Emissions Legislation Page
(YAWN !!!)
Introduction
Ok! So this is a sad and
boring page – but I think its probably one that’ll get updated because there is
a lot to know and it is important to understand the issues. I make no apologies!
Please let me know if any info here is incorrect because I’d like the
opportunity to make it as accurate as possible.
The biggest single issue
for performance car enthusiasts, really. The gist is that as of some time mid
2001, new cars had to comply with lower emissions regs (which we expected) but
also, they have to have something called OBD – “On Board Diagnostics” and a MIL
light (Malfunction Indicator Lamp) to go with it.
Think of this as a sort of
on board MOT station, that is monitoring and storing emissions data as you
drive. If you “fail” the constant MOT, either because your catalytic convertor
genuinely breaks or (more likely!) you fit cams that look like a particularly
spiky bit of the himalaya’s (!), then the little MIL lamp will light up! You
are then legally obliged to book in somewhere to have it rectified and you
can’t drive on the road anymore. You can’t really just take out the bulb,
either, because it lights up when the ignition is turned on for roadside
checks!!
Of course, there are
little circuits you could invent to circumnavigate this issue, but, fact
remains that you are going away from the EU type approval that the car was
legally obliged to meet and technically, therefore, your car is illegal.
I briefly considered the
purchase of an Elise 2 until I did the research and found out this lot. People
like Thielert (www.thielert.de) in
Germany do conversions within EU3 specs, and manage a fantastic 180bhp legally
– but it costs £8000 for this and I personally felt that this was too much to
pay for that power figure. I cannot comment on the legality of systems like the
Turbo Technics supercharger systems that have come to market. Certainly they
are clever because they leave the EU3 ECU and suppliment it with a piggyback
system to correct the fuel / ignition maps for the supercharger. I’m sure TT
will have done their homework! I have heard that actually the 260bhp system isn’t
road legal but the 200bhp one is.
In terms of relating this
to Caterham 7’s, the implications were, of course, that Rover did a new ECU for
EU3. The injectors are apparently different and the EU3 motors ran sequential
injection rather than batch injection. I know that Geoff Northcott (Miraz on www.blatchat.com) is working on a new
wiring harness that will enable EU3 owners to add an aftermarket ECU. If you
would like one then mail Geoff on the above site and I’m sure he’ll fill you in
on the latest developments.
I’m sure a 7 doesn’t have
OBD or MIL and I know it doesn’t need them because the car is ameteur built.
Which is good news! If you have a VHPD 7 then since this motor never met EU3
you will still get the old style loom and you’ll be able to “plug n play” with
the aftermarket ECU’s mentioned above!)
There is something of an
issue here, too, in terms of emissions regs. The law states that a factory
built car must ave an emissions test at MOT time, so that means you must retain
the catalytic convertor at least for MOT but more properly all the time, if
your car is factory built.
If you build your own 7,
then the car is ameteur built and only requires a visible smoke test for MOT –
which of course means that provided your car isn’t so “gassed up” that it belches
black fuel smoke you’ll get away with that massive, straight through side pipe
you’ve always wanted – at least for the MOT emissions anyway!
Some people have implied
that this gives a factory built car a less strong residual but I think this is
total nonsense!