Did the dreaded Biennial smog test on my 83 Silverado today and she passed with flying colors, been using Guaranteed to Pass fuel additive but the last couple of times using it failed once and barely cleared the second time, all this after a complete tune up and oil change. This time around did a whole bunch of reading on the net to get some good pointers for passing. First thing was to go with a thicker oil so I went with a 10w40, next was to run regular gas and stay away from Premium. This time I went with Berrymans Emission Pass Protection, put two bottles in the gas tank and ran the truck into the ground for the week prior, once I got down to a quarter tank filled it up with fresh Regular and took her in right off the freeway after a 15 mile high speed run.
Berryman's Emission Pass Protection
- Thread starter Malo83
- Start date
Surprised they allow it to be sold. Funny how people were all over VW for what they did, but if an individual uses it to game the system it's ok.
Whipcitywrencher
Site Donor 2024
I'm surprised they do a smog test on a 38-year-old vehicle. What's the cut-off date in Cal.?
How does 87 octane help?
What does the vehicle specify?
What does the vehicle specify?
1975 and older are smog exempt.
Tips and Advice on How to Pass a Smog Test
Knowing how to pass a smog test is something every car owner in California should know, but there are a lot of pitfalls and misconceptions involved.
axleaddict.com
The smog testing specs are specific to each county correct?
Because one is outright fraud and the other isn't?
19
76 and newer must be smogged
They did away with smog tests here years ago. There were a few shops that had cars permanently strapped to the rolling road and changed the camera angle so vehicles that failed would never go on the rolling road and miraculously pass the smog check. They charged $100-$125 for what was called "a push." At the time I believe the state inspection was $25. I could see a product like this being quite beneficial to those people who paid up for a push. I recall a story of a Ford Taurus strapped to the rolling road with over 150K miles of just doing pushes. lol
VW used an artificial means (electronic) for the exhaust to temporarily put out fewer emissions to pass the test. This method uses artificial means (chemical) for the exhaust to temporarily put out fewer emissions to pass the test. No difference.
Interesting topic. The flip side is VW used it for all their cars in question. In the case of the chemical additive the numbers of users in this case are a lot less. Having said that, two wrongs don't make it right.
VW was an OEM not following regulations, the other is for a consumer not "maintaining" their vehicle. This magic bottle "saves" the consumer money, VW is required to follow the law.
Just my $0.02
Just my $0.02
Why would anyone think this stuff should be illegal? It’s a fuel system cleaner that is marketed as an emissions cleaner. It works by cleaning up carbon deposits in the combustion chamber.
Techron also cleans up emissions too after the clean up tank, should that be illegal too?
Some of the responses and comments on this site lately have been silly.
Techron also cleans up emissions too after the clean up tank, should that be illegal too?
Some of the responses and comments on this site lately have been silly.
I thought it does something to the gas, like oxygenation for better combustion. How does removing carbon deposits decrease emissions?
The “guaranteed to pass” products are a fuel system cleaner, their goal is to remove the carbon deposits that are causing incomplete combustion. Yes, carbon deposits will raise HC levels in your exhaust. I’m sure plenty of people are familiar with doing a decarbonization or “decoking” on old carburetor engines. I had an old 80’s Chevy that failed the annual emissions test every year, but spray some water mist down the carburetor at a high idle speed helped clean out the combustion chambers and I was able to pass emissions after that.
I have not used the Berrymans version but I have lots of experience with RXP Gas Kicker. Both contain chemicals that promote a hotter, more complete combustion than plain old gasoline. They also contain a cocktail of detergents. The directions generally say to pour the additive in a tank of gas and then run it down to empty, and then refill with plain old gasoline. Once the initial “clean up” tank is used up the combustion chamber is as clean as it’s gonna get, it’s advised to get your emissions test done once you have used up the clean up tank of fuel.
Make no mistake that these emissions cleaners don’t fix worn out or internally damaged engines. Some engines might be beyond hope and won’t pass even with using these products.
Every emissions test law I’ve seen states that the vehicle must be in compliance at the time of testing and nothing more. This is where I think Volkswagen misinterpreted the emissions laws. They programmed some of their vehicles to produce lower emissions when hooked up to emissions testing devices, but once they were no longer in a test environment they went back to being out of compliance.
Again, the law does state “at the time of testing” in most states/counties. Comparing the VW cheating issue to using a “guaranteed to pass” or other emissions reducing additive is a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. With the VW engines they went back to being out of compliance once they were out of testing mode. Who’s to say how long an engine is in compliance once it’s been treated with an emissions reducing additive? Sure, some engines might quickly go back to producing emissions that are out of compliance, but many others might go 5K miles, 10k miles, etc and still be in compliance.
That was during 1984 - 1996...