MOT fail

[marco2002]

Hi everyone not been on here in a while. Nissan micra isn't quite the same as a 406. Next door neighbour has my 406 now. Its just failed the mot and hes got a list of things to do. There are two items on the list that we are not sure about.

First one is o/s/f position lamp(s) not working (1.1.A.3b) We checked the lights indicators and brake lights the night before and all was ok just puzzled what it means? Secondly exhaust emits an excessive level of metered smoke for a turbo charged engine. The readings for the emissions test are a lot higher than the previous year. In 2012 the readings were all below 2.00 l/m this year they are between 4.00 - 5.29 l/m. I'm thinking about doing an oil/filter change( oil and filter were changed about 4 months ago) and also changing the fuel filter for him (next door neighbour). All he did before the mot was to put some redex in and he's being using the bp ultimate diesel a lot can't think of much else to do? There was still some redex in the fuel when the car went in as well don't know if that would affect the readings on emmissions test?. The side airbag light is on as well i guess that could just be the connectors underneath? o/s/f balljoint needs replacing and handbrake needs adjusting again! lol Any advice would be appreciated as i'm going to do all the work while neighbour goes away to Glastonbury and hopefully get it back in for re-test next weds.

[jasper5]

Hi marco,

The front position lamp is otherwise known as a sidelight.

When you change the fuel filter pour some injection cleaner into the fuel filter housing neat and give the car a good run....make sure the engine has had a good warm up before taking it back for retest.

Make sure oil level is not too high.

Adjust the shoes in the discs for the handbrake.

Clean or replace the under seat connections.

[marco2002]

Hi Jasper

Thanks for the info that helps a lot. My neighbour hasn't kept up with the servicing so i guess thats why emissions readings are so high. Its down to me whether it passes. I'm contemplating an oil change as well won't do any harm. The side air bag light i was talking about are the connectors on the side of the seats where the electric controls are to move seat back and forth or are they on the other side where theseatbelt goes in?

I had a main airbag light that came on and all i did was clean up all the connectors under the passenger seat with a needle file and a bit of contact cleaner and main airbag light went out. Let me know if i've missed anything.

Thanks again
Marco

[markw]

The side air bag light can be triggered by high resistance connectors under the seats, as has been said.
On the Coupe ( and I see no reason why saloons/estates should be any different) the blue connector is the side airbag main cct: the red connector (a two pole connector that only has one pole wired) is the side air bag earth and the brown connector is the selt belt pre-tensioner. Don't get muddled with the seat heater connector which is also brown.....
The air bag/ pre-tensioner circuits have a 2 core Orange cable going away from the connectors and into the seat, so it's easy to check you're on the correct one.
I soldered the whole lot out to get rid of the annoying light......but subsequently put back a 5 pole connector to take all the circuits in one go, as I needed to get the seat out for a heater element fault.

Here you can see an attempt to get rid of the light by the previous owner......insulation tape! Anyway, that blue one is the side air bag one.
The brown on the left is seat heater and the yellow is power in for the seat motors.

[marco2002]

Thanks markw i'll let you know how i get on. Got most of tommorow off so should be able to get this sorted. Hopefully

[GingerMagic]

Hi mate, before my MOT in a couple of weeks, I am going to remove the rear discs, scrub the inside rim, and the shoes, with some coarse paper. When I refit it I will tighten the adjuster up till it stops - then undo it one tooth so the disc drags ever so slightly.
Hopefully this will give me a decent handbrake for at least a couple of weeks before test.

Maybe you can unplug and reconnect airbag connectors one at a time and use some contact cleaner? Failing that - switch to chocolate box type connectors.

Lastly, give the car a blast down the bypass to clear the cobwebs out - take the opportunity to bed in the handbrake too, although not at high speed..

Good luck.

[marco2002]

hi
quick update cleaned all the connectors up under the seat using small needle file and sprayed with contact cleaner. Side airbag light has gone out and now the main airbag light has come on. I've had 3 go's at this now and i'm begining to think it might be easier to cut the cables and solder them together at least it would solve the problem once and for all? Are the chocolate blocks those connectors that you can cut to however many terminals you need? Thanks for the advice about the back brakes as well just about to go outside and start stripping them apart. lol.

[markw]

Soldering them out should clear the light but bear in mind, the main air bag light can be triggered by a problem with the bag itself in the steering wheel, so no amount of fiddling about under the seat will cure that!

[GingerMagic]

Don't forget, if you choose to use the chocolate block connectors then you will need to colour code them so you know which is which in the future - either blobs of paint or maybe coloured insulation tape.

The comms unit can cause an airbag fault too but seems strange to start when fiddling ' downstairs '

[marco2002]

Another update on the car. Managed to get the handbrake adjusted up solid on 3 clicks now. All new parts discs, h/brake shoes and pads. Had to replace the handbrake cable on both sides at the rear no amount of wd40 or grease would have worked the outer part of the cables was split. I found that the handbrake was not releasing properly and the h/brake shoes were binding. Now I got the new cables on it makes adjustment easier.

As for the main airbag light its gone from flashing to being on permanent. Tried cleaning up the connectors again concentrated on the big orange connector nearest to the centre console and still no joy with it. I guess it will need something like pp2000 to read the fault code and put the light out? I'll suggest to the neighbour that he may have to get the garage to do it as part of the mot retest. Couldn't think of anything else to do. Strange thing is when this has cropped up before a few timesw i've done exactly the same thing and its always worked. I've spent a fair bit of time on this but seeing as mot retest is tommorow i'll have to throw the towel in.....

[Sonia406]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh air bags
Are we talking about a Nissan or a 406 - I got a wee bit confused

Luckily my air bags in my 406 estate was literally the seat belt pre-tens that needed chopping the connection box out and I added crimp on bullet connectors.

Hope you manage to sort it............

[marco2002]

hi
we're talking about a 406. It passed the mot yesterday. The garage sorted the airbag light. Seems okay just now. The garage had a bit of a cheek though when neighbour took car back for retest they found something else that they missed on original test rear bush on lower suspension arm was knackered luckily i had a spare set just lying around as you do. So that was an easy fix lol.