California smog help!

[NorCal_N/A]

So ive failed smog about 2 or 3 times now. its failled on (no)ppm. ive cleaned and checked the egr and checked the cats, everything is ok. what else could it be? any help? i need it to pass in the next week so i can pay registration and get my new tags. Thanks in advance!

[dantesdoom]

Man these test are kind of funny. First off i would check the computer to make sure you don't have any codes. If you do, fix that problem. It could be an o2 sensor or such. The first thing that i would do, and some people might disagree, is run a weak mixture of seafoam in the gas and let it run for a while. It will clean all that crap out and your car will smoke like a b****. Then you know that your motor is running (more or less) a little bit cleaner exhaust for when they check it. Also, tuning up the motor will help alot. Start and make sure your plugs are good, clean the air filter, check the timing, replace PCV valves and make sure you have all cylinder functioning correctly, and also that your idle is set correctly. This should help, but you could have bad cats or something, but thats something that we cant tell from the internet.

But IMHO the seafoam will at least help. You can wait for other peoples opinons on this, but i have used it with little trouble, just dont overdo it. It will clean the crap out the cylinder, cats, exhaust, o2 sensors, and work its way back up into the EGR (although it wont help that too much). It worth a shot, it wont take too long, and can only help your car in the long run.

[NorCal_N/A]

ok yea i can check that. Its just REALLY frustrating when i cant drive my car and its just sitting here. i also heard that maybe the oxygen senors might be bad or maybe the crank sensor?

[NolimitZ32]

Check the following
1. codes
2. plugs
3. O2s
4. base timing

If all is well with those, move on to the check procedures in the FSM.

[300ZXttZMAN]

Damn it must suck to live in cali..

I am not very familar with having to pass emissions cause we dont have it here in Louisiana but would it help if you turned your idle like way down just temporarily... Would that work?? Have you tried it??

Lower idle.. Less fuel to burn. That way the cats can work more effectively because they dont have to do as much work????

Naturally that whole idea would not work if they made you rev your motor or something... But like I said I have no clue what they do when you go get smog tested...

^^^ If that doesnt work because you have to rev your motor during the test...

Try this,

Make sure your car is warmed up when you go drive her hard to get that exhaust hot.. The hotter you get your converter the more the the screens inside the converter expand thus making it more efficent and grabing more emissions..

Good Luck!

[dantesdoom]

^^^ just remember though. NOX gases that are causing you to fail are produced when the combustion chamber is excessively hot. Having the cats hot WILL make them work more efficiently, but you also want your motor to be as cool as possible when you go in.

Thats why a tune is helps so much. The motor works more efficiently, not producing excessive heat, thus not forming NOX gases.

[NolimitZ32]

you'd have to play with it, if NOx is the reason for failure then playing with timing could help you out.

[300ZXttZMAN]

^^^ just remember though. NOX gases that are causing you to fail are produced when the combustion chamber is excessively hot. Having the cats hot WILL make them work more efficiently, but you also want your motor to be as cool as possible when you go in.

Thats why a tune is helps so much. The motor works more efficiently, not producing excessive heat, thus not forming NOX gases.

So then put blocks of ice on top of your intake JK...

Why dont you just go over there park next to the place then wait a while and then try??

[marty1mc]

Any vacuum leaks? A vacuum leak will cause a lean condition and high NO.

[GerryO]

You might find something here:

failed-ca-smog-high-hc-need-help-t536926.html