8 replies to this topic

[Georgev]

Hello,

I've had my mini 35th since april last year and the MOT has just come up for renewal. I put it in for the MOT which it failed saying the emissions were to high. I handed the car over to the mechanic I use and he seems to think it's odd that a carb model mini has a catalytic converter and none of the electrics usually required to have and fail the Lambda test.

 

 I basically have a mini 35th 1275 with a carb and a catalytic converter that has failed emissions on its MOT but am not sure if my car was tested as a car with a carb when actually it can be tested as carbless as it is from the crossover period, all I need to do is put a straight through pipe in. 

Which emissions test should my car be having?

Please help!

Thanks

Edited by Georgev, 17 March 2014 - 08:06 PM.

[Black.Ghost]

I know the lower models in the range were running carbs for longer than the Coopers, but I am sure the 35 was injection. A cat is not mandatory, but if you are failing emissions with it on, I certainly wouldn't be looking to remove it (unless it's faulty).

I believe the MOT should be done on the engine number. It is also possible that a previous owner changed from injection to carb. How log have you had the car and when did it last pass an MOT? Did it have a carb then?

[DangerousDave17]

It should be on the front of the logbook at the bottom I believe.

[Georgev]

I don't have the logbook and it is a carb model. I have the emissions test from last year and have just seen it was tested as a Non catalyst equipped vehicle (metered check).

It might be possible the previous owner had it MOT'd without the carb but then put one on for some reason before I bought it? Do you think it was given the wrong test?

[cambiker71]

If it has a carburetor as standard then it's a NON cat test, the cat emissions test is for closed loop injection systems only. Whether you have a cat fitted or not it's the fuel system that denotes which test is done.

  If it was done correctly then the tester would have had to pick from one of a few different options (four when I last looked) which are marked by the 8th character on the chassis number, if he couldn't find an EXACT match to his database then for a 1994 car it defaults back to a non cat test.

 Hope this helps.

[cambiker71]

I'm fairly sure all the mini 35s were carburetor models too, 1995 (N reg) seems to be the start date for fuel injection minis.

[0208brian1]

1992/3 4 fuel injection models.started

[h_boy]

I've got a 35th edition carb'd model like you. I've got no cat and it didn't fail on the emissions. like Stated above, I was told that because it had a carb no emission test was required. mine is also a 94. hope that helps

[AVV IT]

No it doesn't need a CAT as only vehicles that are required to pass a full CAT emissions test are required to have one fitted, which no carbed mini is. There is a lot of misunderstanding about this issue though, (even amongst MOT inspectors) thanks to a change in the MOT regs back in 2012, that made the absence of a catalytic converter where one was fitted as standard, a reason for failure. However this actually only applies to those models that are required to pass the full CAT emissions test, which in classic mini terms is only fuel injection models.