Hi all!

Well I got my baby last weekend and drove it cross country to Atlanta and I love it! She's absolutely beautiful and draws a crowd every time I get her out of the garage Of course my shopping list of "upgrades" is already long and impressive (Gert's gonna love me), but we'll get to that on another day. Right now I am focused on getting her tagged and titled in GA. First I had to get an emissions test. Failed.

Ok, so the tech tells me that all the systems passed, but the computer is "not ready to make a determination regarding the pollution control systems on the vehicle". He went on to explain that if I had a scanner (Robin you out there?) that I might be able to do this myself and asked if the battery had been replaced recently. Well I have no idea, but it does have a non-original battery. Still the car is running fine and no codes were stored.

Help! Baby needs a clean bill of health!

 

Chris,

I have no idea what this guy is talking about, the easiest way is to take your car to a guy I know in Norcross, he will pass you for sure. I can meet up with you on Friday and head over there.

And then we can figure out the computer thing later on.

Robin

 

Congratulations on your purchase!
Sorry to hear of the emissions failure -yikes.
Do you recall which test parameter of failure occurred?
Was the failure marginal or substantial ?


All the best,

 

Cool, I'll be in Norcross during the lunch hour anyway. I'll call you when I am done. Should I swing by Jim Ellis anyway and get anything done?
After I emission equipment is covered under warranty right?

Anybody else know what this might be?

 

David,

The nature of the failure is that the computer will not report any of the sensors information. This is strange, however, since the car runs fine. It just says the computer is "not ready".

Chris

 

Sounds like the machine doing the testing is the one failing not the one being tested.

 

[quote]Originally posted by Rohan Nath:
<strong>Sounds like the machine doing the testing is the one failing not the one being tested. </strong><hr></blockquote>

This may very well be the case. For example, last year, I went to a shop near my house to get a self-induced airbag light cleared. The shop owner tried about 5 times to get his "hammer" to "talk" to my system, and each time got a communication error. He finally gave up after about an hour, and declared my car broken. Subsequently took the car to Andial, where the light was cleared in about two minutes, on the first try.

 

Chris, et al:

OBDII is quite complex and that Readiness code is not unusual at all.

Until the car has been driven long enough to go through its self-diagnosis on all OBDII conditions, you will get a "Not Ready" code.

To get a Readiness code which simply means that the ECU and all systems are functioning correctly, a least two trips must be made of 20 minutes each or so. No faults can be stored and the ECU will not give a readiness signal unless there are no faults. In OBDII parlance, a trip is a driving cycle after a rest period that enables the ECU to test & diagnose all components & systems at least once.

The "Readiness" code indicates that that all fault checks were done by the ECU. The readiness code is canceled if the battery voltage is cut off while the ignition is on. To re-initiate that, at least two trips have to be made

During these "trips" the ECU will:

1) Check cat efficiency; the engine must be driven through at least 4 load and speed ranges.

2) Ensure oxygen sensors must be at temp and cycling within range.

3) Check oxysensor heating is operational and confirmed.

4) Air injection must be operating and functional.

5) Fuel tank ventilation system must be functional.

There is a LOT more to this, but thats a snapshot about what you are seeing.

In short, go drive it for two periods of 20 minutes or more and test it again. As long as everything is "kosher", you'll pass with flying colors.

 

Steve, thanks for all the information, that's great! My only question is this: I just bought the car, had it shipped to Phoenix, and then drove it from Phoenix to Houston to Atlanta, so just under 2000 miles in 3 days. Shouldn't this have satisfied the requirements you mentioned? Maybe there really is something amiss with the computer. If I take it to my local dealer are they required by the emissions warranty to at least check it out for free?

 

Hi Chris:

Disconnecting the battery does reset the ECU and generate that "Readiness" code unless its gone through at least 2 20 minute trips.

If you are still getting the "DME Not Ready" code, then there are problems with one or more of the parameters I listed above, and everything should be checked with a PST-2 or a Hammer.

Hope this helps,

 

I had my 97 targa emission tested by AAA when I bought it from out of state and it too failed. The AAA guys were all excited about the car, but I don't think they knew what they were doing as they were constantly conferring with each other. I then took it to my porsche mechanic an it passed with flying colors without any adhjustments. My conclusion is that there must be some extra skill involved in smog testing 993's.

 

Chris, my vote is with some of the others; the problem is the clowns doing the emission test is my vote. Bring it to a shop that others have had good luck with.

Steve, hate to go against you but my own feeling is that a cross country drive from Phoenix to Atlanta should have given the computer time enough to go thru its "memory restore". I can't see how a car can run great, not give out a red WARNING light on the dash, and still flunk a modern tailpipe test. The clowns description of the computer "not ready to make a determination regarding the pollution control systems on the vehicle" doesn't make sense to me in this case. In both NJ and PA inspections (state gummint stations in NJ -admittedly many years ago - and local service stations in PA) I have not seen a case where any sort of connection is made to the car except an induction pickup on a spark plug wire to measure RPM and then the use of a tailpipe sniffer to measure CO, CO2, and unburned HC.

If they REALLY connected to the in-car diagnostic multi-pin connnector to read-out the OBDII info, then either their connector or the in-car jack receptacle might be bad. Then again, if the car passed the tailpipe sniffer test I don't see why they're monkeying with anything else.

 

Chris,
How long was the car running before the test was conducted? I was wondering if the car was fully warmed up. One of my companies Astro Vans recently failed emissions here in New Jersey (by the way they do not connect anything to the car except the tube in the exhaust and run it up to speed on the rollers). The van failed because the line was so long, it was over a one hour wait! <img src="graemlins/cussing.gif" border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" /> So running the engine at idle is not enough to get the cat converter up to temperature. I came back to the inspection center when the line was short and it passed!
Maybe some of this applies to the P-Car.
George

 

UPDATE

Well the car went to Jim Ellis Porsche this past Monday and they cleared the computer and reset everything. They claim that this will fix the problem and pass emissions, but I haven't had it tested yet (probably Friday).

The "fix" was covered under the 8 year/80k mile OBD warranty.

I will post a new message on Frday with the results.

Pookee, the car was fully warmed up on the 2nd attempt and had been driven at highway speeds for over 1/2 hour before the test.