In reply to Datsun1500:
Just another reason why I (generally) like your approach to life.
In reply to Datsun1500:
Just another reason why I (generally) like your approach to life.
This is standard procedure in every state that checks ODBII. If the battery has been disconnected or gone dead, or the ODB has been flashed, you have to drive about 50 miles (depends on vehicle) for the system to re-baseline. You will not pass a state emissions test before then.
HAHAHA. I'm glad most my cars don't have OBDII.
I had to take the P71 for the "long drive home". About an hour down a 40 mph road lined with traffic lights rather than the 30 minute highway drive. It wasn't too bad and it eventually did cycle through the tests. Our emissions testing is simply a plug in. No more rollers.
Yeah they're not just being dicks, the ECU has to recalibrate itself. It probably won't really take 100 miles, but maybe an hour of driving should do it. And then you want them to drive your car so that your car can pass emissions? That's like asking them to replace your O2 sensor.
nderwater wrote: This is standard procedure in every state that checks ODBII. If the battery has been disconnected or gone dead, or the ODB has been flashed, you have to drive about 50 miles (depends on vehicle) for the system to re-baseline. You will not pass a state emissions test before then.
It can be done in as little as 15 miles, if the cycle is correct. All of the monitors are required to run once during a single FTP+Highway cycle. Running them once will clear the base code.
Datsun1500 wrote:GameboyRMH wrote: Yeah they're not just being dicks, the ECU has to recalibrate itself. It probably won't really take 100 miles, but maybe an hour of driving should do it. And then you want them to drive your car so that your car can pass emissions? That's like asking them to replace your O2 sensor.So they can demand I drive it for an hour? That's reasonable? OK, I demand you drive a VW Cabrio for a week.
I don't think paying more than half a car's costs again in various duties if I were to import one is reasonable, and yet I would have to in order to comply with the law regardless. Heck I think the 80kph highway speed limit here is incredibly unreasonable!
Is there any type of exemption to prove how little you drive it? I thought in PA we had something that if you drove the car less than 5,000 miles it was exempt.
It looks like Maryland only allows that exemption for Seniors. Old people get all the perks.
GameboyRMH wrote: Heck I think the 80kph highway speed limit here is incredibly unreasonable!
Your island sucks........needs to be more like the Isle of Man 
It's completely normal for emissions inspection to check for all monitors to be set. If not, people would just clear the MIL and drive straight to the testing before the failed component was self-tested for function.
Why would you keep bringing it back 7 miles later after you were told it needed about 100 miles?
Is it really that horrible to drive the car around for an afternoon to get it to pass?
It's your car, why would you expect the testing facility to drive the car around to get the monitors set? Especially one that only charges $15!
yamaha wrote:GameboyRMH wrote: Heck I think the 80kph highway speed limit here is incredibly unreasonable!Your island sucks........needs to be more like the Isle of Man
It's similar in that you can practically get away with any kind of speeding outside of town, but if you do get caught you'll be charged with plain old "speeding" instead of "furious driving"
I've been struggling with this for the Depressive Miata. It's running fine in semi-stock form, no codes or pending codes, but I drove it for 10 days / 250+ miles under a variety of conditions, and it just won't complete the catalyst monitor, O2 sensor monitor, and EGR monitor tests. Just. Won't. Do. It. It would probably pass a sniffer, but since the PO started with a '96 instead of a '95, it's got to beat the plug-in.
From their perspective, they see you bringing in a car that's had it's codes cleared and hasn't cycled to a readiness state. A typical amateur attempt to scam the system. They balked, which is perfectly fine, reasonable and legal.
In your case, they got tired of playing with you on this one, and simply gave you a free pass for two years. That's really not a reason to complain.
PHeller wrote: Is there any type of exemption to prove how little you drive it? I thought in PA we had something that if you drove the car less than 5,000 miles it was exempt. It looks like Maryland only allows that exemption for Seniors. Old people get all the perks.
except for the fact that we're old
god bless michigan.
Datsun1500 wrote: She actually asked "why do you own a car you do not drive?"
I hope your reply was "Because this is 'Muricah, berkeley you!"
firstworldproblems
In reply to Datsun1500:
Wait... so why couldn't you just, I dunno, drive it 100 miles? Clearly you have the time, as you drove the car to two separate appointments? As someone said, you got a pass on this one, but what point exactly was proven? None. And you wasted more of your own time rather than just playing by the rules.
I don't even really get the point of this thread, is the TL;DR that you fought the system and won?
yamaha wrote:Datsun1500 wrote: She actually asked "why do you own a car you do not drive?"I hope your reply was "Because this is 'Muricah, berkeley you!"
Well, if you don't drive it, I guess you don't need the tags anyhow.
You are lucky it wasn't the California DMV. They cracked down on extensions of any kind. Instead, they just give you move permits. I bought a '2002 MPV last year that had sat for a couple years. I fixed it, and went to smog and register it. The DMV would only give me two move permits to get the van to a Smog Check station. I tried to explain that you can't just drive to the station. The readiness checks had to be completed in the ECU, and that could take days and many miles. They looked at me blankly, and reiterated that I was not allowed to drive anywhere else. There would be "severe consequences" if I were to be pulled over. They said that if I fail a smog check, then I could get a 30 day permit, for a fee of course. I needed to drive it to smog it, but I was not allowed to drove it until I smogged it. Somehow that made sense to the DMV. This van took a LONG time to set the readiness monitors, well over 100 miles. I finally dug up the factory proceedure, and it was long and complex. The EVAP monitor was particularly troublesome. The car had to have just the right amount of gas in the tank, parked for a prescribed length of time, and then driven in a particular manner. The intake air temp also had to be below a certain temperature. Since it was California in the Summer, I ended up having to go for a 5am drive to set the EVAP monitor. If I stuck to my normal driving schedule, it could have taken months.
A classic story from here in Maryland! I appreciate the heads up as I'll have to make sure my 'kid away in college' car gets driven on a more regular basis before we run into this. You're spot-on - some kind of waiver would be the logical answer. I'll call Annapolis and they'll get right on it...
In reply to Datsun1500:
Dang man, can't you just do what you are told, when you are told, and how you are told. What, do you think you live in a free country or something.
Just take a ride around one of the beltways one weekend and that should do you good.
Aside from that MD just plain sucks...
It is not funny if you fail the test since the shop is going to charge you the hourly rate to drive your car as many cycles as it takes to get the fix to take.
With dealer rates over $100/hour you can easily spend more than the car is worth to fix a stubborn emissions problem.
Just on the driving time.
JtspellS wrote: Just take a ride around one of the beltways one weekend and that should do you good.
You could spend all weekend doing that and still not travel 100 miles.
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