Emission testing pros & cons (essay)
Mike Fritz
I'm in the process of emissions testing on my vehicle. I will do a quick
run down the the pros and cons of the two type of testing I've
experienced. Or should I say, more of a comparison contrast.
Background:
I've lived in San Diego California since I was 1. A little over a year
ago I moved here to the Phoenix Arizona area for personal reasons. (I
got tired of people in San Diego.) I've owned my `74 Super Beetle since
`95.
I always HATED smog time in California. For CA, your vehicle had to go
through emissions once every other year. This was regardless of year of
vehicle. I won't even get into newer cars only needing to be at least 5
years old, it's a little out of the scope of this newsgroup. The was CA
does it is they "certify" shops to perform the inspection. There are two
types of inspection, the visual, then the actual tail pipe emissions
test. (For now, I will talk about the OLD testing procedure.)
If the guy didn't like you, he'd fail you right off the bat because your
charcoal canister didn't look right!!! I've once met a guy who goes on
about how he loaths VWs. How they are just an over grown lawn mower
engine. I mean, sure, I know that, but he said it in a demeaning way. I
wouldn't have minded the statement if he'd said it in a jokingly mannor.
He then proceeded to tell me my carburetor is a piece of shit. I replied
that I knew, it was made it Mexico, it's all I could find. He said, "No,
it don't have a throttle positioner." I replied that it didn't need one,
it was phased out around `72, the `74 had an EGR valve. He went on about
how he had 25 years experience working for VW. I thought in my head he
was probably fired back in `73 for installing a TP!!! He then goes to
tell me my dist. was a piece of shit too, because it only had a single
vacuum can. I reminded him my car was from out of California, which
doesn't NEED a dual vacuum can.
He proceeded to test my EGR, passed. He was then walking back into his
building, (I was in the lot, not in the shop yet.) Then he mumbled
something about owing him $30 or something just for what he did, I got
in, and drove away. Another shop put his sniffer in my tail pipe, out of
range, so he said, "well, won't pass, that's it." I asked if he'd at
least try to adjust my carb, or something. He said he couldn't do that.
I asked him why he couldn't, he said "just can't". I went into my trunk,
got out a couple screw drivers, and made adjustments. "You can't do
that!" he said. I said look, HCs going down. He took over the precision
operation, he go it so it was borderline, going between fail and pass.
He could hit "SEND" which in California will send whether the vehicle
passed of not. See, all the shops are on a network, if they chose to,
they can "SEND" your PASS of FAIL to the DMV. I told him, no way, I
wasn't going to risk failing and having to PAY the PENALTY!! I took it
to many other shops, they all treated my car like the Black Plague. In
the past shops have had my car for 6 days, then stole the radio.
Eventually I found a guy who was willing to "smog" my car. I took it to
him twice. He charged $120 to do it, but he wasn't afraid of Bugs, and
nothing was ever stolen from my car, and he had a good attitude, I
think. He would test your car, and adjust until it passed on his machine
that was NOT hooked to the computer. He would them drive to an
"official" station and pass it. Charging me $120.
In my opinion, I HATE this, because BY LAW you have to have your vehicle
pass emissions, yet a lot of these shop operators are crooked. There
have been cases where people have failed, left, then taken their car to
another shop, where they learn the last shop switched hoses to get the
car to fail, then charge the owner to "fix" it. If you find a shop
operator crooken enough, there's a price for passing a failing vehicle.
Just hook up a passing vehicle and pass that one, with your car's info
in the computer, easy...
The GOOD side is if the car fails, most shops will make a little
adjustment to make it pass with little money. This is good if you're out
of adjustment, and the turn of a screw is all that's really needed to
pass.
Then I moved to Arizona. The good side here is you only have to do
emissions testing in a couple counties. The bad news is I live in the
county that required me to smog my car. Right off the bat, the good
thing here is the state runs the Federal method of testing. In
California, they just started a year and a half ago, Smog II where they
put your vehicle on a dyno and test it at load, and at idle. This is how
they do it here in Arizona. The beauty of having the state run it is
that they HAVE to test Bugs, they CANNOT turn you down like in
California, which I think should be ILLEGAL since by LAW you have to
have your car tested.
If you pass, cool, if not, uh-oh. Last year, my first year, I passed,
close, but enough. The problem here is if your vehicle is 1979 or older,
it must be tested EVERY year, bummer. If it's 1980 or newer, every other
year, like California. The other bummer is that in California, if your
car is 1973 or older, it's exempt, in Arizona it's 1967 I believe.
Doesn't matter for me. If you fail, you are back in the same boat again
looking for a shop who won't treat you like a plague. This time, I did
the driving on the phone, with the phone book. Found one place, the line
was always busy, found another who does emissions work, but when I
mentioned it was a bug, "No, no, no, we don't do Bugs, sorry." I should
have asked him why, and grilled him... :-) Then I found a guy just a
couple miles away who sounded like he didn't care it was a Bug. I drove
out to see him yesterday, he was too busy, but promised he'd be able to
take a look at it during lunch tomorrow, (err, today).
So this guy seems like he ain't crooked. At least, he don't sound like a
moron. So I'll check back here, and I will give him a plug if he's good
to me. I'm sure it's just an adjustment as my compression is good,
valves adjusted, timing set, new Pertronix, one year old vacuum can,
rebuilt carb, new spark plug wires and plugs, 6 month old cap and rotor.
Mike
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Mike Fritz
just west of the 101 got my Bug to pass for $75, not bad. BUT for some
reason, when I drove off, my #1 spark sensor wire got sucked and chewed up
by the fan, somebody there tosed it behind my fan, damn, I wanted to keep
that for my restoration. Anyway, they had the idle up to something like 1200
RPM, kinda running rough. But I passed on my official test, so I'm happy.
I'm a little disappointed because I don't think my carb should be cranked up
like that just to pass.
If I lower the idle, and richen it up a bit, it runs smooth, but fails. Why
does this happen? Everything is good, compression, etc... Did a tune-up,
etc...
I have an idea, could this be it?: When I had my engine pulled, I found the
exhaust port for the #4 cylinder where it entered my muffler, was over 50%
rusted out. I could bend it away from the muffler, I was short on cash, so I
let it be. Could this make my engine idle poorly when it's adjusted right,
causing it to stumble? I think it would, makes sense, but to what degree?
Mike
Shad Laws
other things, act like having too little backpressure. Too little
backpressure at low speeds makes it run rough due to the cam overlapping...
Shad
Mike Fritz <mwf...@psn.net> wrote in message
news:39B07747...@psn.net...
Mike Fritz
to set the RPM to 1200 idle for it to pass, makes me feel bad! Compression was
something like 110, 115, 115, 118. I don't remember which was which, but I think
#3 was the 118. The cap and rotor are a few months old, and I have a Pertronix,
new wires and plugs. Carb was rebuilt a few months ago also. It seems if I
richen it up, it idles smoother, but then the CO and HC are too high. If you
lean the mixture, the CO and HC do go down, but once you get the CO down in it's
range, HC goes up to to misfiring, so I'm assuming the shop cranked up the idle
to stop the misfiring, allowing the HC to also go down, ideas?
Mike
Shad Laws wrote:
--
Nickolas Marple
surprised you use a Pertronix :)
(yes, i know a Pertronix is a "good" modification to the stock setup! I just
wanted to give you a hard time!)
--
Peace,
Nickolas Marple
Mesa, AZ
'71 SB, "Scarlet"
volksNO...@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/volks1302
(Please remove NO and SPAM from address to send e-mail!)
"Mike Fritz" <mwf...@psn.net> wrote in message
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Joe Fugazzi
Kentucky started the E-Check crap I went to the DMV, smiled and said i've
moved and need to update my address please. They did it with no problem and
I just drive south about 30 miles and renew my tags every year. Hope the EPA
doesn't monitor this group...They're probably dispatching a black helicopter
filled with stormtroopers to my house right now!
Joe Fugazzi
73 Super (Gross Polluter)
"Mike Fritz" <mwf...@psn.net> wrote in message
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