Grogee's spannering (Maestro, Avensis & Favorit). MAESTRO STICKER SITUATION

[grogee]

FAIL. Emissions too high... 

[Andyrew]

Close?

Did the tester offer any suggestions?

[Stinkwheel]

Bribery an option? 

[grogee]

After the MoT fail I stuffed the Skoda in my lockup to force it to think about its past actions. 

In truth I didn't really know what to do, and the MoT has expired so it's off the road. 

I have ummed and aahed about selling it as a project (hit me up if you're interested) but I will give it one last chance at survival.

My theory for the rich running is that there is no MAF in the intake, so the ECU is defaulting to a 'safe' rich mixture. 

I got to thinking how I'd install a MAF into my home-made intake, then 

@JMotor@JMotor alerted me to the existence of this:

It should* then be a simple* case of buying a MAF then soldering on wires to the MAF terminals then wiring it into the ECU as per the electrical diagram. 

Then I'll try it for one last MoT, more to get the emissions readings than anything else. 

Either way, after this experiment it'll be Fur Shale, as I can't justify three cars any more. 

[grogee]

The best thing to do when one of your fleet is out of action, is to work on one of the other vehicles. 

This makes the lame car jealous and more likely to fix itself. 

To this end, I got busy with the Maestro this morning. It got a coat of 'Zirconite ZG 365 Graphene Infused Coating', a snip at £28 for 200ml.

It sounds very snake oil-y but actually I've had pretty good results with it. I've decided that (based on zero evidence) this is the stuff that car dealers charge £400 for as 'paint protector' (perhaps someone in the trade can enlighten me). 

It's easy to apply and best of all, it doesn't matter if it goes on glass, plastic, whatever - in fact on glass it's a bit like Rain-X until it wears off. As the name suggests, it's supposed to last a year, although it probably doesn't hurt to apply more often. 

It does seem to last well and leaves that satisfying slidy feel to the paintwork. In fact I dosed the nu_Mrs Grogee's new Rennow Captur with it, having persuaded her to turn down the salesman's £400 paint protector offer. 

As icing on the cake I stuck on one of those old Paddy Hopkirk blind spot mirrors that I found. The reflective surface has deteriorated but it's still good enough for me to determine 'CAR' vs 'NO CAR' at a glance. The standard flat mirrors aren't all that great, and I've seen a few convex glasses offered but they're always £too much. 

Then after I watched Plymouth Argyle lose again, I went back into the garage to make a gasket for the new oil pump I sourced a while ago. The bolt holes still need punching but I bought a hollow punch set for £5 off Amazon which is coming tomorrow. 

Fiddly but satisfying. When I fit the pump, do I need to prime it somehow? 

[grogee]

Some light tinkering tonight, taking advantage of a rare dry spell. 

I managed to track down the correct decals for the rear of the Maestro, in the correct colour. There were a few variations on the badging through the production run but I've been using this stock image as a reference:

Used a China pencil to give myself some centering lines to get it straight-ish. 

I've also ordered a dealer sticker from a Mini spares place that was able to make a passable copy from my photo of the original 'Rowstocks' sticker. 

Unfortunately this meant I had to remove the dealer sticker attached to the replacement tailgate I fitted early this year. 

It was a brittle powdery mess and needed a Stanley blade and a lot of force to remove. 

Then I moved on to the oil pump gasket - the hole punches I ordered arrived so I was able to cut clean bolt holes and it's ready to fit now. 

The Skoda is on life support now. My plan is to fit a MAF and wire it into the ECU, in the hope the engine will run less rich and allow it to pass emissions. 

Of course I don't have any harness or connector so I've made this home-made effort to allow it to be fitted but also removed/changed if need be. 

Then I'll throw it in for another test - of course I have no way of measuring the emissions myself, so it'll be yet another £50 MoT to find out if it's worked. 

It all feels a bit 'sunk cost fallacy' but it's a gamble I can afford, if it fails though it's curtains for Sammy Skoda. 

[rainagain]

Can’t you ask around for a friendly tester? I found one the old fashioned way via someone in the pub. He would turn a blind eye to emissions but nothing else, which was fair enough. He sorted me out when I had a car with a de-cat pipe. 

[Matty]

1 hour ago, rainagain said:

Can’t you ask around for a friendly tester? I found one the old fashioned way via someone in the pub. He would turn a blind eye to emissions but nothing else, which was fair enough. He sorted me out when I had a car with a de-cat pipe. 

Plus hundred on this. Be such a shame to to see an interesting thing like this get moved on to a less sympathetic owner.

I had a mk3 golf gti with a load of mods. The changes id made to the exhaust meant it failed the emissions test year on. 

Our MOT tester wouldn't have ever passed it if it wasn't safe. But for the emissions he used to bring a ringer in. Doesn't make it right id agree.but on the other hand over a couple of thousand miles a year, how much harm is it doing.

Tldr, find someone maleable.

[grogee]

@Matty and @rainagain if either of you know a friendly tester, I'll drive it to yours! Wherever that is.