has anyone any ideas please. The car has done a little over 67000 miles.

[RoverRevival]

I would have said cat and lambda but as these are already completed I would consider a part top end rebuild.

My reason for that is your car is (at a guess) around 20 years old and has probably never had it done. So all the o-rings will be old and hard, the inlet gasket will probably be fit for nothing as well.

For the sake of a £50 gasket set, you’ll benefit from it even if it doesn’t cure your original problems.

You won’t need to disturb the head gasket (if you don’t want to) and all are do-able with basic tools.

[Johnny 216GSi]

Has anyone any ideas please. The car has done a little over 67000 miles.

You could also try a Terra Clean - find a garage near you that does it. It completely decokes your engine and generally helps older cars pass emissions tests. If you've done your fair share of lower-speed driving around town and in plenty of traffic rather than regularly taking the car on the motorway and putting your foot down, then the engine could be suffering from this problem. I've had one done on my car (at the time a 23-year old 216) and it certainly got rid of tell-tale flat spots during modest acceleration. My car was already passing its emissions test, but the figures got better after the clean. It cleans the entire fuel path from the fuel rail, including the injectors and their basket filters besides actually decoking the engine. They take the petrol pump fuse out of your car, then hook up their ultra-clean fuelling machine to your fuel rail and start and run the car a few times, letting it rest in between - whole thing takes 1-2 hours.

Check out the website here: https://www.terraclean.co.uk/

And no I'm not an agent for Terraclean. But if I had a car that had everything done that needed to be done and it still wasn't passing its emissions tests, I'd have it Terracleaned. Claims that this is "snake oil" are, as far as I'm concerned, invalid. Every "magic fluid" is snake oil if you're trying it before you've tried everything else - but if you've got to the end of the list and you're still not getting the emissions or performance you expect, then it is absolutely worth a go. Read how the project came about - the Canadian government commissioned research to create a zero-emissions fuel for combustion-engine cars. They succeeded but realised the fuel would be too expensive to make and sell. They noticed that the fuel had a decoking effect because they were running old cars on it during their extensive testing. So they repackaged the research into a global decoking service. It's absolutely legit and backed by several years of research effort.

[Paul_1978_yorks]

Have you tried Forte fuel cleaner? When I had a 214 and had emissions issues, this invariably sorted it.

[richard moss]

Always worth considering changing the Coolant Temperature Sensor for the ECU

[961tat]

3What i had done before is Taken it for a blast down the motorway and drive it like it's stolen before it retested engine has to be red hot ( Italian tune up ), if that fails disconnect camcover breather pipes from the cam cover and bock up . Just put a pipe on the cam breather outlets and feed down the back of the engine . First one as worked for me many times the engine as to be red hot and second one worked year ago on a 216 that had piston ring trouble. 

Also last year with new engine as in completely rebuild and new ECU the mot tester had the wrong program selected for my car and as you can see below it's was a mile out , it was for later model rover , so when he found the right one it's passed with flying colours.



Exhaust carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds default limits (8.2.1.2 (b))Exhaust Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits (8.2.1.2 (c))Exhaust carbon monoxide content at idle exceeds default limits (8.2.1.2 (b))

[lock1506]

Which one is the coolant temp sensor for the ECU?

[Dorchester]

Which one is the coolant temp sensor for the ECU?

The one on the right side of the engine. Not the one on the front which goes to the controls on the dash.

[lock1506]

Cheers, my fan comes on when my gauge is around the half way mark and its running rich so I'll give that a go.