My SVA failed today at Birmingham. The guy was very helpful but failed me on the following:

Emmissions - HC at 500 ppm, needs to be less than 200. Adjusted the mixture a few times, got the CO well in but couldn't get the hydrocarbons down, evey by revving the engine until the cat just started to glow.

rear reflectors not radiused. - I think that the foam pad may come off and then they will be thin enough. I'll also file the edges round just in case.

Rear offside brake flexi pipe foul. Adjusted this and is now OK

Steering column to lower link bolt not threadlocked. did this at the SVA station and was OK.

Brake bias bar not locked. I started to do this at the station but he sent me home saying that the car had to be retested anyway. Fair enough.


How am I going to get the emmissions set up? The CO is very low but the hydrocarbons are high - what is this?

i would say either air leak, or tired cat, what was the other readings as you may be a tad too lean

best regards

marc

Commiserations Colin.

I'm no expert but my analysis;

1) CO low - If so then the cat' is working fine and converting emmisions.

2) HC high - this is unburnt hydrocarbons in the exhaust. It's basically unburnt fuel so suggests that the engine is overfueling somehow. If it's injected (presume it is) then check all the sensors; engine temp'/air temp'/air flow or throttle position etc...

The cat' will convert hydrocarbons but, like all reactions, it takes time. So check fueling.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

The other stuff is easy, should be down the DVLA for 'plates very soon

[Edited on 10/11/05 by JAG]

Bad luck colin, looks like a short and easy list though, i'd be proud of that

will this the second vortex on the road, or are there others out there who dont log on? (or have i missed one?!)

well done either way, you're so nearly there!

All the remedial work is now done except gluing the reflectors back on, which I will do tomorrow afternoon, and setting the emissions.

The engine is carburettored and so the only adjustments are the idle mixture screws. None of the garages I have spoken to so far have been willing to try to set them up. I haven't tried them all. Can anyone from the midlands recommend one?

Either one of the cylinders is running really rich for some reason or one of them just isn't burning the fuel. If it was misfiring on one cylinder, how could I tell. excuse my ignorance but I am an electonics engineer not a mechanical one. The base idle of the engine is a bit lumpy but on the move it runs just fine.

Not a bad fail so well done. I would be inclined to check the plugs first to see if any of them are carboned up. Also check that each one has a decent spark at the same time. Other than that it may be worth finding a good motorbike garage. I know plenty up here but it's no good to you unfortunately. The other thing to check just out of interest is to run the engine in the dark. I had a Porsche that was running rich and idled poorly but was fine on the move. It was a plug lead tracking.

Worth checking.

Just had a thought while watching Eastenders! What fuel pump are you running?

I'm using the R1 pump that came with the engine and other bits. There was quite a lot of rust in the carbs when I drained them a couple of weeks ago so I guess the pump may have been a bit rusty. (everything else was new and not made with iron). How might that affect emissions?

If you had used a different pump it may have been that you needed a pressure regulator to avoid over fuelling.

Just another thought, have you checked the choke is coming fully off?

The choke mechanism slides back oK when you let it go. I couldn't guarentee thatthe internals of each carb are fully sealing. The "pistons" all move freely enough.