I'll be getting the 92 awd etested when I get home and its been a while since I did one with a AWD, with my beater fwd I just stuck some alcohol from the drug store and she passed, but my AWD is a different story, I have removed all the emissions equipment and I have 650's,burnt chip,adpr,walbro 225, maf-t, but..... I do have a catalytic converter at least.
Do they fail if there is a check engine light or is it simply based on the exhaust readings?
If it fails could it be as easy as turning the fuel pressure down?
Can I use my logger to check if it will pass?

For a '92 nothing has changed with the way they do the test. They will stick a sniffer in the tailpipe and measure actual emissions during a 2-stage idle test.

They don't care if the check engine light is on. On a '92 You could be running the car with a potato instead of a computer for all they care. Hence you can't use the logger to know if you will pass.

Generally if the car is tuned well and you have a wirjubg cat you should be fine. If you've got mechanical issues (intake leaks, mismatched injectors and chip, etc) then you'll likely fail.

Did the car pass last time, and have you made changes since?

Where do I get a wirjubg cat, that sounds like my ticket to passing!!

I would just make sure you are idling at a right afr and that you are idling low enough.

As Jeff said as long as the car is well tuned you should be good.

Is it a test for transfer of ownership or just for a sticker renew?

Doh! But I googled wirjubg cat and found this awesome picture:

I think I need to look for another fakie.

No way I'm passing with cams. Last time I tried, even with a cat, I failed catastrophically.

E-tests are such a scam.

Haha that's funny!

E-tests are in fact the WORST.

Cars will never cause as much pollution as the factories situated here do, yet they are not limited. Logging companies, coal power plants, nuclear plants (Three Mile Island incident where the situation was played down and let the people get irradiated until the evacuation order was given), etc..

List goes on and on. Stopping car pollution isn't even beginning to solve the problem.

You could try running the car on nearly pure methanol, maybe to pass the emissions test.

Worldwide there are currently over 1 billion cars on the road which account for 23% of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions. Just sayin....

My cars just sit there and look pretty, so they save the environment

Haha, I wish I could convince the girlfriend of that. It's getting a bit old hearing about how we never take my car, and I don't even have the excuse of it being on jackstands. Although last time we went to take it it wasn't starting :S

Bah, I'm sure you'll have yours running tip-top soon. I wouldn't worry about it. Besides all good things come to those who wait (and it's true, as anticipation makes that day that much sweeter).

I had my 95 AWD e-tested last week and although it was still a 2-stage idle test the tech took a picture of the dash with the key on to show the lights that were illuminated, I have never seen before. I'm not positive but the CEL may be an issue with the new regulations in place.

I've been doing a bit of reading because I failed the test last week for HC at idle. Bump your idle to ~1100 rpm and retard your timing about 2 degrees. Retarding timing will reduce your HC while increasing NOX however with the AWD test they don't test for NOX so it can be a big benefit.

On a side note I wouldn't worry about anything until you know you need a re-test, as Jeff said if the car is in decent shape and at the right AFR with a functioning cat chances are you'll pass.

I didn't think you could get away with such a high idle, I thought they have the specs for each car

Under 1200 rpms from what I remember.

Oh ok that's good to know.

How can they calculate that though. Newer cars are getting more and more efficient. China is a terrible polluter with all their coal plants, countries used to dump their nuclear waste into the oceans, etc.

What I'm saying is if a country actually cares about polluting, they should find different and better ways of doing it. I'm all for cleaning this place up, but there are many things they could do that would have a greater impact.

Not to mention, how easy it is to trick an emissions test (unless you are me. Haha)

You can get away with a high idle, if the guys are cool about it, they will just bypass the engine speed.

Mine ran the test with the idle floating between 1200 and 1300.

I agree with:
-Get your AFR's right
-Dump a bunch of methyl hydrate in the tank
-Pull a couple degrees of timing
-Don't worry until it fails (because it probably won't)

I actually found that too much of anything is bad. I tried running really lean and that made it worse, so did too much timing pulled AND added.

But do add a GOOD amount of methyl hydrate. I have a feeling I added too little when I was doing mine.

I've never used the timing retard trick myself, but all the shops I know which "help" their customers through etests will pull 1-2 degrees of timing if they think the car/truck will have trouble.

Just get you afr's propery for idle. The meth I still have no proof it helps being no one has posted a before meth failure and an after meth pass. A proper cat will work wonders aslong as your engine feeds it the proper gases to work right.

This one shop I went to, the guy let me just sit there and play around with my settings, free of charge to see if I could get it lower than ~1200PPM

I should also add, when I took my exhaust apart and wanted to see if my cat was clogged by pointing the inlet downwards and hitting it, this nasty black and dark grey sand looking stuff came pouring out.

With the stock super leaky exhaust, boost leaks (MAF setup at the time), no meth, near dead alternator and an oscillating idle, I failed the test by 20PPM.

failed test results
2500rpm
PPM- 200 limit and 262 the car scored.
c02 limit is 1 and 3.62 the car scored.. FAILED
idle test
PPM- 200 limit and 293 car scored.
c02 limit is 1 and car scored .87..

and the pass 2 days later

2500rpm
ppm-200 is the limit and 69 car scored.
c02- 1 is the limit and .49 car scored

Idle test
ppm- 200 is the limit and 42 car scored
c02- 1 is the limit and .03 car scored.


PASSED.. yokomaha highflow cat installed, 89 octane, little leaner. idle bummed to 1000rpm and 2L of meth... Less then a 1/4 tank of gas and drive it like I stole it to the test place

So you installed a cat after the failure? Or was it there before? Because you failed the first test because you were too rich in your tune.

I'm glad my DSM passed a few months ago with flying colors. Another two more years of worry free DSMing here

Cat was there the whole time. Also the tu e wasn't dialed in on either times and we just targeted 16 instead if 14.7..

Only huge change was timing by a couple degrees... Drained tank put 89 octane in and 2l of meth

I am also happy etest camper. Passed in Ontario with 7 years old highflow 3" magnaflow cat and passed smog again in Cali (factory cat from 95) with flying colours. Still rocking factory unopened 7bolt with 250k.

Here is A DSM that failed with full emissions system and a Cat.



And after a bit of time with the owner setting up his tune correctly.




No meth. No fancy tricks. Just properly tuned so the Cat could do its job.

If you read out that license plate you get "Betsy"

And that's why I call her good 'ol Betsy!

Has anybody successfully passed the sniffer test with 272 cams, and I mean legally?

I have...multiple times.

BC272s, full 3" turboback (w. OEM cat switched in for e-test), Super 94 (fuel, not the turbo :P).

Not even a need to specially tune it...that OEM cat, despite having 200k on it and being over 20 years old gives me near perfect results.

OEM cat are excellent at their jobs. As long as they haven't been murdered. It's not so much a " Special Tune" it's taking the time to make sure you have no mechanical issues and setting up your idle tune properly.

My original downpipe with stock cat was always my "cheater pipe". Since it just takes a few minutes I would generally swap that in before an e-test just to be safe. I only failed once when I didn't have the airflow signal to the ECU hooked up

I still have that stock DP and cat laying around if anyone needs one (2G).

I have the stock secondary cat off my Elantra I should weld in, maybe find another smaller OEM cat to be safe. I know the Elantra with both OEM cats with 300k blew almost 0's on it's last e-test (Back when they had the sniffer)

Salomon, glad to hear you passed with cams

Yeah...I had originally tried with a high-flow 3" but that never really worked for me...but with the OEM cat I can drive it there cold and it will still pass...that thing is amazing. There's a reason the OEM ones cost $1k++

Hey cause were talking etests.

I went to see if I can get my sticker for my 97. I put it on the road last spring so my etest was still valid for a week or so. Well I didnt need to get it done. Even tho my birthday is in may and the etest will be invalid by then.

So another 2 years before an etest for me!!

Thats 3 years between etest! and Ill blow it up before i need another etest!

FukuGov!

You sure about that ? odd year cars are due this year.

But his etest from last year is still valid right now. So that is his odd-year car's etest. It's a small loophole, but I'm taking advantage of it this year as well.

Here's hoping they abolish it by 2016