Hey all,

I need some advice. Trying to get the car through smog inspections after recently changing the battery.

I had the car sniffer tested and she's running clean as a whistle. Better than good actually.

But of course, my readiness flags are not sync cause of the new battery.

I went out and bought an OBDII readiness reader and spent the last two nights doing the 4 step routine:
2+minutes on idle
3+minutes between 20-30mph, (set on cruise control)
15+minutes between 40-60mph, (set on cruise control)
5+minutes of idle

I have done this two nights in a row and I'm still only solid on the first 3 flags. The other 5 flags are still blinking. I even did this procedure twice, each night, in both directions, going and coming.

I have not revved past 3000 RPM nor have I gone above 60 and have tried my best to restrict throttle modulation by using cruise control.

The only thing I haven't done is start the procedure from absolute cold. In each case I've driven the car a few hours earlier.

Any thoughts on what I may be doing wrong? and btw, my car is not showing any faults, I don't have a check engine light on. It just seems as though the cumulative cycle process isn't working.

Thoughts?

 

In my experience, it's best to just take the car out for a couple of good hour-long drives, get it on the freeway, drive it around town, in traffic, out of traffic, 10 mph, 75 mph. That's cleared those codes for me on two occasions. Don't keep the revs down, or the speed.

 

I did that for about 1500 mi. and still the readiness flags weren't set. Took 2 runs of the "BMW Drive Cycle" and they set.

 

From what I recall, you need two cold starts, one of which at the at the beginning of the drive cycle. Not sure if your couple hours in between runs was enough.

 

I think you need the extended idel from a cold start to get one of the codes to set.

 

2 suggestions:
1. Do a "real" cold start as others have suggested.
2. Don't use cruise control. I recall reading about this about 4 years ago, but I've checked my files and spent about 30 minutes searching Rennlist and other forums and can't find a reference. Sorry i can't confirm.

2 years ago I drove 5 months and several thousand miles and my codes were still not reset after the battery was disconnected. Finally did 2 drive cycles, including cold start idle, but kept revs under 3K and speed under 60 mph and all codes reset. Total elapsed time for both cycles: < 12 hours including overnight rest. BTW, I stopped at traffic lights during the drive cycle.

Good luck.

 

When you say do a real cold start, does that mean that I can't drive to the location where I plan to do the 2:15 second 20-30mph, if I keep it under 3k?

In other words, Cold start in my garage and let idle for 2+minutes. Then drive to big stretch of road and do the 20-30mph for 2:15 and then the 40-60 for 15.

Cause I can't drive for 20-30 for 2:15 right from my house...

Is the source of my confusion understood?

I'll try it again this time tonight without the cruise control.

 

Yes, cold start idle in your garage, preferably with the garage door open Consider backing your car in the garage the night before so you have a straight shot out after the idle.

Thereafter,do the 20-30 mph stint as best you can. If you have to stop at stop sign or red light, so be it. Keep the rpms under 3K.

 

Btw, sorry, got lost in my own problems... But wanted to say thank you for looking for this information for me.. I appreciate it.

 

Should the flags post one at a time? Or all at the same time?

 

B-line, see my post # 28 in this thread:

OBDii Test Drive

To answer your additional questions:
I back the car in the garage but it doesn't matter, you can start the car and move it out of the garage at idle speed and then let it idle in your driveway but I believe you must do the idle before you do any real driving.

My first start/drive was first thing in the AM, the 2nd was about 4 hrs. after I parked from the first drive.

The 5 remaining flags will set all at once, after you come back from the second drive and let it idle (from my experience) See the post.

Good luck.

 

Believe you/me.. I read that post long before I ever tried my reset. Thanks for putting that info up.

But for some reason, after two nights, I still haven't tripped the readiness flags.

I'm going to try again tonight... Maybe I'll get lucky and I'm going to do it from a cold start.

I just hope the reason for the cycle not working is not my short commute to the area where I can run the procedure.

 

Are you re-starting when you get to the area? If so, do not...

And while on the way, keep it under 3,000 rpm and 60mph.

When you get there, just do the 20-30mph for 3 mins, then up to 55 for 15 mins. Idling is the final step as you know.

 

Woohoo.. Good news.. Green light and solid flags..

Thanks everyone..

And for the record, it took me 3 nights of attempts to get it to work. Don't know if it was the cumulative effort but here is what I did differently this evening.

1) Did not use the cruise control
2) Did the sequencing from an absolute cold start (had not driven the car in 24 hours prior).

Since I had to limp to all the areas I can say without hesitation, it doesn't seem you can go overboard, meaning, I kept it in the 20-30mph range for about 8-10 minutes getting to the highway. I kept it in the 55mph range for about 17 minutes on highway then limped to a comfortable place where I pulled over and idle'd.

The flags went green on Idle after 2:30 seconds.

Thanks again all.

 

Gotta love a Rennlist success story! Congrates