Catalysts

[Rappa]

Should a three year old car approaching it's first MOT fail it due to emmisions, could it be the cat or was the car cold(8 minute drive to the testing station). Also are cats expensive/should I get rid of it?

[Graham]

if there shagged find an mot station that will do an mot without one, some of the specialists can arrange it an get the cats out alltogether..

with a full de cat and a chip change your looking at 20-30bhp ) 30 on mine)
better noise and freeer reving.

oh yes and its illegal which makes it even more fun...

[Steve _T]

No probs with mine last year (97R 5L), don't see why you'd be having problems with a 3 year old car, but that's just my opinion.

Cheers,

Steve

[Marshy]

At my last MOT, my 97P 500 had readings that were almost off the /bottom/ end of the scale. It had just been rebuilt with a new block, but considering the age of the engine design, and the fact that the cats were 31000 miles old, I reckon that's pretty good.

Either that or the MOT station was "special".

[Corin Denton]

If the station is doing their job properly the car should never be too cold as a probe is placed where the dipstick sits and measures oil temperature , it will not let the tester proceed with the cat test until a minimum operating temperature is reached.

[jacko500]

Marshy - You are scaring me now. I have a 98 Chimaera 500 with 28k on the clock and I thought the Rover V8s were pretty strong! What happened to require an engine rebuild and new block?

[Marshy]

Having spoken to "people who seem to know" (Offord, David Gerald, Thames Valley Racetech), there's a body of opinion that says there may have been other ways to skin the cat... however...

I had excessive oil consumption in my newly acquired 500, and it was initially thought to be worn valve stem guides (that the terminology?). New/recon heads didn't cure it, and the block was subsequently found to be out of spec - manufacturing fault I would guess. So that was swapped.

However, I strongly suspect that my experience has been atypical. Didn't cost me anything: supplying dealer agreed that oil consumption was excessive, and did all the work in consultation with the factory.

Have now done 7000 miles on the swapped block, and it's been peachy.

I think you can probably stop worrying!