Crud. I feel like I'm about to be pouring money down an endless pit.I went to get a smog check for my 1991 Hyundai Excel. It flunked. Theguy showed me the printout and pointed to where it says the car can onlyhave a maximum of 847 polluting points, and my car showed 2,559 points,making it a Gross Polluter. He said I need a new catalytic converter andthen it would pass. I drove two blocks away and had the muffler guy install a new one for$95.......I drive right back and have it tested again, and would youbelieve it went from 2,559 points, to 3,428 Gross Polluting points!!!!It actually tested WORSE with a new converter!!!So now I'm asking him what happened?? How can this be? He tells me thatI should drive the car around and put about 50 miles on it and then hewill retest it and maybe it will pass?? I said what if it doesn't? Hesaid maybe you need and new ECR, or PCV, or some other 3 initial typevalve.......I'm so ticked off. Does anyone have any advise for me? And how can my test results WORSENafter I just put a new converter on??

The reason is for the worse results is that your original converter wasprobably fine and that new converters that can be installed for $95 don'tcost enough to cover the cost of the precious metals necessary to do agood job. Can you have the original one put back on? You don't want tohear the price of a new factory converter. It'll probably be close to$1000.To help you find out what may be wrong with the car, I'll need to know whyit failed. "Polluting points" don't give me much information, and in fact,I've never even heard the term "polluting point." I'm interested in theHC, CO, NOx, and any other specific readings that were taken, and themaximum/minimum reading in each category. Also let me know what sort oftest was done (e.g. dynamometer, idling tailpipe).--Message posted using information at

Help! Does anyone know anything about smogging their car?

Apr 15, 2008 21 Replies

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hyundaitech 18 years ago

I don't know that I agree about putting the car to sleep, but I don't know the condition of your car, either. As long as the car doesn't have any serious mechanical issues and is otherwise in reasonable condition, there's little reason to replace it. If the fuel management system is operating properly, it should still meet most if not all jursdictions' emissions requirements.

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Old_Timer 18 years ago

Since you are in California the state has a couple of programs you may want to check out.

One will assist you up to $500 to repair the car to where it will pass smog.

The other may give you as much as $1000 to junk a gross polluter car.

Check out this web site

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