Annoying van fumes.. Can I report to police/dvla

My dpf is removed.
My car doesn't smoke unless I floor it. Which I rarely do when people are behind me.
Sure it smells but it always did. Diesels smell horrible anyway.

Doesn't smoke at all when held at revs so will never fail a smoke test.

The older dags I see on the roads do chuck out horrible smoke and stink to high heaven. I tend to drive with recirculation on 90% of the time unless I'm on the motorway.

My next car will be a much newer petrol anyway, capable of the mpg I get now and far cleaner. Will all depend on financial situation and where I'm working in 12 months
 
You do often get it with vans, knackered old 4x4, 90% of old Renault or Peugot estates.... cheap buggers. I was behind one this morning and even without any visible smoke I could clearly smell the diesel from 150 ft away.
 
The Running Man said:
Would it not be better if he was forced to fix his car?
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Yea calling the police to have them spend hours chasing down some random van to convince him to tune his car not to make so much smoke, then spending more time following up to make sure he's fixed it is far more sensible than driving a few meters further behind a smelly van....

After all the police/dvla are there to deal with people that you find annoying.
 
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p1RATE said:
Yea calling the police to have them spend hours chasing down some random van to convince him to tune his car not to make so much smoke, then spending more time following up to make sure he's fixed it is far more sensible than driving a few meters further behind a smelly van....

After all the police/dvla are there to deal with people that you find annoying.
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Well what are they there for if not to enforce an Mot, isn't that the point of an MOT to make cars and vans etc roadworthy and safe for others, including other people who have to breathe the fumes as the van goes by?
 
The Running Man said:
Well what are they there for if not to enforce an Mot, isn't that the point of an MOT to make cars and vans etc roadworthy and safe for others, including other people who have to breathe the fumes as the van goes by?
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Are you sure that it would fail an MOT?
Our X-Trail produces a little smoke on hard acceleration, and it doesn't smell particularly nice, which I noticed once when transporting something big and had the tailgate open. Yet at MOT, it's still well within the emissions regulations.

Why note take not of his reg and then use the MOT checker to see if it has an up to date history. Otherwise, I'm afraid it's a case of...

K.C. Leblanc said:
Are you sure about that, I had no idea current emissions legislation was based around your sensibilities.
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... :p
 
p1RATE said:
Yea calling the police to have them spend hours chasing down some random van to convince him to tune his car not to make so much smoke, then spending more time following up to make sure he's fixed it is far more sensible than driving a few meters further behind a smelly van....

After all the police/dvla are there to deal with people that you find annoying.
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Police desk jockey looks up the registration. Sends rectification notice to registered owner address...

I believe they can also then place a marker on the car to cause it to be stop checked when next spotted.

It would take a few minutes in total, including any stop check, of police time and would clean up one more car on the road.
 
Diagro said:
My dpf is removed.
My car doesn't smoke unless I floor it. Which I rarely do when people are behind me.
Sure it smells but it always did. Diesels smell horrible anyway.

Doesn't smoke at all when held at revs so will never fail a smoke test.

The older dags I see on the roads do chuck out horrible smoke and stink to high heaven. I tend to drive with recirculation on 90% of the time unless I'm on the motorway.

My next car will be a much newer petrol anyway, capable of the mpg I get now and far cleaner. Will all depend on financial situation and where I'm working in 12 months
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The Irony is that an "Old" diesel engine (30BHP/L NA, 40BHP/L Turbo) without all the EGR etc emissions related nonsense probably produces less noxiousness than a modern one once the EGR/Inlet Manifold/VVT turbo/etc have all got clogged up, (which can happen really very quickly on cars that are still new and relatively low mileage. and can be astonishingly expensive to fix)

It is always the newer, old cars that seem to produce the very worst smoke, Old, old diesel cars are generally much cleaner

The only time my old LC smokes noticeably is when I have to use kick-down.

(And the only time I ever find myself having to do that is when overtaking agricultural equipment and cyclists, under normal driving conditions it is rarely an issue)
 
K.C. Leblanc said:
Are you sure about that, I had no idea current emissions legislation was based around your sensibilities.
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Personally I find the smell from being behind a vehicle where somebody is smoking objectionable, (It is actually very noticeable if you are a non smoker and can be smelt 100 yards away or more) But I accept that some people actually like the smell.

Some people like the smell of oil smoke and diesel fumes too. :p
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
I believe they can also then place a marker on the car to cause it to be stop checked when next spotted.
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Oh you believe that? Then it must be true, I'll perpetuate this on other forums now I've heard this. What do they do have like a smokey icon on Waze?
 
MOT smoke tests are so easy to pass though. Even the smokiest of cars can pass depending on the tester, as not everyone does the test properly, I've seen many people rev them gently to get them through.

I actually hate the smoke test, especially on older diesels that have done tons of miles, poorly serviced and never thrashed, they generally don't appreciate being revved hard, I've had a couple almost try and runaway on me.
 
Em3bbs said:
Oh you believe that? Then it must be true, I'll perpetuate this on other forums now I've heard this. What do they do have like a smokey icon on Waze?
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I think you misunderstood what I mean by a marker.. it means when the car trips anpr the police will try to stop it..

Anyway, thanks for the passive aggressive showing. Have fun with that impotent rage. I hope it made you feel better!
 
MonkeyMan said:
As someone who spends most of the working day in a car, its crazy how many times I flick the air re-circ on to avoid a plume of black smoke coming from the vehicle in front of me.
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Ha, me too.

Seems to be mainly Mk4 Mondeos and old Jag X-types around here. Massive plumes of smoke out the back.

******* disgusting.
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
Police desk jockey looks up the registration. Sends rectification notice to registered owner address...

I believe they can also then place a marker on the car to cause it to be stop checked when next spotted.

It would take a few minutes in total, including any stop check, of police time and would clean up one more car on the road.
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The VDRS scheme relies on an officer to issue it, a signature of the driver goes on the form at the time it's issued too normally, so banging one in the post is going to be difficult to enforce without the signature as proof it's been issued and an officers word to say there is definitely a defect. Think about it, you'd be a bit annoyed yourself if you got a notice through the post for a fault on your vehicle that hadn't even been seen by a police officer? :)

Imagine if that (hypothetical) neighbour who didn't like you reported you constantly to the police for vehicle faults and things worked in the way you'd described, where you'd get rectification notices in the post...you'd constantly be going to the garage to get nome existent faults fixed. The current rectification system cannot be properly used in the way you describe, where a 'desk jockey' bangs them out in the post willy nilly with no more proof of defect than somebodies say so.

Few police cars have ANPR too, fewer still will have any equipment to actually measure emissions, a stop marker would be somewhat wasteful here. If its smoking like a good 'un then a traffic Bobby may well pull it over and can (properly) issue a VDRS or prohibition notice if there are defects if note.

TL;DR - the police don't work as some of you think :p
 
Will said:
TL;DR - the police don't work as some of you think :p
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Thanks for the clarification! I thought it worked that way, as my brother once had a problem where he was being stopped all the time, and it turned out there was a "marker" on his car which caused him to be stopped whenever he was seen!
Something to do with the previous owner apparently. They had to write a letter to the local station to get it removed (This was about 1o-15 years ago?)
 
They do use such markers for all manner of things, and a few of them would mean you'd get pulled over pretty often, but a concern over emissions isn't something it'd be worth putting a marker on for :)
 
Must admit I had not really noticed how emissions have improved. I followed an MGB GT for several miles last week and it was like being transported back to the sixties.

It was a smell I knew well of unburnt fuel. The MGB I followed was probably not tuned too well, but it was typical of the fumes we used to 'enjoy' in town centres and alongside busy routes where there were many similar 'untuned' vehicles.

There are many more cars and commercials now but in general the air is cleaner (and certainly contains less lead) than historically, due to leaner more efficient engines and better emission controls.
 
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