Hi,
would anyone be kind enough to help, as i am slowly going mad :)

About a month ago, a garage did a pre-mot test, and reported that the front brakes were inbalanced 38%, and the back brakes were useless at 50 (don't know the units). The only other problem for the MOT was a split CV boot.

So, armed with Youtube, and Ebays finest ...off I set..
For the last week, I have swapped the driveshaft, unseized theh calipers and pistons on the front brakes, and swapped the wheel cylinders and shoe kit on the rear..

I brought it into another MOT place,yesterday,
and he passed the work I did, but failed it on 3 new things.
(He did not give me a printout of the emissions values)

It failed, this time round, on
001) Front Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases [7.1.2]
002) Exhaust emissions carbon monoxide after 2nd fast idle excessive [7.3.D.4]
(This was very high, as in a red bar near to the top of the screen)
003) Exhaust engine idle speed too high [7.3.D.2]

The car was stood for an hour, cooling down, before he did the emissions test... could this be a factor?

He recommended that I do a service, ie change the oil and the oil filter and put some REDEX in.... would this make any difference to my co and idle problem?

I have invested £15 in CataClean, out of desperation, and will try that tomorrow.
(I am adding it to 15 litres of petrol, as per instructions...but it seems a bit unclear whether to leave it 7-10 days (one fill/empty cycle of the tank) or go back to he MOT after 15 miles of regular driving...? ie would cataclean still remaining in the system at the MOT testing, help lower the CO)

Tonight,
I have taken the lambda sensor out and heated it up with a blow torch.
It reads up to 0.8v, but I haven' wired it up in real life to get actual values when the car is running.

Should I be overly concerned about the
"003) Exhaust engine idle speed too high [7.3.D.2]"
as Haynes says this is controlled by the ECU.

Could the exhaust leak be a cause of this?
(the leak is a crack about 3mm on the front exhaust pipe)

My plan of action....
I have gun gummed the front pipe to stop the leak.
and wd-40'd connectors

Tomorrow, I am planning to get some new oil, a new oil filter, new spark plugs,
a new air filter, add the Cataclean, do a 70 mile round trip, and go back to the MOT place with the engine hot.

Would tightening the tappets help any?
Or are there any old skool tricks that would bring the CO and idle down?

Many Thanks
Liam

ps this is wht I have been up to last week..... I am slowly rebuilding the car ! :)
s103.photobucket.com/user/liammcl_2006/library/Hon...1

Edited by liammcl on 21/05/2014 at 01:21