R60 Emissions Fail

[2Btoo]

Guys,

This may be a thread with frustratingly few details but I need some help, for a friend (really!)

Friend has an R60 Mini 1.6 countryman. First registered in late 2011. I understand that the engine is from Peugeot. It's failed an MOT, because

FailSheet said:

"Exhaust carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits (8.2.1.2 (a))"

I don't know how much CO is up by and neither do I have access to the car to read the fault codes. I do know that it has had an intermittent 'check engine' light for the last four months or so, 'intermittent' meaning that it would come on for a while but go off after a few days. It's used for both short and long journeys and my immediate thought for such a thing would be a sooted up Lambda, or possibly failed Lambda probe, the cure being an Italian tune-up or a new probe. However the garage has said it's new catalytic converter time and to buckle up for a big bill, but they can't seem to locate a new cat so they won't say how much it will cost nor when it will be complete.

Questions that come to mind are:

1. Does this engine have a habit of poisoning catalytic converters?
2. Where might one try to buy a new converter?

FWIW the car is currently at a Ford garage (of which the owner is a long-time patron) who are generally trustworthy but are not MINI specialists.

The owner bought the car last Christmas for about £4500 and is otherwise in excellent nick, but they are talking about flogging it for parts as an MOT failure (which seems very drastic to me.)

All helpful suggestions welcome. Thanks.

[E-bmw]

I suspect you already know this but we would need the actual readings to get a better idea.

It would also be best to do a live data run to see what actual readings are coming from the pre & post cat Oxygen sensors.

What is the service history of the car like?

Mileage since last service/oil/filter change.

More details on the "intermittent CEL" would also be helpful.

It might be obvious to others but not me, is it petrol or diesel?

[2Btoo]

Thanks E-BMW. Yes, frustratingly little information to go on. The owner isn't very mechanically-minded and doesn't know the details, and is not sure what to do. I helped him buy the car 9 months ago so he is coming to me for advice and I feel a little bit responsible.

It's a 1600cc petrol. It's in very good condition and has an excellent service history. I don't know when it was last serviced but I think it's been done in the last 9 months, so almost certainly within 10,000 miles. Live engine data would be very helpful but isn't available. I do have a fault code reader which would probably give live readouts of data so if push comes to shove I could hike down to the (Ford) dealer where the car is to have a squiz, but I'd like to avoid this if I can. For now, I'm trying to find common faults with the engine which are easily rectified. I strongly suspect that it doesn't need a new catalyst but am not sure.

Intermittent CEL was a CEL which would stay on once the car was started, and come on ever time for a week or so but then not come on for a few weeks. It seemed to me typical of a failing Lambda, which occasionally returns an out-of-parameter result but which comes back into line pretty swiftly.

Thanks for your comments.

[CarsOrBikes]

needs the scan info really, might be info in the codes and as said, live data potentially, intermittent stuff doesn't help a lot though

might not need a cat, but if it's been burning oil it may well do, plenty do and it wrecks sensors, eventually cats, may be something else though

one I had the other day, older, but port on cylinder one holds a clue to a future issue I informed the owner about, loads of this gen car in spares ads for emissions related issues, many will go back to oil usage no doubt



could be that it might just benefit from some cataclean running through it until good and hot

[2Btoo]

Guys,

Thanks for the answers to this. I'd love to give more detail but the friend (owner) decided to cut his losses and sell it as an MOT fail. Which is a little annoying as I'd love to have got to the bottom of it and he made a chunky loss on the car, but that's his choice.

Thanks again for the help.