Golf GTi ADY MOT Fail today!

[bobfrankish]

Hi everyone, having fixed the horrible cutting out fault with the car, I have reluctantly decided it is time to sell it. I am 70 next birthday and just do not drive it nowadays, so it's time someone else had some fun with it. I took it for an MOT today and the main thing it failed on was high CO level, not massively high, managed about 0.4% when really hot and it needs to be 0.2%. The last time it passed its' MOT was 2019, and I had trouble with the emissions on that test. The garage told me that it was probably the cat, which sounded possible to me as it was the same one I had on the car from when I bought it in 2008. I had a new cat fitted, and it made no difference whatsoever. I had to leave the car at the garage, supposedly to be "fixed" and got through its' test. They told me to collect it and said it had passed. When I asked them what was wrong with it they were very vague and gave me a load of bull. Later I discovered that they had removed the 2 blanking caps from the vacuum hose nipples, thus creating quite a large vacuum leak. I have re-instated them now and have fitted a new Lambda sensor as that was coming up with a fault code which has now cleared. The replacement cat has done only 300 miles from new. Anyone got any ideas what to try next?

[Crasher]

The original cat is long gone I suspect? Aftermarket cats are absolute rubbish.

[bobfrankish]

Hello Crasher! No, I still have the original cat. I hear what you say about aftermarket cats. Are you thinking could still be cat related?

[Crasher]

If the original cat has not suffered a collapsed primary monolith I would be surprised if it was faulty. I can't remember if you have VCDS and what the cure was for the cutting out has been eliminated from my grey matter, probaly too much vodka.

[bobfrankish]

Cut-out was cured with a new Bosch dizzy cap. Car ran for hours today with no problems at all. I have VCDS lite, but it only seems to let me monitor up to measuring block 8, so only relevant data I can see is that the Lambda sensor looks to be working OK and injector timing is 2ms at 2000 rpm. Don't really know what the AFM is up to, I don't think it has ever been changed, certainly not by me in the nearly 15 years I have owned the car.