Hi,

I took our 61,000 mile '57 plate TD4 for its MOT today. Passed with no work or advisories, which is nice when your MOT falls at the same time as all the pre-Christmas costs!

On checking the MOT Test Certificate, it says:-

001 Smoke level is too low to be detected by analyser, vehicle has passed emission test.

I'm sure in previous years, I've had a print out of the smoke test. The reading has always been pretty low and well within the limit, but this is the first year that the smoke level has been too low to measure. Given that the car is six years old, it's blessed with no particulate filter. I always give it some welly on the way to the MOT to blast the carp out of the exhaust, but I'm a little surprised that the smoke level is too low to measure. I dropped the car off at 08:00 this morning and they didn't do the test until early PM, so the engine was probably relatively cold when they did the smoke test, which would normally make the smoke reading worse.

Without wanting to tempt fate, I'm really pleased with the reliability of the car. We bought at two years old with 11,000 miles on the clock. In year one under warranty, the radio was replaced as AM failed. Since then I've bought one set of tyres and apart from a service each year, that's it. All brake parts are original, though will need some new pads in the next 10,000 miles and another set of tyres around the same time.

Did have what appeared to be mild clutch slip in 6th gear around 40,000 miles, but that hasn't recurred. Some slight rumble from somewhere at the moment, which could be the rear diff, but at the last service a couple of months back, the garage didn't feel it was bad enough to need work.

We'll see how the glowplugs and battery shape up when the weather turns. Doesn't like very cold starts by just pressing start and where it decides how long to heat the glow plugs for. Has always started OK (albeit a little lumpily) if I press start without the clutch down and let the plugs heat up for a bit longer before depressing the clutch and hitting start again.

Anyway, back to where I started... Have others had MOT smoke tests along the above lines and given that all new diesels have DPF's, what's the point of the smoke test on a new vehicle? Surely a wipe of a finger in the end of the exhaust will show if the DPF is working, isn't working or has been removed!

My 07 TD4 gave a reading of 67 when it was tested in August, and all the welly on the way to the service was wasted when the various monkeys, sorry I meant technicians, left it idling for at least 30 minutes before running the test while they checked lights, horn etc.

I'm an MOT tester. A lot of the newer diesels don't chuck out enough smoke to register but not your one. Tester probably CBA to carry out a smoke test so put that down as an advisory to cover himself. As the other post says, if you aren't chucking out enough smoke to get a reading, you should be able to lick the inside of your exhaust pipe and come away with a clean tongue.  Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.

Don't suppose you are a 2SO user are you? Others who do add it have reported very low exhaust emissions on MOT as one of the advantages.

I use 2SO occasionally. FL2 passed its MOT yesterday with no advisories and very low, although measurable, emissions - even with a cold engine. Ours - 2008 Stornoway Grey HSE Auto
Tricia's - 2006 Royal Blue Beetle Cabriolet Auto
Mine - 2014 Vespa GTS 300 Super Sport Matt Black
Ours - 2007 White Bailey Pageant Champagne

Not using 2SO at the moment. Did try it a couple of years back. Has some Millers in the tank at the moment, so perhaps that helps...

you must be doing something right, because I was shocked at my smoke test and how they had to rev the nuts off it to achieve an acceptable reading !!

Iain

Lol. If it achieves under 1.5 on the first smoke test it gets what is called a 'fast pass'. If it's over 1.5 you have to do it a max of 6 times until the last 3 smoke tests average out to an acceptable value (turbos are allowed more than n/a) It gets better with each rev as the smoke clears. Very few Diesels fail the smoke test. I haven't failed one for ages. Mind you, I don't rev the nuts off of them! Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.