failed emissions test

I assume the car has had a tune-up within the last 15,000 miles or so and you have no CEL showing. I would get a bottle of "Techron Fuel System Cleaner" (sized for 20 gallon tank) and put it in your gas. Drive the car on the expressway for 20 miles or more at 65+ mph and use some full throttle at times. Then drive the tank down in your normal day to day pattern. This will clean up the injectors and carbon that can accumulate on the back of the intake valves. Let us know how you check out next time. Be sure and use the "SYSTEM CLEANER AND NOT THE INJECTOR CLEANER. I buy mine at Wal-Mart for about $9 for the 20 gallon size.

Start under the hood...... Your car is 16 years old. it could be (and not limited to these items)

O2 sensors Valve guides MAF sensor worn rings Dead cat convertor Exhaust leak

Anytime you have unburned hydrocarbons going out the pipe (oil consumption) or unburned fuel or excessive O2 the inspection machine will lay an egg. Time to take it to a mechanic that has his own analyzer. it might run just fine and fail, especially in the state of Californication.

Hi,

I didn't catch where you are, nor what part of the test the car failed.

Here in California, we have a "visual" and and "operating" section of the test. Visually, all the "stuff" has to be there and hooked up. The timing is checked manually by the technician, then the "computer" takes over most of the rest of the tests. Generally the car goes on a dyno (except AWD or full-time 4WD cars--anything that could "drive itself off" the dyno!) where there's a low speed and high speed test (actually

According to my regular smog guy (old timer), a very common source of failure on the dyno is having "cold" equipment. He always runs the engine at about 2000 rpm for 2 full minutes before hooking anything up. I've never had one fail w/ him testing, even the last test on my '90 Loyale before it blew up (it was going thru a quart of oil in 250 miles at the end) went fine. OTOH, he was on vacation last time I had to have my Toyota truck smogged, and the "kid" running the tests was running behind schedule, so it had cooled off waiting for him. He did NOT warm it up before he started the test, and it BARELY made it thru, though you could see on the results sheet just about where it started to warm up, cuz the "bad" numbers started dropping quite rapidly! (Moral of the story: old age and treachery overcomes youth and skill?)

He also said a lot of cars he tests are high on the HC (hydrocarbon) section, because of wear, etc., and a new cat can cover a multitude of sins if that's a problem area. (Mine had a whole new exhaust system installed shortly before the engine got "sick" so the cat was good.) An O2 sensor's a common cause of high HC emissions, too.

Finally, certain cars require a manual test of the gas cap, including mine. He says he sends a lot of owners to the parts store for a new cap when the rest of the systems are 100%.

So... we need more info on your car!

Rick