Just been offered a 98 C15D van, 192,000 miles and an MOT failure on emissions amongst some other minor details. As the little Van would be quite useful to me, and its very cheap, I was considering buying it.
It runs well and does not seem to have visible smoke after its warmed up.
As its a budget van, I really would not want to go down the road of recon injectors and maybe a pump.
Hoping to run some injector cleaner through and thrashing it within an inch of its life....any good?
Failed emissions
Moderator: RichardW
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Not wishing to advertise but speak as you find, I use Millers diesel fuel treatment. I have noticed an improvement in engine running and have never had any of my old BXs fail a smoke test. You do have to ensure they test the engine whitst it is hot. A good hardish run to get everything hot which includes the LHM and gearbox oil. A tick-over warm up is not good enough.
Change the air filter, fuel filter and oil anyway. It'll never pass if those are dirty, especially the air filter. It might even be worth testing it without an air filter.
Run some cleaner through it (I've had that Millers recommended to me before but never found it), give it a good thrashing now and on the day of the test and take it on a cold damp day (air is denser so fuel burns more cleanly).
My Escort used to draw black lines on the road with its exhaust and it's never failed an emissions test yet.
You absolutely should not start replacing injectors etc, that sort of thing really eats into your diesel fuel savings.
Run some cleaner through it (I've had that Millers recommended to me before but never found it), give it a good thrashing now and on the day of the test and take it on a cold damp day (air is denser so fuel burns more cleanly).
My Escort used to draw black lines on the road with its exhaust and it's never failed an emissions test yet.
You absolutely should not start replacing injectors etc, that sort of thing really eats into your diesel fuel savings.
Jon -
Is this van a town runner ?
- as then it could have the exhaust clogged up more or less by carbon - restricting exhaust & detoriating emissions as the engine has to use umph solely to breathe.
Agree with other submitters on a good long blast, engine oil/filter, air filter & injection cleaner would more than likely do magic.
Is this van a town runner ?
- as then it could have the exhaust clogged up more or less by carbon - restricting exhaust & detoriating emissions as the engine has to use umph solely to breathe.
Agree with other submitters on a good long blast, engine oil/filter, air filter & injection cleaner would more than likely do magic.
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When I got my TD Xantia with 212k on the clock it was a bit rough and smokey, I was advised to remove the fuel fiter, drain it, and refill the chamber with neat STP Diesel Fuel Treatment, and stick the rest of the bottle in the tank when nearly empty. I did this, and it ran much better thereafter. When I took it for its MOT, I put a litre in with 30L of diesel and it passed the smoke test at about 1.6 units, the pass mark being 3 for a TD, 2.5 for a NA IIRC - tester said it was considerably lower than the 3 year old Vectra he tested straight after, and it had done 10 times the mileage!
The STP stuff is about £6 for half a litre in Halfords, but Costco sell it in 2x 1L bottles for about £7 inc VAT which makes it cheap enough. A bloke I know sticks a litre of this in with a full tank of red diesel and says it makes the car far more driveable than on forecourt ULSD.
The STP stuff is about £6 for half a litre in Halfords, but Costco sell it in 2x 1L bottles for about £7 inc VAT which makes it cheap enough. A bloke I know sticks a litre of this in with a full tank of red diesel and says it makes the car far more driveable than on forecourt ULSD.
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My old BX failed once so bloke got some injector cleaner, started engine, detached fuel line from filter, stuck it in the injector cleaner bottle and gave the engine a good rev. Cloud of black smoke came out, he re-attached fuel line, went for a blast and it passed easily. By the way, if you are worried about effect on the engine - it did another 100k before I sold it and as far as I know, it's still going (well it was a couple of years ago and it had over 200 k on the clock by then!) For subsequent tests I always gave it a dose of Millers for the tankful before the test and it always passed with flying colours -good old BX! My local independent speaks highly of Forte