MOT fail on high emissions (A4 AVANT1.8T 1998)

[simon rampton]

High there,
I am new to the forum and have a question for anyone who knows the answer.
I have moved to the canary islands and have just bought a a4 avant 1.8t 150hp.
The mot failed the other day on high emissions but here they have no garages that are reliable enough to trust to fix it.
I took it to a vw audi garage the other day and they charged me 2,200 euros to replace the lower suspension arm and both front wheel bearings.
So to take it to them to sort the emissions will cost more than the car is worth.
I have been looking up and it could be the MAF or cat possibly.
There is a place where i can get cheaper parts from here so if anyone knows what the possible cause of this could be it will be greatly appreciated if you could reply to my post.

 

[ex911driver]

Welcome , sounds like they make up their prices a bit, 2200 euros is a rip off.
You would be best off buying a vcds cable and checking car yourself. Also if you can get it, try putting Cataclean in your tank that will bring emissions down.could be a cat problem.

 

[Sulli79]

Deffo get a VCDS cable, even a cheap one with lite software should show some codes to narrow down the problem, otherwise you could just end up replacing loads of parts without nailing the problem

 

[aragorn]

What EXACTLY were the emissions figures.

You can tell a lot looking at the numbers.

Without the numbers it could be any of a million different things.

 

[simon rampton]

VW have done a diagnostic test which came back with no faults so it seems i have to fix a problem which is not there.
The only one thing i can think of is that there is a clip missing on the air filter box in which dust could have possibly got onto the needle in the MAF.
The emissions are as follows but is in spanish so hard to translate:


CO slowed- 0.62%
CO accelerated- 0.55%
This last one i cannot translate-
Factor Lambada- 1.002%

 

[aragorn]

Figures look typical for a worn out cat.

Faulty cat wont show on the diagnostics of a '98 car either.