bboyclo

they dont inspect **** for the waiver, they just make you pay for some dumbass service and they give you the waiver...but theres a minimum of how much you spend at the shop.........but if I was you I'd just go ahead with the denatured alcohol

JordanRykon

iTrader: (1)

well im going back to emissions today after i get it back from a shop and pass or fail, im gettin tabs on that bitch today lol

oh and as far as the Bonez cats go, are they pretty good or what?

revolut10n

Ugh. Epic Fail for me, unfortunately. Even with the denatured alcohol it still was massively over the required limits..

Cruise Limit = 150
Emissions = 564

Idle Limit = 220
Emissions = 1415!!!!!

I'm never going to pass this thing.. *sigh*.

Upgrayedd

iTrader: (1)

According to the Washington State Dept of Ecology, one of the requirements to get a waiver is a "pass" of a visual inspection of emissions components. So basically they're gonna look for a catalytic converter cuz they're not gonna know we have smog pumps, cat, and pre-cat. That is IF they actually perform the inspection. That's along with spending $150 minimum on emissions work at a CERTIFIED shop, not just any shop I tried that. Did a full tune up and then re-tested and failed worse than before.

Rotarbeast

let me make myself a little more clear

the inspection doesn't matter!

point5chink

Well for me I hate taking my car to get worked on by anyone else but me. Plus it was cheaper to add the alky and do a temp tune. 15 for the alky vs 150 for an airpump vs 150 for a waiver.

revolut10n, do you have a programmable ECU? The alky let me run a super lean tune at idle which is the other reason i could pass. My car could never run a 17:1 afr on just gas. If you do, just add timing (i did 20* adv) and lean it out until you start misfiring, then back it off till you dont miss anymore. Go straight to emissions, pass, then switch it back to normal.

Tatakai

iTrader: (2)

my solution has always been to just loosen the bolts before the cat so you have a small leak. i've never failed an emissions test on the 4+ cars i've had tested

bboyclo

well you got the $150 minimum...my previous FC had a header and a straight pipe all the way back and I still got waived hahahah no problems with my new one though I passed with flying colors I couldn't believe it.........all i did was put the cat back, made sure my air pump works, changed the oil 30mins prior and seafoam in my gas tank over the weekend

revolut10n

@point5chink: nope no programmable ECU on mine unfortunately otherwise I would've probably passed! I think that a large part of my problem may be my O2 sensor. I just put one in this weekend and did not have the plug that i supposed to be used to mate the 2 ends together. Basically I just cobbled something together w/out having to solder the wires together. I'm guessing that it's not working @ all and if it is fixed I'll do much better the next time around.

dhays

iTrader: (1)

Maybe it depends on whether the folks are doing their job or not. When i got my waiver, they popped the hood, saw my Greddy intake, and looked it up to see if it was emissions approved. They DO inspect however.

dhays

iTrader: (1)

You are very clear, you just happen to be very wrong. Go read the law.

If you fail and want a waiver, they can actually make you prove that none of your emission equipment has been altered. Granted, they aren't going to do that often, but they are supposed to do an inspection and if they don't like what they see, they can make you prove that you haven't altered any of your emissions equipment. You would then have to bring evidence as to what the OEM emissions equipment was, and then demonstrate that you haven't changed it at all.

I'm not saying that their aren't lax inspectors out there, but don't count on it.

BlueShift

Under the hood I look bone stock, I doubt that they can tell a difference between OEM and '99 Turbos. For that matter is there a difference in the emissions?? The other thing I have is a street port, but something tells me they wont be able to pop the hood and be like "that guys got a street port!"

dhays

iTrader: (1)

Exactly. Most of the time they will look under the hood, and just nod and shrug. If they see something shiny, they may look twice. They might look under the car, but with the RX-7 being so low, they aren't going to see much.

When I had Jerry do my work for emissions, he noted on the work order that the cat was in place (he didn't mention it was an aftermarket cat) he didn't mention the downpipe/pre-cat at all. He also mentioned that the airpump was installed and working and that ECU was stock. This was written right on the work order that I had to show to get my waiver. This constituted "proof" that the emissions were not altered. Jerry helped a lot by providing truthful information (albeit not entirely complete information) as to the state of the car.

If I can't pass emissions again, even with alcohol and an increased idle, I'll just have Jerry do $150 worth of work on the car again. It is nice that he is a certified emissions shop as well as a rotary shop.

Rotarbeast

well thats because greddy is rice fool.


greddy =

Rotarbeast

So the lesson here is if you dont want to fail the inspection, dont rice out your car!

point5chink

no, just make sure if you do rice out your car you have a standalone and know how to use it But really, my car is dead stock on the outside. Open the hood though and ...

dhays

iTrader: (1)

I agree, at least as far as the intake in concerned. The intake isn't bad, the flow is good, it supports all the necessary connections. The problem is I don't think the filters do a good enough job of actually filtering the air. I'm looking to see if I can find a pair of K&N cones that will fit the intakes.

My car has several "rice" elements in the engine bay. All were installed by the prior owners and I've removed a couple. The only changes I've made is to try and clean up all the gunk coating everything in the engine bay.

BlueShift

Yeah, Good luck with that! Let me know what works because short of a miracle I don't think I am ever getting my engine bay "shiny"

JordanRykon

iTrader: (1)

Failed again, not a big surprise. but what did surprise me is that the guy there made me drive my front wheels on the rollers.. i kept telling him it was rear and he kept sayin "oh i know" then he got in the car and went to do the test and it quickly jumped off haha then he popped the hood for about 3 seconds, looked confused and closed it.

so the question isnt whether or not theyll check it, its whether or not the people you deal with are idiots lol

BlueShift

If someone did that with my car, I would get there *** fired!

dhays

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, I agree. Even I would know better than that.

Seriously, I would think a complaint would be in order. The operator is listed on the test results. I'd find out where to direct the letter, and then send a letter describing the incident. At the very least, someone needs to do some proper training.

revolut10n

That's what I ended up doing, actually. Much easier that way all said and done.

themcneal

iTrader: (1)

Just to be clear, they do perform a visual. I failed my on my first try and they didn't even bother to pop the hood and the attendant there was casual about it. When I came back for my 2nd attempt, in addition to the attendant there was some supervisor or something wandering around in an orange jacket or something and although the attendant didn't care about me popping the hood this guy did. My car looks pretty stocky besides the hardpipes for the sotck intercooler (not chrome) and for reliability and for my chrome intake pipes (to replace the stock rubber tubes), but I have a stock intake box, etc. This supervisor or whatever said to me that I couldn't get the waiver since it wasn't stock under the hood, even though I had more than $150 in receipts for what could be considered "smog related" work since the last time I failed, but luckily I passed anyway so I could tell the guy to F-off.

Also in the past I have found that running the "pass additive" with the Mitsu 3000 on the label helped, although I didn't use it exactly as directed. I added 1 bottle to a full tank and ran it through, then I added a 2nd full bottle to a 1/4 tank then took it to get tested (and passed in CA). In the 1/4 tank configuration the car is running very lean so I didn't get on the boost much.