87 5kcsqt not passing emmisions...HELP!!!

[hah at srv.net]

>Hi all 
>I have a 87 5000 csqt with a hoppen chip that passed emissions last year 
with flying colors...this year it failed miserably on both the HC and the 
CO tests. The max allowed on the HC is 220.00 and my car was 682.00, the 
max allowed on the CO was 1.2 and the car measured 7.3. I have just 
completed the input and output tests according to SJM's site and no faults 
were found. I am a little stumped here. The car runs and drives fine. I 
have noticed that the max boost has diminished a little... I used to get  
16-17 psi all the time and now I can only muster 15-15.5psi...the boost 
used to spool extremely fast from 10-17psi, as soon as I would pin it ... 
the gauge would shoot to 16-17psi... now it slowly builds to 15. Could 
there be a vacuum leak somewhere that is causing the rich mixture and the 
boost problem???Or is it my imagination???Thanks in advance 

Hi Tim, 

Vacuum leaks can not cause rich mixture at idle, only under boost. Vacuum 
leak = [unmetered] air going in; excess air = lean mixture. Boost leak = 
[metered] air escaping = rich mixture. The change in your boost performance 
does seem to indicate that something is going on, but I'm no MC-1 expert. 
However, my CIS-E 16v GTI recently barely failed emissions (239ppm HC vs. 
220 spec) and some injector cleaner (two cans of Techron concentrate on 
almost-empty tank, drive like maniac until it's gone) along with keeping 
the cat warm before the test (hold at 3k for one minute out of every five 
while waiting in line) took the HC way down to like 80ppm == PASS. It also 
may not have been fully warmed up (radiator fan cycling) the first time.

Emissions monkey-lad suggested oil change and air filter change to fix rich 
running, I did neither at this time.

The 200q passed with flying colors the first time, since I made sure the 
cats were warm (and why did I have to get them both done in January, 
instead of the separate months in which the registration renewals are due? 
I don't know).

HTH
Henry Harper
http://www.srv.net/~hah
1991 200 quattro, 111k, mmm, heated seats, running some Techron through now
1988 GTI 16v, 216k, driver's seat looking a little beat up