Exhaust emissions/glowplugs and MOT

corsacantb · Post by **corsacantb** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:42 pm

Hi all,I\'m a newbie here and this is my first post.I\'ve got a 94 Corsa B LS 1.5td.Its factory std,and I bought it off me mother for Â£500.She\'s its first owner.Its done 155000 miles,been all over Europe-as far as Italy.Everything is original bar tyres,second exhaust,third battery,second alternator and a new clutch cable.
Because the car has had a lot of use,she flogged it to me saying it would give me a couple of years use.Its my second car and my first was a Panda.My problem is the last MOT it just scraped through its emission test and I was advised it wouldn\'t go through another.The advice friends gave was,because I drove it like a Granny and didn\'t give it a good blowout,that this was the reason it nearly failed.So now Mot is due and I find already cold mornings are making it hard to start.I inspected the glow-plugs this morning whilst waiting for the battery to charge and my findings are,the first plug farthest from battery looked clean and ok.The next one a little dirty,but ok.The third had oil on it and a slight corrosion and the fourth,next to the battery oily,dirty and coroded.The plugs,as much of the car is,are 11 years old from new.
My question is,are they asking to be replaced or are they telling me something is causing bad emissions?
The car still goes good,and I give it a blowout when I can,but when I boot it,it gives a puff of smoke.On idle exhaust is clean,rev it hard and it smokes.
What are your thoughts please?

kawika · Post by **kawika** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 1:35 am

before you have mot have it fully serviced, wil sort out alot of problems

kawika · Post by **kawika** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 1:48 am

plus its a diesel so re it hard it wil always smoke, even new diesels smoke when you put your foot down hard

corsacantb · Post by **corsacantb** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 10:07 am

Thanks Kawika,could you recommend adding an additive such as Redex?

trev150 · Post by **trev150** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 10:20 am

What colour smoke is it?

If it\'s smoking blue that means you are burning oil, probably the turbo oil seals are leaking into the exhaust gas.

If it\'s black smoking that means the mixture is too rich and it\'s letting unburnt fuel into the mixture.

You have to remember that with diesels it forces as much air as possible into chamber and that matches it with fuel (unlike a car the air is metered and controlled) the ECU could be getting a bad reading and putting too much fuel in.

corsacantb · Post by **corsacantb** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 5:59 pm

Its a bluey grey colour.Maybe i should just bung it in for an MOT and see what happens.