www.toyotaclubsweden.com

Hi,

Apologies this is in English, I moved to Sweden from the UK 4 years ago and my written Swedish is non existent!

I have not owned the car for so long maybe 9 months and it been on this forum before under a few different owners I think, I believe I am the 4th owner in Sweden. It is a Japanese import with the 3SGTE engine and has been lightly modified has an Apexi Intake kit (Dealer option in Japan) and a 3 inch down pipe and full exhaust system with a CAT all done by previous owners.

I recently took the car for its first Bilprovening with me as the owner and it passed on everything without note apart from the emissions, I have the results below.

1st Test:
CO: 0,2 (0,5) Pass
CO 2500 varv: 0,4 (0,3) Fail
HC: 100 (200) Pass
Lambda: 1,30 (0,97 -1,03) Fail

Since failing I have replace the O2 sensor by the air filter and fitted a new rubber bung. Replace the Lambda with a genuine Denso Item, I also replace the spark plugs with Denso Iridium items (K20TT) it had NGK ones before I also found oil in plug hole 2 so I replace the valve cover gasket. I also fixed a hole in exhaust where I think its caught on the ground (the car is too low) and cracked by one of the hard mounts. I ordered a new APexi filter from Japan as the old one is very dirty but it doesn't have the correct bolt pattern so I could fit it. I even managed to speak with most of the previous owners and nobody seems to have had any emissions issues in the past. The car also only ever gets used with 98 RON in my ownership and it get really bad fuel consumption always has with me around 18Mpg (not sure what that is in Swedish), I use it lots more than the previous owner the car is used 2/3 times a week.

2nd Test:
CO: 0,2 (0,5) Pass
CO 2500 varv: 1,8 (0,3) Fail Much higher value then before
HC: 39 (200) Pass much lower value then 1st test
Lambda: 1,03 (0,97 -1,03) Pass, just!

I seem to have fixed the lambda issue but my question is, the car has been sat for 2 weeks while I did the work and even to I had 2 days of getting the engine hot and giving her a good run could the CO high idle value be much higher as the car needs time to clear itself more. I tried to get the tester to take the car for a good run as I had to sit and wait 20 minutes for my restest but he just slowly drove it around the car park so I don't think the CAT was maybe hot enough?

Are the lower HC value and higher CO high idle values related? I Thought the car was running rich but then you would have a higher HC value? Could it be the different plugs I am using, they are the OEM ones and I checked the gap.

I have no idea on the state of the CAT and I have left this till last as this is the most expensive and will be the last thing I replace.

I will have another retest in one week or so giving the car a chance to go through lots of heat cycles to help clear up the CAT or anything which might be in the engine form the oil in the plug hole. Would disconnecting the battery to reset the ECU work?

Sorry for the long post by I am really at a loss and without replacing the exhaust and CAT I am at a loss as to the issue!

Thanks,

I am also going to see tonight if there is a boost leak anywhere since I had the intercooler and all the air intake pipes off as this may cause the engine to run rich.

If the cat wasn't hot enough it sure can be the problem for at least the CO values.

MOST guys at bilprovningen will drive around on a low gear some time to get it hot if it fails the test and then they retest, some will do it if you ask for it, some are just idiots and doesn't want to.

I know my ST205 had extremly high values (not sure if it was CO or CO2500 och maybe both) once after I had been waiting a loong time for my turn, and the guy was sure that I had illegaly removed the cat (it is inside the downpipe so its hard to see), but efter I told him to make the engibe/cat really warm and he did take a long testdrive reving a lot, after than the values suddenly was close to zero and he said that I was right, "you cannot get those values without a cat".

With that i mean that it makes a big difference if the cat is hot or not, and the longer from the engine it is the longer time it takes.

Once when I had crappy values on some other car the guy at besiktningen just checked the cat with his hand when he lifted the car and said "its cold, we have to drive some to get correct values". ..but it depends on who you get ofcourse.

Also, how much have you driven the car after replacing the lambda sond ? I'm not sure, but I suspect that it can take some time for the ECU to adapt everything after it have the correct values with the new sond.

Hey,

Thanks for the reply.

The guy from the first test was pretty helpful, he seemed into the car asking lots of questions about it. The second tester was very unhelpful and didn't seem to understand that the engine needs to be really hot just, didn't want to discuss it in any way, might have been my bad Swedish. I guess ill try again in a couple of weeks and see if I get a more helpful tester and if I wont have to wait around for a long time before my test.

In the mean time I'm replacing some vacuum hoses and intercooler piping and clamps that look like they have their best days behind them.

Does anyone know a good garage who would be happy to work on my car or has any experience with imports or the 3SGTE in or around Gothenburg? Nobody seems to want to work on the car.

Thanks,

Yes it depends a lot on who you get, I think in general its better to go to the smaller stations, they usally seem to be more customer oriented and helpful, but it all come down to the person in the end.

Replacing vacuum hoses is alwas a good idea, they do have a limited lifetime, I think I got like 20hp more after replacing all hoses in my 9-5 Aero ..but then a few of them actually was so old they had holes in them..

I have no clue about who can fix the car in gothenburg, but hopefully someone living closer know

Thanks again Glenn,

Guess I will just have to cross my fingers for the next test then!