Emissions tests

[atomicradish]

How many of you guys have to pass these?

I hear about them all the time. Lucky for me, my county does not require emissions checks so I've never had to pass one.

[Daox]

I have to pass emissions. IMO its not a big deal at all. You just have to keep your car in good running condition and thats part of ecomodding/hypermiling anyways... Plus, I kinda like clean air.

[dcb]

We have them here, it is just a computer handshake test if you have a 96 or newer car.

[Johnny Mullet]

I work in Pennsylvania and live in Ohio. The PA emissions test in our area is a "Visual and gas cap" check. Being an IM inspector myself, I know what to look for.............

Under hood inspection to make sure all components are there and seem to be in working order like the PCV valve, Evap lines, Air pump, etc. Then under the vehicle, the car must have a cat converter that looks like it's made for the vehicle. Then the machine tests the fuel cap where you also make sure the fuel inlet restrictor in is place if equipped.

Certain parts of PA also require an OBDII scan for emissions related codes.

Lake County in Ohio actually hooks a "Sniffer" to your tail-pipe and it checks the amount of pollution the car is putting out. Every state is different.

[Doofus McFancypants]

Georgia has the Code check and the Gas Cap Check.

I think it is an Employment initiative. make easy jobs for those who want to work and have little skills. Kinda like all gas stations in New Jersey are Full Service - a way to keep people employed.

Steve

[starquestPilot]

My cars don't have OBD II - have to put them on the dyno...

[dremd]

In Louisiana you have to have a tailpipe test; unless the testing facility does not own test equipment; care to guess how many have test equipment?

[wagonman76]

Thankfully Ive never had to deal with any kind of vehicle inspection. Thatd be another heckuva blow to the dwindling northern Michigan economy if we did. Half the cars owned around here would probably fail and many would cost more to fix than theyre worth. And all the money paid in inspections would just go to Lansing and get funneled to downstate.

Now my friend is near Asheville NC and has to deal with them. As with most things it seems to matter where you go. First time he took his 91 Regal in and they failed him because the parking brake didnt fully engage with one press. He showed them right on the pedal, and in the manual, where it said "PUMP TO SET". Still the narrowminded jerks failed him. So he went somewhere else and passed just fine. This last time he had a Malibu that ran great but the horn didnt work, and they passed him as long as he was going to fix it by next year.

Thats cool, free dyno run (free cause you gotta do it anyway). Id like that.

[i_am_socket]

Jersey has the dyno and tail pipe sensor tests. I'll have to deal with that next year. Only time I ever failed an inspection was for forgetting my registration card, which was surprising given the POS cars I had.