I live in NC, have a 91 NA Convert. Had to go and get it inspected the other day. I don't know about other states but NC does not have provisions in their system for rotaries. I had the guy put it in as a 4 cyl 1.3L.

When it came time to do the sniff test, the tach pickup said the idle was 2500-3k rpm. best guess is that it was picking up the extra interference from the trailing spark plugs.

The test went thru the pre-conditioning process with the car at idle since it thought it was in the 2k-3k range required. The trick came when it needed to idle from 500-1100RPM to actually run the sniff test. The only way we were able to trick it to see the correct RPM was to have the inspector guy stand by the front right headlight with his back to the engine and the pickup for rpm over his chest to eliminate the trailing plug interference.

This is the only way we could get it to read properly, and pass inspection. My quetion is there a better way? What are others experiences getting their rotaries inspected?

 

if the system is too lame to do rotaries (which means the smog equippement is so out of date it is scary), but then it should be set to a 2.6 liter 6 cyl

 

Is he using the timing that is portable, the kind that they can lay on our hood? THAT IS CRAP!
I had a similar problem. THEY NEED TO HOOK DIRECTLY UP TO YOUR LEADING WIRE!

 

I say they let you pass since they obviously suck and can't test you correctly.

That's why it's nice to have AWD around here. The Dyno sniffer is for FWD/RWD only so they can only idle snif AWD cars.

 

They don't use a dyno sniffer. Car is let out of gear or in park. Idle at 2500RPM for a minute to pre-cond and warm the cats then sit at idle while it sniffs.

Yeah he tried the clip that goes on the plug wire, but could not get signal on either of the lead or trailing wires. Had to use that portable kind.

I think I may only need to pass it for emissions for another year. I beleive in 06 they are switching to the OBDII test full time, at which point they will do safety only for cars prior to 96.

I am actually surprised mine passed the safety part. My high beams don't work. With the lights off he hit the FTP and figured it was the highs, then turned on the low beams to check marker, and tag lights. Hopefully the relay i ordered will fix the highs.