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[Kevin Wood]

Hmm. Wondering if the pickup strainer got clogged? Years of neglect followed by fresh oil with fresh detergent...?

[tunnie]

So that Astra did not last long then   

This is the downside of bangernomics, cheap car yes,  but lots of time & effort to fix bits and bobs, then it blows up. Not a lot of money, but fair amount of time invested to get it running.

Then have to repeat this on the next banger 

[dave the builder]

Hmm. Wondering if the pickup strainer got clogged? Years of neglect followed by fresh oil with fresh detergent...?

I think you hit the nail on the head
5w30 will strip all the dirt from a neglected 100k+ engine
indeed, dropping the sump to look would be worth the time

knock top end ? oil starved lifters perhaps
you could try... sump and pick up cleaned,plugs checked ,fresh filter and thicker oil ?

[terry paget]

Check the MOT history
has it failed on emissions in the past ?
how is the engine now you changed the oil ? any noisy valve lifters ? knocks etc ?  smoke when the engine is up to temperature ? is this the 120k miles one ?

5w30 fully synthetic is thin and will flush sludge from all the engine IF it is there (if engine has done short journeys,not had regular oil changes,had thick oil in the past)

I've had this in the past ,a 1.6 with only 80k that a garage put flushing oil in to reduce emissions then fully synthetic 5w30 (it did not work, just made it worse ) all the sludge just stuck in the oil control rings ,jamming them in the pistons 
 it smoked like a steam train when warm, I got the car,stripped it ,new rings ,cleaned sump etc and found the emissions fail was down to a clogged injector 

your car may have had thick oil in or not been changed enough(very likely from what you say) ,
hopefully a couple of oil and filter changes will resolve it .

No mention of emission problems in service records or old MOTs, or I would not have bought it. In the MOT fail in October emissions were not mentioned. I was therefore surprised this morning when the tester failed to get it through the emissions test. Three attempts with sustained high revs failed, got the engine and the oil hot, then it rattled. With hindsight, the oil remaining black after oil change warranted more investigation.

I do not understand why if failed emissions, after passing them a month ago, unless my oil change caused it.

[terry paget]

Hmm. Wondering if the pickup strainer got clogged? Years of neglect followed by fresh oil with fresh detergent...?

I think you hit the nail on the head
5w30 will strip all the dirt from a neglected 100k+ engine
indeed, dropping the sump to look would be worth the time

knock top end ? oil starved lifters perhaps
you could try... sump and pick up cleaned,plugs checked ,fresh filter and thicker oil ?

Is dropping the sump a simple matter of draining the oil, then undoing the bolts holding sump to block?

[terry paget]

This car is nearly MOT ready. However, when I bought it (last Saturday) the engine management light was on, and this was listed as an MOT failure matter. After Webby the Bear kindly told me where to find the OBD2 socket I plugged in my simple code reader, read the code (lean mixture bank 1) , cancelled it, and the light has stayed off ever since. Today I plugged in my laptop diagnostic device, and read live data. Code P0621-04 came up as a fault code, Generator Lamp "L" Control Circuit Malfunction. O2 sensor 1 was switching RICH/LEAN/RICH /LEAN satisfactorily, but O2 sensor 2 was steady on LEAN. Engine light remains off. My worry is it will come again.

What should I do?

Terry, sorry I have come to this conversation a bit late. Your Z16XEP fault will keep re-occurring. In somewhere between 60 and 100 miles P0170-2 will show. It's a common fault i have just sorted on mine. The EGR recirculation channels in the intake manifold where it butts the cylinder head become blocked preventing the gas from entering the manifold. The ECU discovers this and finds it cannot enrich the mixture to accommodate it in the warm up cycle and throws the code.

Solution, take it to bits, about 2 hrs work, clean it and put it all back together again. You might also find some muppet has blocked off the EGR channel from the valve. If so this will have the same effect. Having done this, if the fault re-occurs then the EGR is not functioning correctly.

Thanks for that. Might that explain the MOT emissions failure?

[ajsphead]

This car is nearly MOT ready. However, when I bought it (last Saturday) the engine management light was on, and this was listed as an MOT failure matter. After Webby the Bear kindly told me where to find the OBD2 socket I plugged in my simple code reader, read the code (lean mixture bank 1) , cancelled it, and the light has stayed off ever since. Today I plugged in my laptop diagnostic device, and read live data. Code P0621-04 came up as a fault code, Generator Lamp "L" Control Circuit Malfunction. O2 sensor 1 was switching RICH/LEAN/RICH /LEAN satisfactorily, but O2 sensor 2 was steady on LEAN. Engine light remains off. My worry is it will come again.

What should I do?

Terry, sorry I have come to this conversation a bit late. Your Z16XEP fault will keep re-occurring. In somewhere between 60 and 100 miles P0170-2 will show. It's a common fault i have just sorted on mine. The EGR recirculation channels in the intake manifold where it butts the cylinder head become blocked preventing the gas from entering the manifold. The ECU discovers this and finds it cannot enrich the mixture to accommodate it in the warm up cycle and throws the code.

Solution, take it to bits, about 2 hrs work, clean it and put it all back together again. You might also find some muppet has blocked off the EGR channel from the valve. If so this will have the same effect. Having done this, if the fault re-occurs then the EGR is not functioning correctly.

Thanks for that. Might that explain the MOT emissions failure?

Mine passed it's emissions for the last owner with 2 dying lambdas and the EGR blanked. He was lucky as it was before EML on became an MOT fail. Dropping the sump is fairly simple so I'd start there too. The reasons for emissions failure can more easily be sorted when (if) the engine is running properly.

[Kevin Wood]

Is dropping the sump a simple matter of draining the oil, then undoing the bolts holding sump to block?

Not familiar with this model, but that's the usual procedure. Just depends if anything's in the way.

It would be interesting as a post-mortem if nothing else, but you might find that you can clean out the oil pickup and sump, fresh oil and filter and there's no lasting damage. Unlikely, perhaps, if it's been driven with the oil light on for any distance, but who knows?

[dave the builder]

I think the front exhaust needs moving and a couple of bolts into the bell housing + sump bolts to block
and the pick up pipe is part of the sump ,so sump gasket requires a good seal around where the pick up meets the block and pump or it will suck air rather than oil
which will give low oil pressure ,the oil pressure sensor could be crudded up or the oil is too thin when warm (just leaking out the big ends and mains and not even getting to the head
there is a diaphragm in the rocker cover (like a crank case breather one way valve) can split

first thing i would do is check the plugs ,if very oily 
(oil passing rings,oil control rings stuck)

do you have a print out to say the emissions where done a month ago ? what readings or did the tester skip it 

 

[terry paget]

I think the front exhaust needs moving and a couple of bolts into the bell housing + sump bolts to block
and the pick up pipe is part of the sump ,so sump gasket requires a good seal around where the pick up meets the block and pump or it will suck air rather than oil
which will give low oil pressure ,the oil pressure sensor could be crudded up or the oil is too thin when warm (just leaking out the big ends and mains and not even getting to the head
there is a diaphragm in the rocker cover (like a crank case breather one way valve) can split

first thing i would do is check the plugs ,if very oily 
(oil passing rings,oil control rings stuck)

do you have a print out to say the emissions where done a month ago ? what readings or did the tester skip it 

No, I do not have an emissons print out from the Octobe MOT.
I am in the process of dropping the sump. I have removed the exhaust and the under engine cover. I am now draining the oil over night. It is black, thick, glutinous, not like lubricant at all. I know it is cold, whereas I drained the original oil hot, but even so I am amazed at the state of it.

[dave the builder]

i wonder if it  was emission tested or the tester could not get it within range and just skipped that part of the test  but not abandoned the rest of the test and not entered not tested on the vts 

[Webby the Bear]

Sorry for being simple 😂😂😂

So the car was MOTd in October of this year? Presumably failed on something/ some things. You’ve subsequently done said work. New MOT test this week and emissions fail plus the engine rattling?

When you do emissions it is then down to you as the tester to manually enter that failure on to the list of defects; the results aren’t auto-uploaded. So irrespective of the lack of an emissions sheet it either passed on emissions or the tester omitted to input them as failure items on the refusal certificate 👍

[dave the builder]

Sorry for being simple 😂😂😂

So the car was MOTd in October of this year? Presumably failed on something/ some things. You’ve subsequently done said work. New MOT test this week and emissions fail plus the engine rattling?

When you do emissions it is then down to you as the tester to manually enter that failure on to the list of defects; the results aren’t auto-uploaded. So irrespective of the lack of an emissions sheet it either passed on emissions or the tester omitted to input them as failure items on the refusal certificate 👍

Failed in October for horn ,eml on and rear disc condition.
had a fail sheet ,so test completed , no mention of emissions on the fail that Terry has said ,though the MOT station should have kept a copy of emission pass on record for 3 months ,even if it was not passed on with the Fail sheet
 Looks like the 5w30 synthetic oil has stripped the sludge out the engine .causing problems 

what was it failing on emission wise this test Terry ? C0 or hydrocarbons ? did the tester abandon the test ? i.e no paperwork ?

[Webby the Bear]

Ok got ya 👍👍👍

[terry paget]

Sorry for being simple 😂😂😂

So the car was MOTd in October of this year? Presumably failed on something/ some things. You’ve subsequently done said work. New MOT test this week and emissions fail plus the engine rattling?

When you do emissions it is then down to you as the tester to manually enter that failure on to the list of defects; the results aren’t auto-uploaded. So irrespective of the lack of an emissions sheet it either passed on emissions or the tester omitted to input them as failure items on the refusal certificate 👍

Failed in October for horn ,eml on and rear disc condition.
had a fail sheet ,so test completed , no mention of emissions on the fail that Terry has said ,though the MOT station should have kept a copy of emission pass on record for 3 months ,even if it was not passed on with the Fail sheet
 Looks like the 5w30 synthetic oil has stripped the sludge out the engine .causing problems 

what was it failing on emission wise this test Terry ? C0 or hydrocarbons ? did the tester abandon the test ? i.e no paperwork ?

CO. Occasionally the CO came within limits, but as tester kept trying to get all 3 parameters within bounds, the car got hot and began to rattle.End of test, end of car. On each attempt all the parameters went 'all over the shop', occasionally came near passing, but never made it.