I had an ongoing but intermittent problem with my 2005 TD4.

Symptoms were black smoke, poor performance and occasional EML.

I decided to wait until the problem got really bad and permanent thinking this would make it easier to diagnose and eventually it got to a point where the engine wouldn't rev past 2500 RPM even in neutral and there was black smoke from the exhaust.

The hoses etc had already been checked for air leaks and there wasn't any and yet the engine was clearly over fuelling.

I decided to replace the turbo but as soon as I disconnected the exhaust from the turbo I started the engine and it was revving freely so removed the guts from the Catalyctic converter and voila!!

I have been driving it like this now for approximately 3 months and it has never performed as well in all the time I've owned it!!

If I ever buy another FL1 TD4 the Cat is coming out immediately!

Glad to hear it is sorted and thanks for lettings us know would removing the cat fail the mot ?

tlo said:

Glad to hear it is sorted and thanks for lettings us know would removing the cat fail the mot ?

Click to expand...

I think if you entirely removed the Cat housing so the tester could visually see that you had removed it then yes, it would be a fail but with the Freelander exhaust you can simply knock the guts out of the Cat by inserting a bar through the exhaust pipe and there is no way of telling from a visual inspection.
It really is very easy and as far as I know it will not affect the emissions test.