UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Thanks for the replies.

To confirm I did take the car for a drive before going to the MOT centre, so engine had been running 15-20 minutes and coolant was up to temperature and engine oil was around 90° indicated on the dash. When I arrived at MOT centre I left the engine running, it went straight into the test bay. I watched the test and they left the engine running pretty much the whole time, and had a bar pressed on the accelerator pedal keeping the revs up high for a few minutes before running the test. So it certainly wasn’t a cold start test. He even tried the test again after having the car up on the ramp to try and get a better result.

The MOT centre I went to only do MOTs so have no agenda or need to fail cars in order to drum up business. They also do free retests so wouldn’t be benefitting that way either.

We are dropping it off at VW Main Dealer later, fingers crossed it gets sorted.

wolfie wrote: Tue Jul 23, 2019 9:32 am I had a look back at my last MOT emissions report. Mine is also a 1.2Tsi (2011) My money would be on operator error. However as has been said, modern engines emissions are highly dependent the engine being up to working temp. I have never taken any of my cars for an MOT without a spirted "Clear the cobwebs" run prior to taking it in.

The cynic in me also thinks that garages know full well that the car needs to be up to temp prior to test, but "failed emissions" are a bit of a cash-cow for them less informed punter.

@wolfie, your engine is completely different to the engine that the OP's car has, only common things about both is that they get described as being 1.2TSI, the OP's version is a belt driven 16V engine, so scope for different potential issues - although a fail is a fail, that engine does seem to have issues that hopefully get sorted out when it is looked at by a VW dealership's workshop.

Yeah but the limits look the same and combustion is combustion. I thought seeing the numbers would help comparisons. I have to agree, VW's "Pass" is very close to a fail.

mattdesign,

Being an owner of the self same model of Polo, I'm now anxious to find out what result your VW dealer gets for your Polo's emissions. Assuming they find nothing amiss with the vehicle that could have led to such an awful result at the independent MOT station, ask them why it was that, in their opinion, it got failed. Otherwise, everyone's left in the dark about it.

Of course, if something like a software update on the engine's state of tuning was done by the VW dealership during the last couple of years or so - an update that might, for instance, have had a bad effect on the car's economy and emissions, then it obviously won't have got picked up until that first MOT, a few days ago. So, maybe it was down to something like that? I could well imagine that, if it was, the VW dealership would want to keep quiet about it.

UPDATE

VW Main Dealer has looked at the car today and are initially suspecting the catalytic converter is faulty/has failed.

They have sent their report and a copy of the MOT failure result to VW Technical department and are awaiting a response. If they get approval from VW Warranty/Technical they are planning to order a new CAT but this may not be ready until Thursday or Friday.

Bit of a nightmare as they have no courtesy cars available so my wife is car-less for up to 3 days.

I did mention to the warranty guy that I'd seen similar Polos with MOT failures online, he said they aren't aware of any Polo faults of this nature and he hasn't put in a warranty claim on a CAT in the last 3 years.

wolfie wrote: Tue Jul 23, 2019 2:47 pm Yeah but the limits look the same and combustion is combustion. I thought seeing the numbers would help comparisons. I have to agree, VW's "Pass" is very close to a fail.

Not really, these newer engines were developed with the later Euro Emissions limits in mind, so such a new version (but yet another discontinued) of engine failing the current specs for that engine is not good at all, especially at its first MOT!

mattdesign wrote: Wed Jul 24, 2019 2:59 pm UPDATE

VW Main Dealer has looked at the car today and are initially suspecting the catalytic converter is faulty/has failed.

They have sent their report and a copy of the MOT failure result to VW Technical department and are awaiting a response. If they get approval from VW Warranty/Technical they are planning to order a new CAT but this may not be ready until Thursday or Friday.

Bit of a nightmare as they have no courtesy cars available so my wife is car-less for up to 3 days.

I did mention to the warranty guy that I'd seen similar Polos with MOT failures online, he said they aren't aware of any Polo faults of this nature and he hasn't put in a warranty claim on a CAT in the last 3 years.

Without being too cynical, very few if any VW Group, and maybe other marques dealerships never seem to have heard about any significant failures until "you" turn up. Nothing new there, the motor trade has never been too honest, I seem to remember having a well known issue with a heater matrix on a Ford Escort FWD Erica type - first customer to complain about that, so I initially accepted that, then walked across to the parts counter to check on availability of new heater matrix - have been on back order for months, usually that in itself says a lot about an item, ie workshop unexpected demand outstripping supply.

Anyway, my wife's August 2015 Polo 1.2TSI 110PS passed its second MOT with mo issues, but no emissions sheet was handed out, which is fair enough, nice to have, but so maybe is tyre tread depths and brake pad/disc condition - but this is just an MOT so it looks like you only get an emissions print out if the gear being used forces that on the MOT tester - so what better way to get rid of it than to hand it over with the copy of the certificate!

Edit:- maybe a bit like Whirlpool - fires, what fires, that's a new one on me sir.

RUM4MO, pleased to hear that your wife's Polo, which I understand you personally service and maintain, passed its second MOT today (Wed 24th). I'm somewhat shocked that you weren't given a printout of the emissions result, though. In all the years that I've been motoring I can't remember a single occasion when I wasn't given a proper printed copy of the results. In fact, I always thought it was compulsory for the tester to provide one, otherwise you'd simply have to trust that what the tester was telling you was the case. It could be completely made-up rubbish, for all you know. Hence the requirement in law to hand a copy of the results to the punter, results that can, and can only, be sourced from the analyser machine itself.

Veteran, think about it, the only legal requirement is to be given a copy, not the original, but a copy of the MOT test result - if you look on the government website, and look for your MOT certificates, all that gets stored is the MOT test result sheet. The handing out of emissions results only started when the emissions requirements changed and the "gases analyser" equipment started having a print out facility. I don't even get a copy of the "condition of the car" - ie the sort of pressure selling sheet with tyres tread depth and brake disc and pad measurements, and sometimes some additional items not even included in the scope of the MOT test from my Audi dealership.

Edit:- lots or most places used to hand out a "traffic lights" round up of the car's condition.

RUM4MO, I think you're mistaken as to what is the norm here. I still have the printouts of tabulated emissions results for my old Golf that go back to when I first had that car, namely the mid-1990s, and I cannot recall any occasion before that when I didn't get one either. How on earth is anyone ever going to appeal to VOSA for an investigation and a re-test if you have no documentation supporting your case for such? Quite apart from that, the emissions test equipment in these stations has always varied in manufacture - I've noticed that my own local station's has been updated and replaced several times over the decades, probably as a result of more accuracy being required by MOT test-station legislation - but even the dumbest manufacturer must have realised that, from the very first introduction of emissions testing, the equipment should include or be capable of attaching a printer on which to output as many copies of each customer's results as required. After all, providing a printout, even on a dirt-cheap dot-matrix printer, has never ever been rocket science. These days, in a society where measurement and accuracy has prime importance, there's no excuse for not presenting to the punter, in takeaway hard form, what can often be a critically close result. Just taking the tester's word for it - one way or the other - is, frankly, absurd and laughable, and opens up the potential for dishonest testers to commit deception and fraud. I would respectfully suggest that any tester who willfully fails to provide the punter with a printout, be it a copy or an original, has an ulterior motive.

Everything checked during an MOT test is only true/fact with respect to that car on the day the test is carried out, I'd reckon that if your car failed the emissions section of the test, the results would be presented on an MOT test failure sheet.

As I said earlier, I'd love to have an emissions result printout as I would find it useful to see if there was a trend towards "things getting bad" - but I can't see that getting that printout can possibly be mandatory by MOT rules for how an approved test station operates - on the day, the car presented either passes, and no further action required other than getting a new MOT certificate generated, a copy of which is passed to the car presenter - or it fails, and gets a failure sheet with a list of why it failed - and then needs rework to resolve all issues.

Well, this might not be the last word in MOT legislation but read what it says about the emissions test result at:

http://www.safermotoring.co.uk/understa ... -test.html

Regardless of whether the car passes that test or not, you are supposed to be handed a signed copy of the result. It is your right, as a punter. If that doesn't happen, I'd contend that the tester is being extremely lazy and dismissive of the possible interest by you and other parties, or they have something to hide. Whilst a poor state of bodywork, tyres or whatever might be immediately obvious when pointed out to the punter, the type/quantity of emissions at the tailpipe clearly won't be, as the punter won't have any personal means to double-check that, immediately post-the-test.

FURTHER UPDATE

VW have ordered a new Catalytic Converter which is due to be fitted tomorrow.

I guess only then will they test it on their own equipment and get a result. Fingers crossed the problem will be solved!

I’m assuming they will have run their own tests to provide evidence for the warranty claim, and that these must have been accepted. However they haven’t told me what results if any they got.

Hoping we can get the car back tomorrow and get some paperwork to support this so I can get a retest carried out on Saturday.

I'm sure that your VW dealership will have checked all the basic mixture control system to make sure that that car did not kill its Cat, ie hope they solve the root cause of this problem and not just the effect. For warranty tasks cost must be kept as low as possible.