DarkNinja75

I'm trying to sell my car, and CA requires you have it SMOG checked. Well, it failed for 3 reasons:

1) MIL/Check engine light test. Failed OBD self tests.
Easily remedied. I disconnected the battery this morning because I just finished changing the starter and had entered the wrong passcode on my radio. To reset it, I had to disconnect the battery. I guess I then have to drive the car 50-100 miles for it reset/recalibrate.

2) HC PPM at 15mph. Max is 51 and my car put out 55. It's mildly annoying since it passed the CO and NO tests with flying colors.

3) Visible smoke test. It smoked gray, pretty simple.

Option 1: I think they all might be remedied the same way; drive the car about 100 miles and let the engine correctly remap itself.

Option 2: If that's not it, then the only other thing I can think of is replacing piston rings in two of the pistons. When I changed the spark plugs a couple months ago I noticed oil on two of them, implying worn piston rings.

Is option 1 even viable, or just wishful thinking? I have the sneaking suspicion changing the piston rings on this car will be a massive PITA, just like changing the starter was.

DarkNinja75

I can add that I have a copy of the last SMOG check, which was done 7 months and 7,000 miles ago. The HC PPM was only 14.

Go90go

Change the plugs again, and change your air filter as you're running rich. Oil on the plugs would be the valve seals, not the piston rings and if your rings were bad, you'd have a lot more problems than that.

Also, before you test, drive around and mash it a few times. The load will cause the exhaust to properly heat up the cat to its maximum efficiency range. A cold cat does nothing.

I got a 50 for the 15MPH HC Which shocked me, but only about 200 RPMs later, I had much less for the 25MPH.

~Cheers~

desired_speeds

how many miles on your car?

monkeybutt

Maybe try some of this: http://upgrademotoring.com/performance/neo_gasadd.htm
I first thought it was snake oil, but then a well informed industry friend recommended it to me when I was having a bit of trouble passing SMOG w/ my old 1995 GS-R w/ remapped chip, cams, etc. It did the trick and I never failed after using this product.

DarkNinja75

185k

Not sure how that differs from Seafoam?

I drove the car today and mashed on it a bit. I revved it in neutral to see if I could get it to smoke, but nothing. I'm not sure if that's because it's not under load, or if it's remapped itself correctly.

What I noticed when the tech did the test was that it smoked more than I had ever seen before. Before I had honestly never seen it smoke, and it was pretty bad. My best assumption is the fact that I let it sit for a month simply allowed crud to build up (starter change, waited for parts). Then I drove it 15 miles to the test station, and he was burning it all out.

desired_speeds

hc is easier to deal with than NOx. Anyways... Sparkplug and air filter replacement should be done as mentioned above. Add a bottle of chevron fuel injector cleaner and run it for a tank. Maybe before the sparkplug replacement, run 1/3 can of seafoam through the intake manifold. I think a bit more time to clear up the buildup and heating up the cat would be enough to make it pass.