A long story short: New spark plugs, distributor cap, o2 sensor and air filter. The car is a 1991 190E with a M103 2.6 liter engine with a 5 speed standard transmission and 327,000 miles.

Any ideas?

I'm thinking of replacing the cat just because it's old (it's a dual-dual).

Thanks,
Jim Anderson


My numbers:
...............CO2....O2............HC...................CO..................NOx
test..rpm..meas..meas...max..ave..meas..max...ave...meas..max..ave..meas

15...1642..14.9...0.2...114...27..138...0.73..0.09..0.22...785..255...575...Fail

25...1632..14.7...0.0....88...18...16...0.61..0.07..0.10...724..223...155...Pass

__________________
5 speed '91 190E 2.6 320,000 mi. (new car, fast, smooth as silk six, couldn't find any more Peugeots)
5 speed '85 Peugeot 505 2.5l Turbo Diesel 266,000 mi. (old car, fast for a diesel, had 2 others)
5 speed '01 Jetta V6 (new wifes car, pretty quick)
5 speed '85 Peugeot 505 2.2l Turbo Gas 197,000 mi. (wifes car, faster, sadly gone just short of 200k )
5 speed '83 Yamaha 750 Maxim 14,000 mi. (fastest)
0 speed 4' x 8' 1800 lb Harbor Freight utility trailer (only as fast as what's pulling it)

Looks like you failed on CO, NOx, and HC? Those are the things "fixed up" by the cat if I'm not mistaken...

-J

__________________
1991 350SDL. 230,000 miles (new motor @ 150,000). Blown head gasket

Tesla Model 3. 205,000 miles. Been to 48 states!
Past: A fleet of VW TDIs.... including a V10,a Dieselgate Passat, and 2 ECOdiesels.
2014 Cadillac ELR
2013 Fiat 500E.

for some reason I think the 190Es are notorious for failing smog. I failed so many times, I did notice that my plugs were caked with oil because my vetiver stems were leaking. I replaced those and my cat and then my tranny modulator broke and I began sucking in tranny fluid into the intake which eventually ruined my new cat. Replaced cat and modulator and I passed smog. Fed up with failing year after year I decided to roster my car in a city that doesn't require smog. Replace the cat and do the smog the same day with the cat fully warmed up. That's what I did. If you don't mind, could you post a picture of your entire engine compartment?

__________________

1990 190E 3.0L

Any codes?

If I'm reading those numbers right, you failed on HC, which is unburned or partially burned fuel. This indicates running rich or poor combustion efficiency. Based on the other numbers, I'm thinking poor combustion efficiency, like a misfire. Or maybe an injector sticking/out of balance.

__________________
Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

Search words: emissions and R16/1 - posts by me.

Duke

The smog laws have changed in California. I used to have go to a test only station, which to me meant a handful of money every time I had to have the smog measured, making work potentially expensive and time consuming. Now it's called "Star", which one aspect of the change is the doing away of the test only requirement. Having done everything reasonable I could in my garage I was going to take a chance and just go ahead and change the cat but I have to have somebody else do that. I found a couple of places to do that, and they all love to talk and some were Star stations. I found one place that was on the way home and open late that said they would hook it up to a smog machine and check it for free. They could also replace the cat and officially test it. I went by there tonight and got some good info. After playing with the car for a while the cat did light off and get decent cat numbers. He also checked the EGR valve and found it was clogged, which is something I could have and should have done myself but dropped the ball. He also mentioned he thought the intake valves ware carboned up and should be de-carbonized. Like I said they like to talk and he showed me what he used: Seafoam. I told him I have that at home I use on my motorcycle (followed by talk about motorcycles.) He explained what to do and how to do it so now I have something to do this weekend. I’ll go back there next week and try it again.

What about the picture of your engine? Could you post it. If you do a search on the threads I have started and look for there smog related ones, including egr, smog, air injection system, etc. you will that I have battled with the California smog for years with my 190E. I even actually got a $500 check after I applied to the california bureau of automotive repairs for the free grant to help fix my car once. I just want to see how your engine and vacuum lines are set up to possibly help you trouble shoot some.

__________________

1990 190E 3.0L

I'll try and get a picture this weekend, along with taking care of those other things including Dukes R16/1 and spending time surfing the web about this.

And I'm already tooled up for vacuum work from working on the climate control.

I did get a form for the assistance grant, it's nice to know it does really work.

Lucky You ! I tried to ask for state help ($) and got denied. Hit and miss !

__________________
1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
********************
1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD

Another try uploading a picture.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Some more pictures.

I tryed decarbonizing today. I'm glad it was a little windy, there was a lot of smoke. Reminds me of those old Peugeot diesels I had.

Attached Thumbnails

   

It passed!

My good numbers:
...............CO2....O2............HC...................CO..................NOx
test..rpm..meas..meas...max..ave..meas..max...ave...meas..max..ave..meas

15...1642..14.9...0.0...114...27...35...0.73..0.09..0.07...785..255...157...Pass

25...2541..14.7...0.0....88...18...71...0.61..0.07..0.11...724..223...329...Pass

It passed after decarbonizing with Seafoam and clearing the EGR tube, and rechecking the spark plug gap (they were 035, set to 032.) What sent me down this road instead of changing the cat was this one guy saying he'd never seen a cat go bad on one of these cars, and would check it for free. Although he then did mention he'd never seen one of these cars with this many miles. I also noticed he did the 25 mph in second gear.

congrats! now register your car to an address in blythe and be done with it!

__________________

1990 190E 3.0L

Great work !!

Whats funny is that my former 1989 300SE with same engine, had no EGR, that being in Calif. ! Apparently some models had it, some did not.

Still passed the smog tests.

What is the method of decarbonizing with seafoam? Spray into running throttle body ? if so what about risk of 'hydrolocking' ?

Best, I did was to wipe clean the inside of the throttle body.

__________________
1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
********************
1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD