Yehaw: passed California smog test
02-07-2004, 03:06 PM
#1
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Yehaw: passed California smog test
Just in case others are faced with this, here's some information:
My car was smogged by the previous owner in October 1992, shortly before I bought the car. I just got a notice to take my car to a "test-only" station. I took it to a local place in Moorpark, where I reminded the operator that it was AWD, and couldn't go on his dyno.
He did the very simple test by plugging into the OBD2 port and put a sniffer in one of the tail pipes. He then performed the test at idle, 2500 rpm, and back to idle. He tested the gas cap, did a visual inspection, and I'm done... passed with flying colors. Way less than half of the emisions of the average passing vehicle, and a mile off the max allowable. As far as I know, he didn't look at the CEL, but I could be wrong (my CEL is fully operational).
On the Sacramento results form is an interesting note: "Inspection Reason: High Emitter Profile".
My car was smogged by the previous owner in October 1992, shortly before I bought the car. I just got a notice to take my car to a "test-only" station. I took it to a local place in Moorpark, where I reminded the operator that it was AWD, and couldn't go on his dyno.
He did the very simple test by plugging into the OBD2 port and put a sniffer in one of the tail pipes. He then performed the test at idle, 2500 rpm, and back to idle. He tested the gas cap, did a visual inspection, and I'm done... passed with flying colors. Way less than half of the emisions of the average passing vehicle, and a mile off the max allowable. As far as I know, he didn't look at the CEL, but I could be wrong (my CEL is fully operational).
On the Sacramento results form is an interesting note: "Inspection Reason: High Emitter Profile".
02-07-2004, 04:21 PM
#3
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Hey Don,
You are in serious need of an update to your signature.
Here's a question for all you emissions experts.... do you think a car with cat bypasses could possibly pass this simple, no dyno, test?
You are in serious need of an update to your signature.
Here's a question for all you emissions experts.... do you think a car with cat bypasses could possibly pass this simple, no dyno, test?
02-08-2004, 05:51 PM
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Hey Steve, I'm in the same boat, and have to have renew by 3/8, and need the Smog Certification. I got the "Smog Certificate Required" notice, which does not require the test only station. The documentation says "A Test-Only station tests cars that are more likely to pollute the air." Wonder why you got the Test-Only and I didn't.
You didn't mention that they hooked up the smog test computer to the OBD connection. They did that on my car, and although the emmissions from the tail pipe passed, the OBD failed. It failed becuase I had just had my car serviced, and the shop cleared out the OBD codes. The shop said drive it a day before you take it to the smog station, as the codes need time to reset. I drove it for three days, but the smog computer read that 5 of the OBD tests had not reset. So I'll drive it for another week, and retest (luckily the retest is free). Hope the CEL can stay away for a few more days!
My CEL (cash evaporation light) has been on for about the last six months. Remember my car had valve job with valves and valve guides replaced in 11/02, which was roughly 4000 miles ago at 49,000 miles. So about 6 months ago CEL went on, shop couldn't find anything wrong, reset it, CEL came back on after a while, and since car has been running strong with no change in gas mileage, I've just left it on, rather than drive myself crazy trying to find a needle in a haystack. So just had car in for regular service, they reset CEL, checked and couldn't find anything wrong, so I'll drive it another week and hopefully everything will reset and it will pass. What a P in the A.
Hope to see you on 2/22 on the Santa Barbara drive. I want to hear your muffler bypass. If it's not too loud, I might do that. I also need to do the PSS9 thing, maybe change to Fikse or Kinesis wheels, so I've got some sliding to do. I still don't have the CF steering wheel and other stuff which I ordered from Gert last August. Wish I could get it at the dollar/euro rate in effect last August. Regards, Lee.
You didn't mention that they hooked up the smog test computer to the OBD connection. They did that on my car, and although the emmissions from the tail pipe passed, the OBD failed. It failed becuase I had just had my car serviced, and the shop cleared out the OBD codes. The shop said drive it a day before you take it to the smog station, as the codes need time to reset. I drove it for three days, but the smog computer read that 5 of the OBD tests had not reset. So I'll drive it for another week, and retest (luckily the retest is free). Hope the CEL can stay away for a few more days!
My CEL (cash evaporation light) has been on for about the last six months. Remember my car had valve job with valves and valve guides replaced in 11/02, which was roughly 4000 miles ago at 49,000 miles. So about 6 months ago CEL went on, shop couldn't find anything wrong, reset it, CEL came back on after a while, and since car has been running strong with no change in gas mileage, I've just left it on, rather than drive myself crazy trying to find a needle in a haystack. So just had car in for regular service, they reset CEL, checked and couldn't find anything wrong, so I'll drive it another week and hopefully everything will reset and it will pass. What a P in the A.
Hope to see you on 2/22 on the Santa Barbara drive. I want to hear your muffler bypass. If it's not too loud, I might do that. I also need to do the PSS9 thing, maybe change to Fikse or Kinesis wheels, so I've got some sliding to do. I still don't have the CF steering wheel and other stuff which I ordered from Gert last August. Wish I could get it at the dollar/euro rate in effect last August. Regards, Lee.
02-08-2004, 06:34 PM
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My C4S failed smog recently because of the OBD readiness codes. Tailpipe results were pretty low, well below average. I changed the battery last July and have done 5K miles without any CEL lights, so it should have been ready...
I made an appointment with the referee station, and they passed me. Cost was $8.25
Search for referee on the 993 board, and you'll find more info.
referee info
[QUOTE]Originally posted by LeeR
You didn't mention that they hooked up the smog test computer to the OBD connection. They did that on my car, and although the emmissions from the tail pipe passed, the OBD failed. It failed becuase I had just had my car serviced, and the shop cleared out the OBD codes. The shop said drive it a day before you take it to the smog station, as the codes need time to reset. I drove it for three days, but the smog computer read that 5 of the OBD tests had not reset. So I'll drive it for another week, and retest (luckily the retest is free). Hope the CEL can stay away for a few more days!
I made an appointment with the referee station, and they passed me. Cost was $8.25
Search for referee on the 993 board, and you'll find more info.
referee info
[QUOTE]Originally posted by LeeR
You didn't mention that they hooked up the smog test computer to the OBD connection. They did that on my car, and although the emmissions from the tail pipe passed, the OBD failed. It failed becuase I had just had my car serviced, and the shop cleared out the OBD codes. The shop said drive it a day before you take it to the smog station, as the codes need time to reset. I drove it for three days, but the smog computer read that 5 of the OBD tests had not reset. So I'll drive it for another week, and retest (luckily the retest is free). Hope the CEL can stay away for a few more days!
02-08-2004, 06:51 PM
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Thanks Rob. Hopefully I won't have to go the Referee route, but that's helpful to know. I'll let you know what happens.
At the smog station, they showed me the book that listed all of the manufactures and what you have to do to reset the OBD codes. For Porsche, there are about 20 different things, like accelerate moderately to 30mph, hold for 2 minutes, decelerate to stop, idle for 2 minutes. So with random driving you just have to hope you somehow do all of these.
At the smog station, they showed me the book that listed all of the manufactures and what you have to do to reset the OBD codes. For Porsche, there are about 20 different things, like accelerate moderately to 30mph, hold for 2 minutes, decelerate to stop, idle for 2 minutes. So with random driving you just have to hope you somehow do all of these.
02-08-2004, 10:03 PM
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I've heard that it really hard to drive the car to get those "ready" codes reset. I don't think that random driving will do it. Yipes... what do you do when you have to replace a battery? Maybe one of those "battery tender" things to keep 12V in the system while you swap batteries? Ugh.
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02-13-2004, 12:52 AM
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Frustration
Update: took my car in for smog test today after a week of drivng after computer read 5 Not Ready codes (see above post). Today's reading: 5 Not Ready Codes. Sheeesh!
Called BH Porsche (where my valve job was done) and they said just keep driving it, and that the 993s have been a PITA with smog, and some people just have to keep driving until the codes reset, and sometimes it takes a long time.
The service advisor said take it on a long drive, like up to Santa Barbara, which coincidentally is exactly what I'll do on 2/22. But the published book with the code reset guidelines indicates slow speeds, which I've been doing for last 10 days using it as a daily driver. So I'll keep driving each day, and with the group on 2/22 to Santa Barbara and back, and retest on 2/23. This seems like a test of whether the Not Ready Codes will go off before the CEL comes back on. This is really getting frustrating.
Called BH Porsche (where my valve job was done) and they said just keep driving it, and that the 993s have been a PITA with smog, and some people just have to keep driving until the codes reset, and sometimes it takes a long time.
The service advisor said take it on a long drive, like up to Santa Barbara, which coincidentally is exactly what I'll do on 2/22. But the published book with the code reset guidelines indicates slow speeds, which I've been doing for last 10 days using it as a daily driver. So I'll keep driving each day, and with the group on 2/22 to Santa Barbara and back, and retest on 2/23. This seems like a test of whether the Not Ready Codes will go off before the CEL comes back on. This is really getting frustrating.
