Emissions testing - Total FARCE!

[Dave Sherman]

Ohio testing is a bit of a joke. Ask my brother in law about the time he took his 1985 Pontiac Fiero in, and the tech put the front wheels over the rollers

. After some beating on the window he alerted the tech to the fact that it was a rear wheel drive vehicle.

I'm just glad the year I got my MG on the road was the year after it was old enough to be exempt. Might have been a little hard convincing the tech to let me adjust the idle air screw if it failed, seeing as how there are no MG dealers. Might have been entertaining watching them trying to find the cat too, since they won't find it under the car.

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: dparm
The vast majority of those tunes are not street legal.


I'd be willing to bet that NONE of them are EPA approved. The testing required is ridiculous and expensive. Same with most aftermarket tuners for gasoline powered cars and trucks.

People have always yanked cats and now the new diesels seem to inspire folks to start gutting parts as well. Without serious inspection expect to see more black smoke!



The more expensive tunes are 50-state street legal. The Stasis tune on my old S4 was.

 

[MetalSlug]

You all lucky . Around here if you drive sport v8 car ... Mustang .... Camaro . First thing the check do is look under your car to see any modified to the exhaust . See if the cat is on first ... If not instant fail . Basicly they do virtual inspection first .

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: dparm
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: dparm
The vast majority of those tunes are not street legal.


I'd be willing to bet that NONE of them are EPA approved. The testing required is ridiculous and expensive. Same with most aftermarket tuners for gasoline powered cars and trucks.

People have always yanked cats and now the new diesels seem to inspire folks to start gutting parts as well. Without serious inspection expect to see more black smoke!



The more expensive tunes are 50-state street legal. The Stasis tune on my old S4 was.


They imply compliance but somehow I seriously doubt they carry a real EPA certification. Among other things they would have to do a 50k mile real world compliance demo, that seems unlikely to me.

 

[hattaresguy]

Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
Originally Posted By: Donald
The goal is not to get every last car that pollutes, but to get the bulk of them so the air is cleaner.

If you fool the pollution test who are you really fooling? You breathe right?


+1

Emissions tests seem fairly decent here. My only issue is with diesel emissions testing and standards.

My buddy has a 2003 Duramax Diesel with an EFI Live tuner. The guy at the emissions testing place told him "as long as diesels do not blow black smoke at idle they pass". And it passed. As soon as it passed he drove out of the parking lot, put it in a specific tune mode with the turn of a knob, and blew a huge cloud of black diesel smoke down the road. His stepbrother has a newer Duramax and he cut off his DPF (diesel particulate filter) and also somehow passed emissions. He said they didn't even look under his truck. I don't understand how these types of modifications are legal.

Its like installing an exhaust cut out before my cat convertor so after the emissions test I can bypass it and drive with straight headers.




Black smoke is wasted fuel not more power.

With a modern computer controlled 4 stroke diesel if its tuned properly you should only be getting a puff of smoke on hard acceleration because the boost can't quite keep up with the fuel.

I had a modified Mercedes diesel and passed CT emissions with no issues, and my car had to be run on a dyno with the particulate in the exhaust measured. My motor was not stock, and the EGR was deleted, yet my particulate emissions were only about 10% of what was allowed. But my boost and fuel delivery were properly tuned. I didn't go around with a LOOK AT ME I have a diesel black smoke cloud around my car to get attention.

Those guys are amateur diesel tuners. Unless your building a drag truck their is no reason for that, and all it does is give diesels a bad rep.

 

[Scott_Tucker]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: dparm
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: dparm
The vast majority of those tunes are not street legal.


I'd be willing to bet that NONE of them are EPA approved. The testing required is ridiculous and expensive. Same with most aftermarket tuners for gasoline powered cars and trucks.

People have always yanked cats and now the new diesels seem to inspire folks to start gutting parts as well. Without serious inspection expect to see more black smoke!



The more expensive tunes are 50-state street legal. The Stasis tune on my old S4 was.


They imply compliance but somehow I seriously doubt they carry a real EPA certification. Among other things they would have to do a 50k mile real world compliance demo, that seems unlikely to me.


They do not do any long term compliance testing for aftermarket tunes. It's called a FTP75 test and they cost between $2000 and $4000 to have the test run. If you fail, there is no free retest. Once the car passes, you will be issued an exemption number for stickers you supply with the tune. You need to sell a lot of aftermarket tunes to make up the money spent on R and D so the smaller companies won't do it.