Emissions Testing
 

A mechanic freind of mine had a carburated truck come into the shop that could not pass emissions. He got to checking out the truck and found that the factory air pump for the emissions system was missing other than that the truck was mechanically sound. The mechanic hooked up a hydrogen cell that he had on his bench and took the truck back thru emissions and it passed.

I just found this interesting and thought I would share it.

What state are you in? In NC you are required to have ALL emissions parts in place or the vehicle fails even if it's running clean enough to pass. They even do a visual inspection of the emissions components on older models (pre OBD II) which are not required to pass emissions, but still have to have all the parts installed whether they are working correctly or not.

I think the emissions in NC is county dependent. you are right about the presence of the equipment but there are ways around that. if there is an apparatus that resembles the device that should be there, they usually don't say much. buddy of mine went in with an old thunder bird and didn't have an evap box. he put a thermos there (a small personal thermos) but he spray painted it black....they passed him.

also, in good ole rockingham county. the emissions test is "IS YOUR CHECK ENGINE LIGHT ON?" and if it isn't, they plug up to the OBDII connector to see if it says READY. if so, you are good to go, at least as far as emissions go.

the thermos cooler is a funny story and I like to laugh about it. not that he has it on his car but the fact that he got a passing inspection for it.

Besides state inspections, it is still possible (though unlikely -- I've never heard of it happening) to get in trouble for messing with or disabling emissions equipment. There are even federal laws saying you can't remove or disable emissions devices.

That doesn't stop people from hollowing out their cat, putting a pipe through it, and passing visual inspections...and apparently it doesn't stop someone from spraypainting a thermos to use as a false evap canister. :D

I live in Tennessee and all they do to our equiptment is check the exhaust and see if it has a cat. They plug up an OBDII and check the computer but everything else gets a probe in the tail pipe to check the exhaust. Exhaust is clean...you pass.

justing,

Do all TN cars have to be emissions tested? Or just in the large cities?

in caswell county NC, all they do is a visual inspection of equipment. well that was 3 years ago. that may have changed since then.

my inspections used to cost $9.10 that was a sweet deal. too bad I moved

*edit* there is also a clause in NC inspections that if your vehicle is over 35 years old, no inspecion is needed. buddy of mine (same one with the thunderbird) has a 1965 ford that he doesn't get inspected. the only thing really original on it is the body and even some of that has been replaced.

they just recently started doing it in chattanooga but not in the smaller cities surrounding it. I am not sure about memphis and nashville.