My Local friendly Mot Station mentioned to me that from January 2012 that my scooby would fail its test if one of the cats missing and have now to check that there are both there

 

now im kinda glad i still have the full original system in the shed!!!

 

I don't get what the fuss is about nothing has changed if u haven't got a cat then you will fail an mot this has always been the case

 

I'm a bit confused.com this comes up a lot and I have tried to read most of it but what always get bought up is the ppp, like mine. Still being quite new to scooby and only having had MY03STI ppp 4 months ish from what I have seen/read my ppp has 1 less cat, so will the garage know this or fail my car because of this?

 

Think they will have trouble telling the difference between a cat centre section and a resonated centre section as used on the classic sti's, unless they check the part numbers. If it passes the emissions and looks right then most will be happy.

 

That's a myth ! You don't need a cat to pass an MOT at the moment. You just need to pass the emissions test. If your car can pass this test without the cat fitted then there's no reason to fail.

 

+1
it goes on limit you need to be under to pass, whether you need 1 cat or 55

 

Most normal mot testers aren't gonna go chasing part numbers for confirmation of whats a cat or a resonated box, most can't be bothered at the best of times, but with the current financial downslide they just going to want to get cars in and out as quick as poss to try and increase income, as long as it passes thats all they going to be concerned with.

 

Most of us that run de cat have a friendly tester! So shouldn't really change for most of us. It's the roadside spot check we need to be wary of! No cat there and your looking at a fine.

 

My car is fully decatted and passed the C02 emission. It is a MY2000 Prodrive classic. It did fail on lamda though

 

The wording of the legislation is a bit vague IMHO... it can be taken to mean that if any of the cats that were fitted originally are removed then it's a fail. Alternatively, it can be taken to mean that if the car was fitted with a cat then it must have one fitted to pass the MOT not necessarily all of them. As I understand it, the legislation is designed to ensure that all cars are not totally decatted.

If the legislation is taken to mean the former, then there's a lot of manufacturer approved PPP cars that are about to fail an MOT.

I suspect a lot will depend on the individual MOT station. Personally, I think that so long as you have at least one cat, then you should be OK. My MOT is not due until August so hopefully things will have settled down by then and any over-zealousness will be out of the system.

 

Why? Theres no law forcing owners to have a cat on their vehicles. As long as your car has a current mot and is not belching out smoke there is no reason to issue a roadside fine.

Only manufacturers have to fit cats, not vehicle owners !

 

If vosa do a road side mot! Which they can, and you fail the emission test due to a de cat they fine you! It's nothing to do with not have cats fitted its about not being able to meet with the criteria.

 

Removing the cat doesn't mean you'll fail the co2, it's usually the co, carbon monoxide.

r1c is right, you'd most probably fail now with a decat as much as you will in 2012 with new regs. Vosa can do a roadside MOT and whether it's now or then, you'll fail with no cats

 

Lads chill just do what I do and have done in the past. Take it to a friend's place. Or a family friend.

 

according to the recent vosa special notice we will only be able to advise cars which should fail the new criteria when it comes into force on jan 1st.

we have to check all new extra items but only advise them for now if they should fail.
i dont know when vosa will ask us to actually start failing the new items.??

On the flip side items like coil springs fractured at tail ends and still locate properly will become an advisory item instead of failing so there is some leniency.

 

im of the understanding the wording says cat not cats,
i wont be failing cars with the centre decat thats for sure.
if a tester trys to enforce that both are needed hes taking the ****.
if the front cats working a1 the the emmisions levels at fast idle are virtually zero anyway and the centre cat doesnt get hot enough to work properly anyhow.

 

The link is to the manual wording re-exhaust.
I find the bit about "a cat missing where one was fitted" a bit obscure. Does it mean that if the vehicle was supplied with a cat, that must be in position or if it was supplied with 3 cats (eg newage WRX) all 3 must be in position? If so, all MOT stations must be in possession of information on every car ever made that had catalysed exhaust?

http://www.dft.gov.uk/vosa/repositor...n%20Manual.pdf

JohnD

 

maybe those with centre decats should take it to a non subaru specialist where they may not realise it had more than one cat originally.
even though i know they had
as long as it has a front one in a classic and downpipe newage im happy .
if asked im gonna say" how was i supposed to know it had more than one originally as it met limits"
all cars 01st august 92 on had to have a catalyst fitted with a few exceptions,rover metro/suzuki,few mk5 escorts.
law didnt say how many

 

RB320 only had one cat on the downpipe as standard. I believe some scoobs had one on the down pipe, one on the up-pipe and a centre cat.
100 cell sport cat is the way forward imo.

 

thanks for the info on rb 320,i didnt know that,
common sense should prevail i believe,if it should have a cat regardless of where its fitted and it then passes emmisions then job done as far as im concerned.
its unlikely vosa will get under the car to see how many and posistion of them.
they will only be interested in levels .

 

Load of rubbish anyway. You know you can always cut open and gut a cat then weld it back up.

Weld it neatly and do it on the side closest to the floorpan and nobody would tell if its been tampered with.

Plus I can't see the MOT manual being updated stating the location and number of cats fitted to every single car made since 1992. So its business as usual...if you have a box that 'looks' like a cat and the car chucks out less than 0.3% CO you pass.


PS: more CO = less CO2. So by removing a cat you are actually decreasing CO2 output

 

Correct, but CO is far more deadly

 

im glad my mot man like the fact i have no cats and love my machine : > passes every time

 

I know, but its good fact to spout to the lentil munchers when they start harping on about CO2 production. Especially the ones not up on their chemistry

 

Fair play

 

My my05 jdm sti only has 1 cat standard hopefully no one will try to mot it as per uk car, the wording is very vague and leaves a lot to individual testers if they start failing ppp cars due to 2nd decat then hopefully will cause enough hassle to get it clarified better. But as people posted above I really don't think the testers have enough knowledge of all cars to be able to judge it properly. This is probably only the beginning though I am sure they have more up there sleeve to make car modding more difficult in the future, looks like us modders will have to be more cute in the future to install stealth mods that can't be detected. Although the official ppp decat pipe due to heat shields being in place is pretty stealth already.

 

Ha, ha...If the tester can't see the heat shroud is empty, he needs glasses!

It's all Euro based. It's almost impossible to engine mod. in some European countries.

JohnD

 

Newage WRX have 2 cats (up and down pipe) and a resonator for noise reduction in the centre section.

Not all cars where fitted with cats upto a certain age, so they still pass.

Like most things that are new until it affects someone we won't really know. "Friendly " MOT stations will drop you like a stone should VOSA/DoT get involved and sting them with a big fine.

 

You guys in the UK have it sooooooooo easy!

Some countries in Europe don't allow A-N-Y modifications.

Over in Switzerland it's massively expensive: If I want to fit a genuine Subaru STI front lip to my hawkeye I have to send the car off for a technical control to make sure it's not "dangerous". Cost? about £500-£600 per modification! Uprated brake kit? That'll be £1,500 in technical controls. New turbo? Don't even think about it!

Oh, and changing ANY part of the exhaust system attracts enormous fines and can even land you in court.

The UK is perhaps one of the easiest regulatory environments for modifying cars.