Exhaust emissions

Tom W

Active Member
Hi All,

I took my car for an MOT the other day. This was the first time it's been off the drive in over a year, and the first time it's been driven since rebuilding the carburettors. The car seemed to drive really well, and passed the emission part of the test with no problems. Still failed overall, but that's another story.

Anyway, my question is does anyone on here understand the emission printouts? Can I use the values on the form to get an indication of whether I've got everything set up too rich or too lean.

The CO level was 0.11%
The HC level was 147ppm

Both of these are well below values required for the MOT, and also well below Rover's quoted CO level of 4% maximum. Does this mean I've got everything set up to lean? The fuel gauge seemed to drop a quickly as ever, though, and the car starts easily, with minimal choke, so perhaps not.

Cheers,

Tom
 
Isnt it meant to just be a smoke test on our cars? (i.e. as long as there's no excessive smoke it's a pass???)
 
rockdemon said:
Isnt it meant to just be a smoke test on our cars? (i.e. as long as there's no excessive smoke it's a pass???)

Pre-1975 (and anything on a "Q" plate") is a visible smoke test, anything later has the pipe up the exhaust.
 
I suspected I'd got it set up a bit lean when I saw the values. It's over at the local bodyshop at the moment being welded, but I'll have another fiddle when I get back. It could explain why it wasn't running very well when I took it over there this morning.

I've found it very tricky to set up when I can't drive it. It's hard to get it warm enough to begin with, just by running it on the drive. As it generally only gets moved in an out of the garage occasionally, it spends a lot of time running on choke. The plugs are black because of this, so trying to read the plugs is pointless.
 
today in THE TIMES (page 15) "Camper Van couple charged £24,000 in new pollution fines"
the couple were driving a Nissan NV100 a 2010 diesel along the A316 Sunbury and detected on eight occasions , each fine is £2000 and increases to £3000 if not paid. they were caught by TFL cameras on the A316 again and again. they protest that the Nissan IS compliant with Euro 3 emissions standards. the low emissions zone NOW covers most of the area within the M25 where non-compliant vehicles must pay £100 for each day they "enter" the zone (THE TIMES reports today)

TFL estimates that 337,000 non-compliant vehicles are registered within the new zone and to their credit TFL are apparently sending out warning letters for the first time that you are "detected" which is good news if you are unaware that the new zone has started or that your car is deemed non-compliant. for us classic car drivers, we rely on Exemption! I went to the TFL site where you can input your car's number plate and found that my P6 does not qualify as exempt which I was a bit surprised about :LOL:
 
nice one Harvey, according to the site you linked to above I got this

Your vehicle is currently EXEMPT
from the ULEZ charge due to
it being 40 years or over in age

VEHICLE REG: MDK582R
but according to THE TIMES today, the new extended ULEZ starting this month in London carries an exemption for classic cars registered before 1973 which means my P6 (1976) is not exempt so I suppose there's only 1 way to find out, just drive the road and see what happens
 
nice one Harvey, according to the site you linked to above I got this


but according to THE TIMES today, the new extended ULEZ starting this month in London carries an exemption for classic cars registered before 1973 which means my P6 (1976) is not exempt so I suppose there's only 1 way to find out, just drive the road and see what happens

Doesn't really matter what an independent site says though, as the TFL site is the official site.
 
Doesn't really matter what an independent site says though, as the TFL site is the official site.

I found the "unofficial" checker after the TFL site kept bringing up one of mine as having to pay. That particular vehicle is manufactured 1972, but registered in 1982, and is tax exempt, so I thought maybe that was the reason. This thread made me check again, and now it comes up ULEZ exempt on the TFL site as well, so maybe they are working their way through all the anomolies, albeit slowly.
 
nice one Harvey, according to the site you linked to above I got this


but according to THE TIMES today, the new extended ULEZ starting this month in London carries an exemption for classic cars registered before 1973 which means my P6 (1976) is not exempt so I suppose there's only 1 way to find out, just drive the road and see what happens
If I remember the 1973 date was a fixed date which was changed years ago, to a rolling one of all vehicles over 40 years old
 
From TFL web-site

"Your vehicle is currently EXEMPT
from the ULEZ charge due to
it being 40 years or over in age

VEHICLE REG: CHJ805K"

YOUR VEHICLE
ROVER, Model: M1 3500 S

That's a relief, as I often travel inside M25
 
I think the TFL website has been updated recently because when I checked about 6 months ago it was stating my 1955 Land Rover was chargeable but when you went to the payment area it showed exempt . Now its showing straight away its just liable to the congestion charge.
 
Some months ago my '02 1.8 75 was showing as chargeable but it's been changed to exempt for some time now. Somebody on farceache was saying they should all be chargeable because of the Euro 3 status but if it's a glitch then long may it continue (well, at least until they tighten up the emission levels anyway. :rolleyes:).
I did read that the computer itself goes on actual manufacturers NOx figures & the petrol 75's were built to be pretty lean burning for the time so we'll see. I'm not paying the charge so if/when it becomes chargable l'll sell her.
 
As of today (19/10/2021) When I enter my registration plate on the official transport for London website it says I need to pay the ULEZ fee.
However if you then proceed through to the payment section, it only comes up with the congestion charge fee, the box that you tick for the ultra low emission zone is greyed out. Therefore it would seem their website is pretty useless because on first inspection it would appear that you need to pay, however clearly not when it actually comes down to it. Having said all this TFL seem to make it up as they go along so anything could change at any time but for now fingers crossed.
 
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