Diagnostic test for car in Sheffield

[poppypoppy 10]

Hi

 

Does anyone know of anywhere that can do a diagnostic test on our car and be able to pinpoint exactly whats wrong with it?

 

We have bought a little Rover 25 3 weeks ago..only had it a week and the engine management light came on...we had it scanned and it brought up a faulty catalyctic converter...took it to an exhaust centre to check emissions and its passed all the checks they did on it...so they said it wouldnt be the cat at fault, they advised us to book it in with them as they had two scanning machines and one would definately pick the correct fault up...3 days later took the car into them for them to tell me they only have one machine capable of 'reading' our car...this brought up the cat was working below threshold and the camshaft position sensor....they told me to take it to a place who were very good at diagnosing problems...I telephoned them for them to say they only deal with HGV's...but they can do the car but they then said they couldnt guarantee picking the correct fault up but not to replace the cat or camshaft sensor as it probably wouldnt cure the fault...????????????..we've paid out for two scans on this car.....we dont want to spend too much money on it as like I said before..we've only had it for 3 weeks...we've googled about the cat failing and the symptoms they are showing for a faulty cat..we dont have...not one symptom...the car is running absolutely fine...it isnt using petrol excessively...running smooth..so we are now at a loss as to what to do next...

 

If anyone knows of a decent place that will scan it for us but could guarantee that their equipment will definately pinpoint the fault on the car...we'd be very grateful if you would let us know.... Thanks....

[Xt500 10]

Codes often are a guide to an area of fault,an aposolute answer is unlikely.

From that point on it becomes experience and elimination.

 

The only way to properly know wether there is a fault with a cat,is to remove it and examine its cones are all intact.

 

Do you know the codes that were read?

[poppypoppy 10]

Both places said it didnt bring any codes up...and I was stood at the side of the guy doing the scan at the exhaust place so I saw what it said...just the cat below threshold and camshaft position sensor...but no codes....we were told that the place where I rang would have the appropriate software on their equipment for our car????? whatever that means....

[razvanalbu 10]

Dors the light come back on after it been clear? why havnt the garage check the sensor? as the ecu get reading from sensor on cat and not cat itself.

[poppypoppy 10]

Yeh the light came on 3 days after the first scan...the exhaust centre told us not to replace the cat or the sensor until we had had the car scanned with a machine that will read our car....as just because it brought those faults up on their machine..doesnt mean to say its them at fault...

[razvanalbu 10]

Yeh the light came on 3 days after the first scan...the exhaust centre told us not to replace the cat or the sensor until we had had the car scanned with a machine that will read our car....as just because it brought those faults up on their machine..doesnt mean to say its them at fault...

 

waste my time on fools like you, good luck with your thick attitude

[poppypoppy 10]

waste my time on fools like you, good luck with your thick attitude

 

What you on about..good luck with your thick attitude?

[razvanalbu 10]

why put:loopy: when people are trying to help you

[poppypoppy 10]

I put that because of what the garage told us...not what you said...read my post properly before you jump in and start name calling

[Arthur Ritus 30]

Its the "codes" that the cars engine management unit is sending out that the scanning equipment is reading and displaying the fault which the code relates to. Many simpler obd readers only give the owner the code which you have to look up on a sheet of paper.

 

first question are the people scanning the car and picking up the "codes" saying they are current faults that will not go away after a reset. A fault with the cam sensor would prevent the car from running, it may have been a recorded fault just missed a signal once and recorded it for your info, you would reset such a fault and hope it never comes back, just a one off blip perhaps. I the car becomes difficult to start or misfires then it would be a good clue to replace the sensor.

For the car to know it believes it has a fault with its cat it will be relying on its lambda (o2) sensors, one before the cat which will control the fuel air mixture and one after. It may be a fault with the one after the cat,or it could be the cat.I had a rover 214 which for several years struggled to get through its emissions and for some season i changed the cat (the old one had a big hole down the middle) which dropped its co emissions to hardly measurable from then on.

In other words the engine emissions may be lower enough from a lean clean burning engine to pass on no load with only partial cat material but the cars sensors may be picking up too much co (or to be exact no o2) say when you are flat out going up a hill. One bit of evidence is was the car saying it had a current cat fault at the exhaust place whilst they were monitoring its co emissions to be very low, if so then it would most probably be a lambda sensor fault. A completely broken lambda would give its own code saying broken lambda but it may be possible to be slightly defective so giving some but the wrong information.

 

Did they reset the mil (engine management light) with there scanner and has it stayed off? if so and the car is running and starting ok (you already know the emissions are ok for mot) then just see how it goes.

 

---------- Post added 23-08-2014 at 12:30 ----------

 

i see more posts since i started typing, have both reported faults come back?

[poppypoppy 10]

Thanks for your info. All I know is that the first place said it was showing on the scanning machine as the cat was faulty. We dont have any of the signs of a faulty cat with the car. This place turned the light off...within 3 days it came back on...we then went to the exhaust place..the emissions test they did was done 3 days before the scan....they didnt tell me if it was a current fault..they just said not to spend a lot of money..especially on the cat..because it might not cure the problem, as they had known that happen in the past, so thats when they referred me to another place to get the codes and to pinpoint the exact fault....they said...they didnt turn the light off so its still on...but the car is running fine...it doesnt stall..misfire..not using a lot of petrol..at the moment anyway....so maybe like you said...see how it goes for a while....

[Arthur Ritus 30]

I am not sure what the exhaust place means by a better scanner.

 

There codes being put out by your car will be generic obd2 codes the same for all cars since 1996, the exhaust people will be reading with a generic scanner. Some generic scanners are better than other giving more generic info but i would be surprised if any other helpful info could be gleamed. The only thing is what none generic info is available to specialized diagnostic equipment for this vehicle something i know nothing about perhaps somebody on here might.

 

If the cam sensor code is coming back i would be tempted to replace it. It may only be that which is putting on the mil light, not all reported faults bring on the light and send the car into default mode, i wouldn't expect a cat fault to do it on a uk spec car. The awkward state of California might have demanded it but no here in blighty.

 

---------- Post added 23-08-2014 at 12:49 ----------

 

I need to type quicker, i seem to be replying to post several posts ago.

If they were able to turn off the mil light then it is not a current fault as the light would not go out.

 

---------- Post added 23-08-2014 at 12:55 ----------

 

I am wondering why the exhaust people didn't reset the light, was it that it wouldn't reset or they couldn't or didn't want to so someone else could read it?