Can I cry a little bit?

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Kentish man
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Can I cry a little bit?

Post by Kentish man » Tue Jan 12, 2016 7:49 pm

Oh dear.Here we go again.Listen you knowledgeable lot.Having just replaced my front pads and brake caliper,my exhaust emissions light has stayed on.The fault codes indicated a faulty lambda sensor.This has been replaced but the light still glowers at me ,daring me to open my wallet even wider.
My trusty mechanic has suggested using a can of cataclean,before embarking down the catalytic converter route. Any ideas please?

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Post by Charles » Tue Jan 12, 2016 9:08 pm

IIRC, the lambda sensor is upstream of the catalytic converter so I would be surprised if the reason for the fault is coming from there.

You might want to look at air and fuel feeds to the engine as an "out of limit" supply will cause the engine to run rich/lean and throw the lambda sensor in the exhaust gases.

A dirty MAF, for example, would affect the air inflows and this in turn may be as a result of a dirty air filter.

A decent fault code reader should give you an idea of the fuel trim on each cylinder or bank of cylinders too.

HTH

C
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Post by greenelekta » Tue Jan 12, 2016 9:34 pm

Clear the code and have a good blast down the motorway at high revs
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Can I cry a little bit?

Post by Kentish man » Wed Jan 13, 2016 6:45 pm

Many thanks for the suggestions, but after a leisurely drive this morning and a couple of stops for shopping and lunch,the light went off when I started the engine and remained so for a 20 mile drive home. What do I do now? If this car wasn't such a delight to drive I would p/ex it .
However,it is everything I've desired in a car and I cannot envisage myself in anything else. It's been a lot of fun,which is what driving should be.

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Post by E24man » Wed Jan 13, 2016 8:08 pm

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Last edited by E24man on Wed Dec 23, 2020 11:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Can I cry a little bit?

Post by Kentish man » Wed Jan 13, 2016 9:22 pm

Ah yes.It's a 2000 X reg B3 3.3 coupe.It's done 108,000 miles.

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Post by Charles » Wed Jan 13, 2016 9:34 pm

I remain of the opinion that there is a problem with fuelling that is affecting the exhaust gases.

Worst case scenario is that the head gasket is failing between cylinders, causing unburnt fuel to pass into a neighbouring cylinder and then being pushed past the sensor.

Do you have any of the obvious pointers to this - grumbly on tickover, pinking under load and worsening fuel economy?

Mind you, any/all of these could be present if the fuelling is wrong so a compression test would identify/eliminate possible culprits.
Charles
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Can I cry a little bit?

Post by Kentish man » Wed Jan 13, 2016 10:33 pm

Hello Charles.Thank you for your suggestion ,but I've not noticed any of the symptoms you've offered.
It starts on the button ,pulls like a train and runs as smooth as.....silk?

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Can I cry a little bit?

Post by Kentish man » Sun Jan 31, 2016 4:11 pm

The Forum strikes again,or at least Mr Lovibond has.
Charles, your assessment was spot on.The a/f ratio was way out,making the lamda sensor indicate a fault.
So spark plugs cleaned,MAF sensor cleaned, air filter cleaned.breather pipes taken off,cleaned and replaced.
Guess what?
Exhaust emissions deteriorated warning light goes off and remains off .
Many thanks.

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Re: Can I cry a little bit?

Post by Charles » Sun Jan 31, 2016 6:09 pm

Kentish man wrote:The Forum strikes again,or at least Mr Lovibond has.
Charles, your assessment was spot on.The a/f ratio was way out,making the lamda sensor indicate a fault.
So spark plugs cleaned,MAF sensor cleaned, air filter cleaned.breather pipes taken off,cleaned and replaced.
Guess what?
Exhaust emissions deteriorated warning light goes off and remains off .
Many thanks.
Happy to have been able to help :D

Now I need to sort out a similar problem on mine :shock: Runs beautifully apart from a rough tickover which isn't worsening - so it isn't an ignition coil breaking down. Fuel consumption remains very good and no other noises issues so a bit of a clean-out of the air system is probably needed - as you have done.
Charles
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Post by scalesg » Sun Mar 27, 2016 1:30 pm

Did you get it sorted Charles?
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Post by Charles » Sun Mar 27, 2016 4:23 pm

scalesg wrote:Did you get it sorted Charles?
Mine was a different problem which we finally located as cracks in the exhaust manifold which were allowing air to be drawn in on tickover - thus affecting the gases passing the lambda sensors - but when under load, the exhaust gas pressure was such that air could not be drawn in.

The cracks were where the three branches came together on each manifold bank so some quick welding and the problem went away.
Charles
Teacher of Chemistry and driver of ALPINAs - not necessarily in that order ;)
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Renault Grand Espace - not mine but the wife's!

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Post by scalesg » Mon Mar 28, 2016 11:14 am

I see, interesting.....

My B3S sounds like it has a leaking exhaust during the first 30 seconds of starting, it's like a hole opens and then shortly after it just stops, like something has closed up. Engine idle is sometime a but up and down during this time but then just disappears....

I am not worrying about it, but knowing the manifolds do crack is good to know for diagnostics later on down the road

Glad yours is all good :-)
E46 B3S Saloon
E46 330Ci
Golf VR6 loved for 7 years and then went bang at 7K rpm, sadly missed
So many other cars, faves below
Ford Orion 1.6i Ghia
Triumph dolomite 1850 (With Sprint wheels of course!)
Fiat 131 Supermiafiori
Mercedes 250CE Pillar less coupe (my first car!!)

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Post by hap » Mon Mar 28, 2016 1:45 pm

The idle is a characteristic of our cars it can go up to 1000 then gradually drops once settled after a minute or so

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Post by Bat » Fri May 20, 2016 8:45 pm

scalesg wrote:I see, interesting.....

My B3S sounds like it has a leaking exhaust during the first 30 seconds of starting, it's like a hole opens and then shortly after it just stops, like something has closed up. Engine idle is sometime a but up and down during this time but then just disappears....

I am not worrying about it, but knowing the manifolds do crack is good to know for diagnostics later on down the road

Glad yours is all good :-)
Hi,
That's standard operating proceedure from a cold start.
The fuelling and timing are altered along with the air pump running, all this is done to pre-heat the cats to reduce exhaust emissions....
Cheers,
Gavin:)

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