I said no offense,and I also said I am no Angel.
Then again I am not going to post up and tell someone to Break or bend the law.
I'm not trying to make this a Pissing match I just don't agree with the Statement that someone should drive around with expired ****.
Plain and simple.
My car has no Insurance.I don't drive it.It pisses me off that It ran out 2 days after I got it tuned,But It stayed in the yard.It's covered until spring..just sitting there,Until insurance gets put on it.
So,I bought another car.Got the Safety(1988) got no Etest..it is in the garage.Not driving that either.So 2 Good cars no legitimate "paperwork"..sitting.
If you can get away with the "sticker stuff" then more power to ya.
Personally,It doesn't sit well in my gut.I've had enough of the POPO and I would just rather avoid the Hassle.

 

Ok... I thought I'll join the discussion.

I went to e-test my 1999 Integra last week. Knowing that MTO has introduced new testing system I was slightly worried for my rusty and never receiving any love winter beater failing...

Being equipped with OBDII port the car didn't need the old sniffer test, however there were few things I didn't expect at all:
- the inspector took several pictures of my engine bay prior to running the test
- then he double-checked the VIN
- then he made sure all bulbs inside the cluster were OK (meaning I didn't just pull one out in order to hide possible check engine light)
- there was a digital camera setup facing my cluster which remained in place during entire test
- he did a visual check for smoke out of exhaust pipe

Strict?? I think so.
To my surprise the car passed however. I had a reason to be excited, but by then I was already thinking what would happen to my FD when I bring her in for the same test in spring. And that along made me wanna look for alternative ways around the emission nightmare.
So what options do we have?

1. Obtaining an "under the table" sticker (if I could find someone who could do it - I wouldn't hesitate)
2. Changing vehicle registration to out of DriveClean zone address (will require you change your health card address too)
3. Doing a motor swap and going for a test as a 'Hot Rod'
4. Running the test using alternative fuels, such as Methyl Hydrate, Denatured Alcohol, E85, etc. (high risk of damaging the internals)
5. Continue driving around with expired sticker, accumulating $110 fines
6. Stripping the mods and bringing the car back to OEM specs (say goodbye to all the fun)

For those of us who have moderately modded engines and/or missing OEM factory emission equipment HARSH TIMES have come.

 

This cash grab scam has gone on long enough. When are people finally going to be able to do away with this???

Just gotta keep on paying for the damn license sticker... Stupid drive clean!

 

I'm going to work on a solution in the spring to legally pass our modified cars. However, will require a tunable computer.

thewird

 

The beauty of owning an FB :P lol. Too bad it's not much of a perk when the car isn't even running, lol. I recall someone saying it was possible to somehow clear the codes or stop the signal for them or something to that effect.

 

Non-OBDII cars get normal sniffer tests which is a 2 speed idle test. Modern ECU's can be flashed to disable the codes if they have obdii though with the right equipment and know how. I can do this on RX-8's

thewird

 

thewird,

Our cars are regulated by the old rules of Drive clean still, correct???
Regardless of it having a programable ECU aka PowerFC, Haltech, etc.

 

Sort of, the test changed in that its a 2 speed idle test only now which is worse for us. The added camera's and security have pretty much stopped the less then legal etests (for a little while anyway).

thewird

 

FD owners with upgraded ECU's don't need to worry about being tested through OBDII. It doesn't matter what you are running there - standalone or a piggyback, our cars simply don't have the OBDII port.

Having said that, we will be tested using 2 speed idle test, which is very much like in old times, minus the dyno rollers, but you still get the sniffer up your pipe.

What 'thewird' is saying is with the added security features like photographs taken of your car and a live video feed capturing your cluster during the test - it's nearly impossible to cheat the system.

If your engine bay looks nowhere near OEM - they will fail you on a visual check
If you missing emission equipment (cat, oxygen sensor) - you will fail by carbon readings
If your check engine light is on - you will fail automatically even without a test...

 

My plan for the two stage idle is to set my safc as lean as possible and reroute the air pump to the cat. Hope that works for next year

 

Lean doesn't necessarily mean cleaner emissions at idle...

thewird

 

The only pictures that should be taken are of the rear of the vehicle, one of the VIN plates (dashboard, door or door jam) and the instrument cluster (vehicle off, but with the key in the on position to show that the MIL works). Unless you were testing it as a Hot Rod, there was no reason to take a picture of the engine bay.

No where in the procedures does it say to do this. Again no reason for this to have been done.

All of these were standard checks, even under the old emission testing system.

False

You will be rejected from testing if the catalytic converter isn't present.

False. With 1998 and newer vehicles with a MIL on, you do not automatically fail even without a test. You actually have to perform the test to find out if it passes or fails. And despite what many people think, you can pass with a MIL on.

 

^ This! Kept failing despite taking fuel out of the vacuum cells. As soon as my FD went on the rollers. It passed.

mine is due late this year.

 

As they say then, where there's a will, there's a way.

I still remember when they first introduced Drive Clean. I think I owned the car for 6 months before having to get my plate renewed. Car was stock and just 4yrs old with only 48k on the clock, so I took it to the local crappy tire to get emissions tested.
Punk *** kid got in the car, took it for a drive around the parking lot, stopped at the garden center to chat up some chick, and went into the garage to get tested.
She passed. I wasn't surprised since the car was stock and fairly new. What really ticked me off is how the stupid kid had to do a parade lap around the parking lot and stop to chat up some chick. wtf was that all about.
I had a few words with management about it.
It was the first, and last time I had my car tested in its original state.

Later down the road, just for kicks I took it to Dave Wood after having a bit of mods on it. I knew she wasn't going to pass, despite the fact it had a high flow cat and the air pump still in place. The readings were through the roof. Just to make absolutely sure none of the data was entered incorrectly, we ran it again. Same results.

What kills me is this program doesn't help anyone. Its just a cash cow for the government. That's what really bakes my bacon!!

It almost makes me think of running it with an expired plate sticker all the time. But knowing my luck, I'll get stopped and get investigated. Despite owning the vehicle for over 15yrs now. Man, has it been that long?!?! Time flies when you're having fun...

 

Everyone is being heavily affected from this. It is completely unfair and even though I'm pro-liberial, this shows just how stupid they really are for implementing a program without testing it first. It is only going to make people try harder to find a loophole or create a module that emulate a passing emission system.

 

I guess the rhd guys have to get a form from a drive clean test facility. Fill it out send in 3 pictures of your car and wait 2 days for them to call and tell you your vehicles registered as a grey market vehicle and then you can get tested to the 1980 standard hahaha

When I did it last time with stock exhaust and airpump my nox in my fd was 32ppm the limit was 2800ppm hhahaa

 

It helps the shops... lol

thewird

 

I'm never leaving bruce county! No etest!!! I was at a training seminar though that covered a lot about the new testing and it is a huge headache! Not just for us guys with modified cars, but for the general public! For a car to pass it has to complete and pass all the vehicles monitors. The government forgot that here in Canada we have this season called WINTER! Getting an evap monitor to complete in winter is next to impossible. It is dependant on ambient temp being in a certain perameter. Hopefully they'll pull their heads out of their asses and they'll realize they effed up royally with this new system.

 

Hope I can get away with the hot rod rule, or I'll never pass this spring. Barely passed last time with a factory cat! Now have a hi-flo but still have the air pump, lucky me?

 

So for you guys that drive your cars to the track how are you going to get around this? Im trying to figure out how to get my car to the track and from what i am understanding passing the test isnt even an option for me. So is my only option renting a trailer to get it there? Along the same lines of that, i need to get my haltech tuned and was planning on getting it tuned on the street but seeing as how i wont be able to drive it on the street does that mean im going to have to rent a dyno or are there any other ways?

 

Something will come out come spring, don't worry

thewird

 

LOL so my ubber motor should not be sold and installed!

 

Ontario could be my near future home, so I am keeping a close eye on this thread. Hopefully the drive clean program just gets scrapped completely.

Scrap Drive Clean.ca | From Drive Clean to Clean Wallet

 

Duh!..
read this quote!:
“To ensure all monitors are ready, the Ministry of the Environment actually suggests you should spend a few days driving your vehicle on the highway and around town,” Harris said. “I have to admit it seems somewhat ironic that under a program with the stated objective to reduce emissions, the Liberals are encouraging Ontarians to spend days aimlessly driving around to solve a technical glitch before they can pay more money to take another e-test.”

..even though Steven Harper looks like "Peabody",someone didn't sharpen that pencil..

 

This kind of stuff drives me crazy. There is no thought about how to do this for all cars and what the effects are on the population in Ontario. All of my street cars are bone stock, except for my 1976 F250 and its legal as an ancient heavy truck work vehicle that doesn't require e testing. It used to make me laugh when I would take my Jag in for e testing. Here is a 400 hp supercharged V8 that gets about 10 mpg and after they would run it through the test I would always end up with zero's in a couple of columns and way below limits in others.

I wonder if I change the blower pulley with something smaller to increase the rpm and the boost, would any inspector be able to tell if I painted it black? I could get another 20 hp easy and I believe that during an idle test it should be fine.

I just hate all this big brother stuff and I have seen a ton of it. I wonder if this is why there is substantial drop off in young kids interest in cars. If you can't play with it, the car is just an appliance that costs a ton and wears out pretty quickly. This kind of stuff is why I got rid of my dirt bikes about 20 years ago and went to stock street cars and spent my money on track only stuff, trucks and trailers, as I just didn't want the hassles.

Eric