Emissions fail #1

rmeeker13 · Postby **rmeeker13** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:14

Well, decided to emissions the car today, It of course failed but just barely!
Had a little too much unburned/partially burned fuel, high HC. Maybe need to lean er out a little bit. Try a few things and give er another go!

alex_n/a · Postby **alex_n/a** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:14

do a tune up. And run the gas tank really low. At napa they sell something to help pass emissions. Use it and I'm sure it will pass. My dads truck failed badly once and after doing all the it passed with flying colors.

geo2maz · Postby **geo2maz** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:14

rmeeker13 wrote:Well, decided to emissions the car today, It of course failed but just barely!
Had a little too much unburned/partially burned fuel, high HC. Maybe need to lean er out a little bit. Try a few things and give er another go!

I went through that before in my Geo, took 3 tries, was so close each time, this is what i did on the third time:

-when the tank is almost empty get one of those gas-treatment cleaner things like
-then fill the tank with premium gas
-take the car on the highway and get the engine fired up and hot,
-go to Emiss. place, keep engine revving
-optional: I was told to take out my air filter just before the test, and i finally passed,

good luck, let us know if you pass

Dange · Postby **Dange** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:14

run the tank empty, and fill 3 gallons of e-85. DONT BOOST but follow geo's suggestion about run around on the freeway to get the engine and cats all hot. try to go at a non peak hour so you arent stting in line for 20 minutes. take the emissions test. and then top off with premium.

if its just a little high, ill basically guarantee there wont be a single issue passing this way.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:14

FYI, premium isn't or doesn't run/burn any cleaner than any other grade of gasoline, it's simply a higher octane rating, and you engine will run the best and burn the most fuel on the lowest octane it can safely burn.

Simply put, octane is the resistance to combustion/detonation, so if you put it a more resistant fuel, less fuel will be burned, meaning you will have a more difficult time passing emissions.

Of course, if your engine is designed to run premium, then you're fine. But putting premium (91 around here) in an engine that can burn 87 just fine is like me putting race gas in my FD. Won't do a damn thing except make it run worse.

Regulator · Postby **Regulator** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:14

I would stay away from e85. I've read about fuel pumps seizing up because the corrosive fuel breaks down gunk in the fuel lines, which in turn gunks up your fuel pump.

dsm_luck · Postby **dsm_luck** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:14

Regulator wrote:I would stay away from e85. I've read about fuel pumps seizing up because the corrosive fuel breaks down gunk in the fuel lines, which in turn gunks up your fuel pump.

It depends on the car and and the setup. I run 50/50 e85/91 daily in my 09 MS3 for months now and it runs great with zero issues. I also saw a bump in my MAF g/s and was able to run higher timing advance and never really see knock.

I have heard the E85 trick works as well but have yet to try it.

Just saw OP is in an MS6. You can try mixing 50/50.

Dange · Postby **Dange** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 9:14

old MR2 buddies used to mix toluene and run that for emissions.
and we took my old roomies diesel that was converted to straight vegetable oil (not bio diesel) and confused the hell out of the emissions people.

ive personally seen the e-85 trick work. and if you think about it, you are only running e-85 for 5 miles and then you dilute the 3 gallons with what? 17 gallons of premium? hell standard pumpgas in the winter has almost that much ethanol in it

and i have 2 buddies that have been running 50/50mix e-85 for almost a full year now on speed6's

dsm_luck · Postby **dsm_luck** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 9:14

Dange wrote:old MR2 buddies used to mix toluene and run that for emissions.
and we took my old roomies diesel that was converted to straight vegetable oil (not bio diesel) and confused the hell out of the emissions people.

ive personally seen the e-85 trick work. and if you think about it, you are only running e-85 for 5 miles and then you dilute the 3 gallons with what? 17 gallons of premium? hell standard pumpgas in the winter has almost that much ethanol in it

and i have 2 buddies that have been running 50/50mix e-85 for almost a full year now on speed6's

Yeap the evils of E85 are highly overrated. Cant wait to see how the 50/50 mix turns out when i get my hands on a big turbo.

D Walker · Postby **D Walker** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 9:14

I recently had an RX7 (FD) In that just would not pass, despite swapping his 90K mile cat and O2 sensor for units with less than 30K miles on them, plugs, wires, you name it we did it, including "disabling" the turbos so the stupid emissions tester could not get the car into boost. That was actually frustrating because I could SEE these kids purposefully lagging then flooring the car to "feel" the boost. Idiots.
We ran the car down to E, filled with 5 gallons E85, and it passed no problem. Filled the car up and returned the car to the customer with a waring not to beat the car up until he ran most of that tank through and added more fuel.

Chickenwafer is very correct on what hes saying about fuel. I have also had cars that would ust not pass on "premium" fuel pass easily just by filling up with regular.

Things I do/recommend when a car fails emissions:

Change oil- this really does work.
Check PCV Valve/Crank vents- overlooked a lot. Burning oil instead of gas results in high HC's no matter how hot the cat is. Can be frustrating because your car will not smoke and will drive perfectly for the most part, you will just fail emissions
SPARK PLUGS- Yeah, I know, we live in the land of 100K mile plug change intervals. Wrong. Change your damned plugs. Use what the factory recommends. Gimmick plugs are that, gimmicks. If your boosting high and fail emissions because you put in a colder plug, put the hot ones in for emissions, then change out. Have had the best luck with NGK V-power plain copper or "silver" plugs, work great even under very high boost loads. Have had really inconsistent results using Iridium plugs in cars not designed for them from the factory.
Change your wires if youhave them or are emissionsing an RX7 or Miata. Early Miatas had real spark issues and WILL fail emissions because of it.

Theres yards more but you get the idea.

rmeeker13 · Postby **rmeeker13** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 9:14

Thanks for all the suggestions fella's.
I've got new plugs to install, need to change oil...(seems to have a bit of gas in it like usual). This time around im going to set my ebc to valet mode and maybe my AP to valet or econ mode. The biggest reason i saw for the fail is the jackass that was trying to drive my car. He killed the car twice before getting on the dyno and three times while on the dyno! Also everytime you shift my car it pops (backfires) this is a major reason for the high hc. I am running the oem bpv in an attempt to not back fire as much but that don't seem to work. By the way this emissions test was done with my car at 16psi boost!!!

kingtut · Postby **kingtut** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 9:14

Where do they get these tools? I mean, really? [/grinds my gears]

rmeeker13 wrote: The biggest reason i saw for the fail is the jackass that was trying to drive my car. He killed the car twice before getting on the dyno and three times while on the dyno!

rmeeker13 · Postby **rmeeker13** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 9:14

kingtut wrote:Where do they get these tools? I mean, really? [/grinds my gears]

It was pretty sad man, I about told him to get the hell out of my car and let me do it!
I'm going to ask for someone else if I get that jackass again! The limit for HC is 2.000, mine was 2.254 It'll pass.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 9:14

I would venture a guess the person driving/testing the car at the emissions testing station has 50% at least to do with it.

I've actually personally seen a car fail a sniffer test on the dyno, and then be tested immediately afterwards by another driver and pass with flying colors.

kingtut · Postby **kingtut** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 9:14

How hard is it to employ quality personnel? Or at least a few "drivers" that are capable of handling the variety of autos that go to these facilities?

Aside from passing by the mobile testers, there's no way around having these morons beat on your car during testing, correct?

Emissions fail #1

Emissions fail #1

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