Smogged to Death
 

Now Im not one to say that every car going down the road, should look like a tractor pull. The little check engine light came on in my 06 Pontiac Solstice. Just about the same time it's smog was due. The car ran the same, got the same mileage, nothing changed.

So I took it to my mechanic, who scanned it and said, it was the Air Intake Sensor. 116 dollars later, I installed a new one and had my mechanic reset the light. The next day, the light came back on.

So if the light is on, it cant be tested. Now I went to an emission test and repair center, who told me, they cant sleep at night, just thinking about when a GM car, rolls onto their property.

They said, first I have to have the car inspected, repaired, and then data logged. This requires, ideling for 20 minutes, driving at 25, 35, 45, and then doing a 20 minute run, between 55 and 65, for a period of four days. Once four days worth of data logging are stored in the computer, the computer will o.k. the test.

ARE YOU KIDDING! The car never gets driven that much in a month. Besides, four days, totalling 120 minutes of data loging a day, for days, comes out to 8 hours. Is this saving the environment? Is this saving gas? NO!

Not to mention, thats a grand in just running time, for a mechanic to do it, plus repairs and the stupid 78 dollar certificate.

I went to the GM dealer, who will do the repairs, but wants to have nothing to do with the 4 day, data logging process. He said, that was the smog repair shops job. The two garages were not trying to take my money, both did not want to do a weeks worth of work on the car.

Can I use the Scanguage and reset my own lights, and monitor the data logging? Hey Im certanly not made out of cash. GM needs to do something about this and also, this will be my last GM car. I think smog testing, C.A.R.B. and all the others involved in this emission testing, need to take a step back. What, do I need financing now for repairs? I certanly wont be buying any new cars after this. Has anyone else experienced this?

Re: Smogged to Death
 

Could you clarify why the data logging has to be done? Because the light was on when you took it in? Or just because it is a GM vehicle?

I thought that it was a just a visual inspection and a pass/fail sniffer test.

Re: Smogged to Death
 

Yes, you can use a Scangauge to reset your Check Engine light (CEL), but once the CEL is cleared, you need to drive around while the computer system runs a series of self tests. Usually this is about 50-100 miles. Once the self tests are complete, and the CEL is still not lit, you can take it into an emissions testing center and have it tested. You can also use your Scangauge to tell you when the test cycle is complete, and is ready to take to an emissions test station.

Re: Smogged to Death
 

You need to get your car inspected in my small town. Last month I brought my car in and was told to operated headlights, blinkers, brakes, wipers and then was given a clean bill of health. :)

Re: Smogged to Death
 

I went through a similar thing on an old Saab, stop start up to certain speeds stop slowly stop fast etc took about half an hours of two of us, one driving the other reading off the sequence to perform. Crazy ... You would think they could run that on a dyno automatically.

Re: Smogged to Death
 

Hold on, I think you misunderstood what's required. When you say 'dataloging' it's misleading. You do not need to 'datalog' nor does any mechanic need to spend 4 days driving it while datalogging. This may seem like splitting hairs, but the car simply needs to be driven by the owner in a wide variety of situations that are very similar to normal daily driving until the 'readiness monitors' in the car's ecu have been met.

Also, check with your state's registration laws. Here in California you can pay and submit yearly registration forms and fees before passing smog test. That way you're not delinquent, and you keep current registration. The DMV won't send the renewal stickers until they receive confirmation that your car has passed smog check. If you haven't passed smog by the time the registration expires your car could be ticketed and towed for having expired tags, so you can go to the DMV and get an extension. They'll give you a red number to tape on your window.

Re: Smogged to Death
 

It is a California car. The smog repiar station said that the computer needs to contain 4 days worth of driving, idle and all the different speeds, before, the car can be hooked to the smog ODBII computer. I did pay my fees and got an extension, but they didn't give me a red sticker.

Also thank you, for the Scanguage info, where is the best place to buy one? I can do my own repairs, and I'm planning a route out of town, where I can drive around aimlessly at different speeds.

This all seems like such a waste of time and fuel. The last time I smogged a car, it was just a full tank of premium and a sniffer test.

Re: Smogged to Death
 

I think the reason you need to drive so much is because a mechanic repaired the car and had to reset the error code for a bad MAF, which also reset the readiness monitors. Sometimes a mechanic will just unplug the battery for 15 seconds and reset everything in the ecu. It would have been better if the mechanic used a code reader since you can clear individual codes without affecting the readiness monitors.