north carolina inspection
03-22-2006, 10:37 PM
#1
8th Gear
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north carolina inspection
just bought a 96 993 coupe in texas and of course i'm going to have to reg. and inspect. well i've put about 300 miles on it and got the cel. had a shop check the obd2 and the tech told me it was the sai and probably the air pump or a check valve. after they checked and got further into the system they determined it was worn valve guides and i would need a valve job. the sai was cleared by the previous owner in aug of 2005 so i was surprised it came up so early. its only been about 2000 miles since this servive was done.
i told the tech that i would have to marinate on the valve job and i started up the car and drove it home. at the first trafic lite i noticed that the cel was not on. does this mean that the lite was reset? when i get the car inspected will the code appear for smog inspector?
i'm in charlotte and have only had my other cars sniffed but have never had an obd to deal with.
what am i in for??
i told the tech that i would have to marinate on the valve job and i started up the car and drove it home. at the first trafic lite i noticed that the cel was not on. does this mean that the lite was reset? when i get the car inspected will the code appear for smog inspector?
i'm in charlotte and have only had my other cars sniffed but have never had an obd to deal with.
what am i in for??
03-23-2006, 10:29 AM
#2
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There are loads of info on this subject here. Search in the 993 forums for SAI or Secondary Air and you will find what you need. The PCA site also has a lot of good information on this subject in the tech section. Good luck.
03-23-2006, 01:11 PM
#3
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I don't have SAI issues (yet) but did look into NC smog rules a few months ago while having trouble getting my readiness codes to set after the battery drained (you should make sure yours are set before going in for an inspection). If I remember correctly, the rules are that after three failures you can go to a state testing station which can issue a waiver if a) your system is ok (which I understood as a sniffer test) and b) you spent a certain minium $$s to get the issue fixed (the $$s were substantial - something like $2k?). This waiver is something you need to apply for and doesn't look automatic.
Digging a bit deepther, it looks as if the state maintains a database of cars/models with OBDII issues (especially issues relating to readiness codes). I never could find out if the 993s (and especially early OBDII years) are on that list. That would be good to know as one could, hypothetically speaking, of course, disconnect the battery after SAI to clear the CEL and then claim problems with resetting readiness codes. Not that I would do anything like that ...
Digging a bit deepther, it looks as if the state maintains a database of cars/models with OBDII issues (especially issues relating to readiness codes). I never could find out if the 993s (and especially early OBDII years) are on that list. That would be good to know as one could, hypothetically speaking, of course, disconnect the battery after SAI to clear the CEL and then claim problems with resetting readiness codes. Not that I would do anything like that ...
Last edited by mbpa; 03-23-2006 at 02:14 PM.
03-23-2006, 02:08 PM
#4
Three Wheelin'
Weird.
The OBD system will, in effect, 'turn OFF' the CEL if the condition, that caused it to go ON in the first place, doesn't occur within a certain amount of drive cycles.
Or put another way...
You drive the car 10 times in January and the CEL goes ON coz of error y.
You drive it another 10 times in February and the CEL goes off in early March.
This means that error y has NOT reoccurred whilst you were driving in the month of February. Thus OBD has treated errror y as a 'false positive'.
Another thought ...it's VERY possible that as a result of the car NOT being driven ..that the SAI passages may be carbon'd up ...but as a result of the car BEING driven ..that heat has burned off sufficient carbon - in said passages - so as to allow some air (from the airpump) to reach the O2 sensors and tell the OBD system that everything is hunky dorey.
I would DEFINITELY bring the car to autozone and ask them if -- via scanner -- if ALL 8 readiness monitors are set. And, of course, if any REAL code or Pending Code is stored. (I say this because there's a chance that the CEL went OFF because the bulb blew!)
To go and **successfully** get your car to pass inspection... ALL 8 readiness monitors need to be 'set' AND you cannot have a CEL.
Plan B, if you have NO CEL but the readiness monitors aren't set is to do the 'drive cycle fandango' and hope for the best.
Plan C, if you have NO CEL and no amount of drive-cycling will get those damn monitors to set -- is to get your car tail-piped-tested.
My $0.02
G.
The OBD system will, in effect, 'turn OFF' the CEL if the condition, that caused it to go ON in the first place, doesn't occur within a certain amount of drive cycles.
Or put another way...
You drive the car 10 times in January and the CEL goes ON coz of error y.
You drive it another 10 times in February and the CEL goes off in early March.
This means that error y has NOT reoccurred whilst you were driving in the month of February. Thus OBD has treated errror y as a 'false positive'.
Another thought ...it's VERY possible that as a result of the car NOT being driven ..that the SAI passages may be carbon'd up ...but as a result of the car BEING driven ..that heat has burned off sufficient carbon - in said passages - so as to allow some air (from the airpump) to reach the O2 sensors and tell the OBD system that everything is hunky dorey.
I would DEFINITELY bring the car to autozone and ask them if -- via scanner -- if ALL 8 readiness monitors are set. And, of course, if any REAL code or Pending Code is stored. (I say this because there's a chance that the CEL went OFF because the bulb blew!)
To go and **successfully** get your car to pass inspection... ALL 8 readiness monitors need to be 'set' AND you cannot have a CEL.
Plan B, if you have NO CEL but the readiness monitors aren't set is to do the 'drive cycle fandango' and hope for the best.
Plan C, if you have NO CEL and no amount of drive-cycling will get those damn monitors to set -- is to get your car tail-piped-tested.
My $0.02
G.
03-23-2006, 06:44 PM
#5
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RJM,
I live in Concord, NC and just went through this last October when I brought in my 97 from Tennessee. I took it down to the shop that inspects all my cars, and the guy said- "it's a Porsche, I won't be able to read the OBDII." He hooked it up and sure enough, his machine couldn't read anything from the car. We wiggled around the connector and fiddled with it for a while, and never got anything. He said he had never been able to read a Porsche, including Boxters and 996s.
He also said that some shops will record it as a fail if they can't read you. So beware of just going to a shop and having them hook it up. If you get an NC exhaust emission failure it will show up on CarFax.
I called a guy at the Charlotte dealership, Mike Slattery, and he said bring it in and they would check it out. The car passed with no problem- Mike said he had heard of some independent shops having trouble reading Porsches, but the dealership machine obviously had no problem.
Since you have had a CEL, I understand that it takes multiple drive cycles to clear it- you need to make sure you have done that before you take it in and record a failure.
Your other option is to register the car in an NC county that doesn't require the smog test (would have to get a PO Box up in the mountains or something).
Good luck, you may be in for a headache.
EB
97 Coupe red/cashmir, Aerokit II
I live in Concord, NC and just went through this last October when I brought in my 97 from Tennessee. I took it down to the shop that inspects all my cars, and the guy said- "it's a Porsche, I won't be able to read the OBDII." He hooked it up and sure enough, his machine couldn't read anything from the car. We wiggled around the connector and fiddled with it for a while, and never got anything. He said he had never been able to read a Porsche, including Boxters and 996s.
He also said that some shops will record it as a fail if they can't read you. So beware of just going to a shop and having them hook it up. If you get an NC exhaust emission failure it will show up on CarFax.
I called a guy at the Charlotte dealership, Mike Slattery, and he said bring it in and they would check it out. The car passed with no problem- Mike said he had heard of some independent shops having trouble reading Porsches, but the dealership machine obviously had no problem.
Since you have had a CEL, I understand that it takes multiple drive cycles to clear it- you need to make sure you have done that before you take it in and record a failure.
Your other option is to register the car in an NC county that doesn't require the smog test (would have to get a PO Box up in the mountains or something).
Good luck, you may be in for a headache.
EB
97 Coupe red/cashmir, Aerokit II
