goofballdeluxe

Now, now, Kika, that's not exactly true. We did have that time where the weather here wasn't sunny and beautiful.

Remember that day?

Kika

oh, yeah...I put sweat pants on over my shorts that day. BRRRR, I get chills thinking about it.

2Many Cars

I believe there are about 6 or 7 states that follow the California smog standards, NY is one of them so the rules should be pretty much the same. I must say that as a long time resident of CA the smog stuff has never really been that big a problem as long as you properly maintain your car and like g murray said don't monkey with anything just before a test is due.

swmic

Chuck, If you know someone with VagCom (Audi software), the generic OBD II section of the software will read readiness codes on our cars.

I had to do the drive cycle routine to get my codes set a couple of months ago. Worked great.

Good luck!

cdmdriver

With Barry Obama in charge you will all share our smog check pain.

blackcat

"yeah, sure it is a nusance, but we have weather that allows our wives <snip> leave their tops down 12/12 months"

ftfy

Rinty

And you have all those great roads.

FGL28

Chuck,

I feel your $325 pain. I had to do a hard reboot today in order to get a smog cert.

The smog tech said it was nice to work on a nice car that was well maintained.

The tech also called the machine that tests the KGB, you are guilty until you pay the man.

BTW the reboot fee was more than the registration fee.

mongrelcat

I'm confused by your post. I haven't had to deal with any issues like this on my car yet, and I hope I never do, but I would imagine it's going to get tougher and tougher in the future.

A "hard reboot" would seem to be exactly what one would be avoiding at inspection time per g_murray's post above. Why didn't you just buy or borrow the Actron tool mentioned above and go through the drive cycle procedure?

Interesting to note that a VagCom unit will also serve this purpose as I'm sure there are many of those units around (see VWVortex regional forums for more info.)

FGL28

When I first tested the car the rediness codes failed the car runs real clean but those pesky codes


I had a misfire issue, new leads solved that issue. The OBDII showed, for lack of a better term, phantom faults. Usually driving, praying to the car gods or lighting a tire on fire and dance naked around it will reset these codes. But for some reason nothing worked. I drove it for 3 weeks, prayed and danced; nothing, zip, nada.

So I had to go to the stealer and had a hard reboot. I passed the smog test and got the tags. If you need to get a smog test I advise to go the day you get the notice. Send your mechanic some cookies, and hopefully you will get lucky. Do not change the battery before the test.

The hard reboot worked for me.

I hope I have not confused you more.

mongrelcat

Did you try the procedure as outlined above? No praying, dancing or fire involved as far as I can see. OK, maybe a little black magic...

The term "hard reboot" has been used three times in the searchable history of this forum with regard to OBDII codes and the like, all three instances by you. In reading this thread and elsewhere, resetting codes or state by use of a scanner or cycling of power is not a complete solution in itself.

Anyway, glad you got it solved but no, I still don't get your meaning.

FGL28

Whe it comes to OBDII Black Magic is just one of the tools needed to make the OBDII and the smog ****'s happy. Remember, the car passed the emissions portion of the test, by a good margin. It was the fault codes that failed.

One has to have the time to do this. The DMV in their infinite wisdom would only offer a 1 day operating permit. The fault code of misfire was intermittent, we tried several things before going to the Stealer. In the Peoples Republic of South Pasadena having expired tags is an arrestable offense; hence Getting it done.


The term "hard reboot" is probably the best description of what I had done. Resetting the codes does not always get rid of the fault codes. A "Hard reboot" wipes the memory. It is similar to when your PC gets locked and you have to turn off the PC while frozen. It is a better description than reset the codes.

Have I explained it better?

mongrelcat

Well, I think I get it now. But I still don't understand why you couldn't clear the codes without going to the dealer.

Pg. 27 or so of the manual for the scan tool mentioned above shows the procedure Erase Codes function for deleting Diagnostic Trouble Codes.
http://www.actron.com/publish/2008/0...lish_16309.pdf

This webpage is helpful:
http://www.aa1car.com/library/ic10224.htm

It states "some scan tools do not have all the OEM codes for all makes, particularly many European applications. Accessing the OEM-specific enhanced codes may require using a dealer scan tool, which can be very expensive." So maybe some tools don't have access to all of the Porsche-specific codes? The Actron site does mention Use on all 1996 and newer OBD II compliant vehicles and that it's Internet Updateable.

However, I would think a misfire code would be as generic as they come.

As a certifiable geek I love that there's an open source linux command-line version of ODBII ScanTool.
http://freediag.sourceforge.net/

Almost enough to wish my C2 (it's a '95,) was OBDII, not quite, but almost.

Until very recently I lived in SoCal, Pasadena to be exact. There are many things I miss, having moved to WA, and one thing I surely don't miss is the CA DMV.

Chuck W.

OK... I am looking at buying the Actron CP9175, 9180 ot 9185. Any pros or cons? TIA

Lorenfb

"You may have to do the drive cycle twice.
I've found that sometimes it takes one cycle to reset all of the,."

Actually, you always need two drive cycles, and in some cases three
may be necessary. The key point to always remember is that "just
driving X miles" under specified conditions will always SET the readiness
codes is incorrect. Certain key cycle flags MUST be set prior to ANY
driving, i.e. Tanking Venting & Secondary Air. If either of these fail
to set, driving is a waste of time.

Read more 993 info here: www.systemsc.com/codes.htm