Emissions Readiness? New Engine Saga continues..

[Byron in Atlanta]

I'm sure most of you know about my blowing engines fiasco! Here is my latest issue. My tag was set to expire in June and here in Atlanta, you have to pass an emissions test before you can get your tag renewed. It was May and I had just got the car running again, so I went down for the emissions test and failed. He told me that the computer wasn't "Ready". He said I should drive it a couple of hundred miles and the computer should reset and then I could test again for free. I drove the car a couple of more weeks including a PCA DE, where it did quite nicely, thank you! Took it back to the same place for my free retest.

"Readiness = Fail"

He says, "how much you drive it?"

I say 400 miles like I stole it!

"Well drive it some more" says he!

But my tag expires this week!!!

"Hummmm...you should avoid the Police"

I went back this week for a 3rd test and $25 later the guy informs me that it's still not ready!!! Anybody ever had this before? I did a search and I saw some similar issues, but not exactly the same as mine is not throwing codes and seems to run fine. Is there an easy fix? My Dealer assures me that they can probably diagnose it in under 2 hours and mentioned the Secondary Air System? A buddy of mine suggested O2 Sensors? Any help would be greatly appreciated! I am about to sell the car and didn't want to spend a bunch of money. I guess I could save the money on a tag. And it could sell to someone in the other 9/10's of Georgia and the world that doesn't require an emissions test. But karma would bite me in the *** I am sure!

[Loren]

No fault codes or pending faults?

Only a new fault would cause it to go out of "ready" again.

[Byron in Atlanta]

No fault codes or pending faults?

Only a new fault would cause it to go out of "ready" again.

The CEL is not on, and there were no codes pending the last I checked. I will check the codes again tonight and see if I can get the emissions guy to tell me which readiness test failed?

[ABQautoxer]

Get someone with a higher end OBD-2 scanner or Durametric to read what is not ready (there are roughly 9 items to be ready and most need 7 to be ready to pass a plug-in test). That will be far cheaper/easier than throwing unknown parts at it.

[Loren]

[ABQautoxer]

Ah, the durametric has less. I'm used to seeing this:

If anything isn't set, it would not be a blackened circle. I think the Durametric would give you a far more verbose description of what is not ready on a boxster.

Also, here's the typical driving expected to set all test done by the OBD2 to be "ready."

Edited August 3, 2011 by ABQautoxer

[Byron in Atlanta]

Get someone with a higher end OBD-2 scanner or Durametric to read what is not ready (there are roughly 9 items to be ready and most need 7 to be ready to pass a plug-in test). That will be far cheaper/easier than throwing unknown parts at it.

ok...got home and hooked up the obd tester.....still no codes, or pending codes. Checked emissions and these are the two items out of eight that show " inc" (inconclusive?) cat monitor & evap system. Also checked the report from the emissions place. Just says "Readiness = Fail" , KOEO = PASS, DLC = PASS , MIL CMD = PASS

[ABQautoxer]

...Checked emissions and these are the two items out of eight that show " inc" (inconclusive?) cat monitor & evap system.

And that's what you need to work to set by driving in the cycles that set those two. Once they are set, you can pass a test. Otherwise they will fail and set a CEL.

[N41EF]

Might try reseting all of the monitors and driving it again. I know the evap on a Land Rover is a pain, only trys at half a tank so if you never let it get that low it never trys and never sets. I told the wife the CEL was a 1/2 tank reminder light.

Anyway, sounds like you are on the right track with your OBD reader. I'm almost two hours east of Atlanta and I have a Durametric if you need it.

[Byron in Atlanta]

Might try reseting all of the monitors and driving it again. I know the evap on a Land Rover is a pain, only trys at half a tank so if you never let it get that low it never trys and never sets. I told the wife the CEL was a 1/2 tank reminder light.

Anyway, sounds like you are on the right track with your OBD reader. I'm almost two hours east of Atlanta and I have a Durametric if you need it.

Thanks N41EF....I may shoot you a PM if I don't get it figured out.

[Dale_K]

Do you have a low temp thermostat? This is totally a guess but something like that might confuse the computer for stuff like whether the car has completed a full driving cycle.

[JFP in PA]

Do you have a low temp thermostat? This is totally a guess but something like that might confuse the computer for stuff like whether the car has completed a full driving cycle.

Cars with the LN 160 stat reset after a couple of drive cycles without issue................

[infocusf8]

Ok I know this is going to sound too simple but have you disconnected your battery then reconnected it? That should set everything back to square one.

[Loren]

Ok I know this is going to sound too simple but have you disconnected your battery then reconnected it? That should set everything back to square one.

Sorry, it is not that simple. The EPA has rules about retaining drive cycles and pending fault codes in the DME - so that you can't just disconnect the battery to pass emissions tests.

[N41EF]

I have the low temp thermostat and never had a check engine light from it. I don't know that I've ever checked the monitor readiness, we don't have inspections in SC.

[auto-xr]

Any update on this? I drove my car over 130 miles this past Saruday but my computer still doesn't pass the readiness check. Did the drive cycle work?

Here is my question link.

Edited January 9, 2012 by auto-xr

[logray]

Look at this post auto-xr.

Good info there plus two more links in that post you can look at with even more good info.

[Loren]

Any update on this? I drove my car over 130 miles this past Saruday but my computer still doesn't pass the readiness check. Did the drive cycle work?

Here is my question link.

http://www.renntech....793#entry214793

You will likely need several drive cycles - for most folks that means the better part of 1 week driving daily.

[logray]

Here, this one is good too:

http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/993-forum/516122-the-official-porsche-993-obd-ii-test-drive.html

In the very first post there is a good "how to image/diagram".

It's pertinent to the 996 as well and the tests can be accomplished in a short amount of time.