if your burning oil definately change the oil also try the next grade if your using 10w-30 try 10w-40, if it runs rich try some methanol alcohol (the cheap gasline antifreeze) use about 2to 3 times whats recomended, sparkplugs will always help at least check them. Also take it for a good run on the highway let it warm completely up before taking it for its test
oh one other useful piece of advice if it fails take a look at the readings and follow it will usually get it to pass
High HC = running rich = advance the timing about 2-3 deg
High No = running lean = retart the timing about 2-3 deg
***after your done put it back as it can cause problems sometimes
If the HC and the No are high then you probably have a bad catlytic converter or an inoperative EGR or internal engine problems like buring oil.
But i would try the timming trick before you shell out money to get stuff done..
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Ah when she was in her glory, Not so nice anymore 358k 17years old her time is getting short ....
high hc does not mean running rich, high co means running rich. Advancing the timing increases hc and nox and slightly decreases co(not enough co drop to make up for increased hc and nox).
you can have high hc due to an overly lean condition too(ie. lean misfire)
make sure your egr is working if you have one, if its not you will have high nox.
Changing the oil is an excellent idea, dilluted oil will cause high co.
definitley make sure your plugs are good as well as the rest of you secondary components.
you will not know what you need until you take the test. Best thing you can do is make sure it was all adjusted professionally at the last major tuneup and/or repair. if you have every done major work, make sure you have everything set to factory sepcs. If it is a problem engine with burning oil, messed worn our carb, and stuff like that, Chances are it will have problems. You just don't know unti you take the test.
Is it a Test Only center that the DMV is sending you to? I ssy always look for the best deal. Try to go to a place that will give a retest at a discount. if you can't get any deals, or coupons, like from the PennySaver, than at least don't go to the most expensice place. if it's a test Only Center, they cannot and wil not tell you what needs repaired if it fails. it' it's not a test only center you are being directed to at least they can tell you what failed. I fyou have any dash lights out, it will not be testable. California can be the test from hell on some cars.
So my car sat for 18 months undriven after I failed the last smog test. I basically started it once every 2 months and moved it a bit to prevent the tires from going out of round.
I just made up my mind that positive thoughts would help me pass, and I decided that NEW OIL and a NEW FILTER would help as well. But before changing the oil I got a one day pass, and then drove the car for a short while (about 4-6 miles) to get the oil warm before changing.
I drained the oil easily enough, but it took over two hours to get the oil filter off because I guess it expanded due to heat build up from driving around. I don't know when I last changed the oil filter since the car was not driven for 18 months and then even before that not that much even when it was being driven semi-regularly.
I drove the car to the SAME smog station for another smog test and the car passed. I really didn't want to just barely pass either, so I was really pleased to find out that I had passed by a wide margin.
The technician said that by law the car should be driven on the dynamometer for three minutes BEFORE the actual smog test is conducted to make sure the car is up to temperature. If a company is busy perhaps they shortchange the warm-up time and that gives a worse score???
I'll have to reconsider my oil changing routine. My previous oil changing procedure included never letting the oil get lower than 1/2 quart before refilling it, but over time obviously the oil gets contaminated and even if the oil is "good enough" to lubricate the engine, it appears that older oil has absorbed more pollutants and so inevitably that gets put back out into the environment???
In case you're wondering, I probably was going anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 miles between actual oil and oil filter changes. A long time ago I would judiciously change the oil every 2,500 to 3,000 miles but over time I started extending the time because I had switched to 20-50 grade oil and that seemed to not break down very quickly and it seemed a waste to change the oil sooner than necessary.
Perhaps I'll go back to changing the oil and filter every 3,000 to 5,000 miles, and most definitely before every smog test.
18 months !! Next time do what I used to do with my gross polluter. Find a dishonest shop and tell them to "tweek" it until it passes. If they could do it give them an extra 20 bucks. Shps like these are found in the poorer areas of town. Ask around. Later, Bingo
Gosh, maybe was it two years the car sat??? All I know is I found a spider crawling around in the engine compartment when I was checking all the vacuum hoses because I had accidentally disconnected one while I was taking off the oil filter.
I really don't want to cheat to pass. I'd rather just pass! The Toyota was a back-up back-up car so I was able to go without. Now that it's running I'm kind of reminded why I iike the bugger. Once it hits thirty years old it may not have to be smogged anymore but I'll still smog it because I don't want to get by on age alone, ha ha ha.
Like Malcom X once said, "By any means nessesary" The stupid CA smog laws hit the poor the hardest. Those that have older cardorator cars.
My 80 'rolla just missed the numbers by a small amounts and I got tired of dealing with the gov. so I figured a way around the problem. I no longer have that car partly because of this and I wish I still had it.
By the way all goverment vehicles are exempt from smoging their vehicles... I guess their smog is the "good" kind.
That's why I posted my results. You're car may have failed because it had used oil and a used oil filter in it and perhaps the tester didn't run your car for three minutes on the dynanmometer before doing the actual test.
It's interesting though how you see it as saving money to have an older car and I agree. lol, once the car can no longer depreciate in value it actually becomes cost effective to run as long as the car gets decent gas mileage.
Although the newer cars do provide more "protection" in the event of an accident, and that should be considered as well.
you have to pay to have the legally required emissions test? wow, someone should have thought that one out a little better.
Illinois's e-testing facilities are all state run and absolutely free of charge
anyway, very interesting story here. I never would've guessed that changing the oil would make THAT much difference. but i guess your oil was very dirty. (I gathered you were letting it go so long that the engine consumed an appreciable amount of oil and you just top it off? I would have to say that's a bad practice, lol)
Since you asked, dirty oil increases emmissions because some oil is burned during combustion. A thin film is left on the cylincer walls after every cycle and its recycled through the PCV valve...so dirty oil will make drity exhaust.
I change my oil every 2-3 months (I NEVER drive 3,000 miles in 3 months!) because the oil starts to degrade, the additives starte to deplete, but mostly because the oil picks up contaminates. I might be a little obsessive, but peace of mind is worth an extra oil changer per year. Some people will look at their oil and say "oo look, it's clean! that means my engine is clean"...NOOOO, the oil is supposed to be dirty, almost black, all the time because it's supposed to be cleaning the engine all the time.
clean oil is not cleaning the engine at all! hahaha
I paid $59.00 and when it failed over a year and a half ago, I had something like 10 days to two weeks for a free retest. But it isn't free if you have to pay someone else to do diagnostic work first. Since I couldn't make it in time to a mechanic who was far away and was backlogged over a week, I kind of gave up. No mechanic had ever suggested I change the oil and oil filter right before a test, nor has anyone ever said it would result in cleaner burning exhaust. I thought it could be bad for the engine, but not for the exhaust system.
The car is still on it's original engine, around 213,000 miles in 29 years of use. It's only been the last 25,000 miles that I extended the time between oil changes, but I've always kept the oil resevoir properly full in between oil changes. I think the 20-50 weight really does not break down as quickly as the lighter oils do. I kept extending the time between oil changes because everytime I changed the oil I could feel that the oil was very slippery and didn't feel thin between my fingers. So my theory was as long as I didn't let the oil get more than 1/2 quart low, (normally it can get at least one quart low before adding oil), and don't overheat the engine due to carelessness, (like losing water from the radiator and not noticing), and used 20-50W, I could go at least 5,000 miles, even 7,500 miles between actual oil changes.
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