Georgia emissions testing (boooo!)

[dogfriend]

Originally Posted by The Tramp

This is the E.U. Emission test for my Prius:

RPM 780
CO corr 0,0%
Lambda 1,01 [-]
CO 0,009%
CO2 15,62%
HC 18 ppm
O2 0,21%
NOx 0 ppm


RPM 2190
CO corr 0.0%
Lambda 1,01 [-]
CO 0,004%
CO2 15,65%
HC 15 ppm
O2 0,21%
NOx 0 ppm

So your car won't pass the Georgia emissions test either.

[The Tramp]

Originally Posted by dogfriend

So your car won't pass the Georgia emissions test either.

Ain't I lucky not to live in Georgia....

[KTPhil]

Take it to the dealer and make them repair and pass the car. Every car is guaranteed to pass smog for 50K miles under federal law, or the dealer must repair it. As long as you have a clean air filter, there is nothing for you as an owner to do in the way of required maintenance. Yes, some states that follow the California specs give a 10 year/150K warranty for smog-related hardware, but you are already covered under federal regs. Let the dealer sort it out.

[dogfriend]

I don't think there is anything wrong with the car, its the test and/or the tech that is the problem. But, I agree, take it to Toyota - they will find a way to get it to pass.

[okiebutnotfrommuskogee]

Move to Oklahoma -- no inspections.

[hhoyal]

I took my car to the same emissions station for the free re-test, as allowed under Georgia law (I know I'm a glutton for punishment). Long story short, I failed again with almost exactly the same readings.

I have several next steps, which I hope will yield some positive results:
* My local dealer will inspect the car for potential emissions problems. As some have noted in posts to this thread, the PZEV certification from Toyota comes with warranty coverage for emissions. I'm not going to go into detail here since I might misquote, but I'm relatively sure that I won't pay out of pocket a penny for this dealer inspection. Trouble is that the dealers don't have this GA emission testing equipment. Dealers don't participate in GA emission testing. So, I can envision a case where my dealer tells me the car is fine, but it continues to fail the test. So...

* I've got a support case open with the GA Clean Air Force. The likely outcome is that they will send a tech to meet me at a location to 'referee' the test. This is my opportunity to show them that their testing workaround doesn't work, or it is too complicated to follow.

* Friends and colleagues are urging me to go public with this through various channels (local politics, local news, consumer advocate, etc.). I'm not ready for all that yet. I'm lending my support proactively so that maybe this can be solved for others. If it doesn't get results that route, then I can be persuaded to turn this thing ugly...

Thanks to the encouraging posts on this thread. Thanks especially to the The Tramp, who gave me his readings. I find it very revealing that we have similar numbers, and yes, you too would fail the test. Phooey. :-)

[hhoyal]

Originally Posted by hobbit

Have those numbnuts *still* not figured it out? This is SO EASY
to work around. If you're in deep contact with the people in
the GA emissions-testing infrastructure, HAVE THEM READ THIS
and then PROPAGATE that information to all of their inspection
stations. This is absolutely unbelievable and inexcusable.
.
731 RPM is too low, by the way. The Prius idles at about 1000,
so yeah, that test was invalid. WTF were they doing to the car
to pull figures like that?
.
_H*

That's a great link. I took that with me to the emissions station the first time. Funny story about that. I arrived at the testing center with my piece of paper and these steps. The conversation went like this:
Guy: "Prius eh? I'll test it, but it probably won't pass"
Me: "I heard that the test aborts because the car won't idle. I printed this paper from a website about how you can maintain an idle"...<interrupted>
Guy: "Has to do with blasting the A/C, right?"
Me: "No. It's a series of steps to put the car in a mode where it will continue to idle"...<interrupted>
Guy: "Yeah, I know. We've got those same steps as our workaround. The problem is that the car will only idle for 45 seconds using these steps, and the test takes longer than that usually."
Me: "Uhhh, I don't know what steps you have, but mine I printed from the internet. There is no 45 second limit to my steps"...<interrupted>
Guy: "Like I said, I'll test it. Please wait inside sir."

Of course my car has failed twice now. The morale of the story is that guys that work on cars aren't always very receptive to the customer about how to do their job.

I asked the guy if he has this problem with other Priuses.

Guy: "Actually, this is the first Prius I've ever successfully tested."
Me: "So usually the test aborts?"
Guy: "That's correct."
Me: "I'm not so sure I like the word successful here."

Both times when I left the station after the test, the A/C had been played with during the test.

[dogfriend]

My condolenses to you. Let Toyota fight with the Georgia government - they are obligated to make it pass.

[MadHungarian]

Hobbit is right-on with the approved instructions that allow the Prius to idle for test purposes--if the tech will use them!

I had my car inspected at the facility in the parking lot of the Toco Hills Shopping Center. The tech (?) used what appeared to be his own procedure--turn the AC on and run it at the highest/coldest setting.

I don't think is is the official GA method, but it worked--my car ('05) passed.

Good luck.

[Jack66]

I'm not sure that blasting the A/C would make the ICE turn over at the same RPMs as the idle procedure described above. Does the test work at different RPM ranges?