car inspection

when you need to fix your car cause your engine lights on and you do fix your car and they turn your engine light off . then the person says your car has to go through so many (cycles) what does that mean ? how many times your car is turned on and off or how many miles your car is driven, then turned on and off? thanks for any info.

Usually it means the computer has to basically relearn your driving habits. I can't say for sure how many starts it takes, varies from car to car i guess. Be sure you keep the gas cap tight, that often causes check engine light to light.

normally you reset the fault codes after fixing the problem & the light goes away -

If it was something like the gas cap, the CEL will go away by it self after the problem was corrected and the vehicle goes through a few start-run-stop cycles. If the CEL is going to go out - it would do it in a few days of driving.

I can tell you from $85 ticket experience the car has to reset all the readiness monitors. Here is how it works, your car has the check engine light on. You fix the problem and reset the computer to turn the light off. The computer has to go through so many "drive cycles" before it stores "READY" in it's memory bank. All makes are a little different but A drive cycle is basically this: cold startup (coolant less than 120 degrees), no ignition cycling for 10-15 minutes, steady speed above 45mph for more than 1 minute. The computer will check the EGR, EVAP, CATALYST, and some others during this time. It has to be repeated 3 or 5 times before the computer will register with the state as "READY", otherwise even though the light is off and the problem is fixed, when you go to inspection the state computer will FAIL you because of the readiness monitors not being "READY!" If you fail they give you a 10 day temporary pass for $22, after 10 days if you get caught driving in the peoples republik of New York without a retest it's a $85 court appearance. don't ask how I know.

My car failed inspection in February due to the "check engine" light being on. The mechanic plugged in his handheld computer and the code was for the EGR valve. I replaced the EGR valave myself but I didn't know how to clear the "check engine" light. I looked on the internet and now I know how: you simply remove the Negative terminal from the battery for a few seconds, then re-attach it. You may have lost your radio settings, but the dashboard will be completely clear. Now if I could only find the time to get the thing reinspected.

Here in NY, they actually hook your vehicle up to the OBDII sensor port and scan the computer for error codes and transmit the data to Albany to be stored with your vehicle information. So you can't just try and take it somewhere else to get it to pass.

Case in point. If you store your vehicle(s) for the winter and take the battery out, you must drive it 50-100 miles before getting it inspected. It has to have so much data in the computer and/or all the systems online to PASS. Mine failed the first time out of storage, drove it a few days and took it back, no problems.

Normally after fixing the problems, the light should go out after 20-50+? miles....

NY does that, since many people will just try and diconnect the battery, clear the codes/check engine lights and take it to a service station quick to get it to pass...WRONG. Since the emissions systems take a while to collect data, that is why it doesn't work, if the systems are NOT online, even though there is no check engine light, you can still fail!

For the record i'm a certified gm tech. Been working on gm cars for the last 20 years. The newer cars even if u have the battery disconnected for a week the fault code is still in the pcm (computer) even thou the check engine lite is off. It will only clear thru the use of a scan tool or after 40 drive cycles without a failure

This whole inspection thing is BS! Here in NE PA (it depends on county) they check your gas cap (that's it!), at the tune of $35 or whatever it is. Why don't they just sell you a new gas cap for $1.75? How many of the new cars are polluting, compared to 50 years ago? It's a rip!

Don't worry pretty soon with OBD III and OBD IV and things like GM's "ONSTAR" no more inspections will be needed. As soon as there is a malfunction it will tell headquarters and you will be contacted and have 10 days to fix it or your car gets immobilized.

My uncle owns an inspection station. He was telling me that AT&T gets something like 4.75 for every inspection as a transaction fee. Leave it to the politicians to make a simple thing like replacing a gas cap complicated and expensive.

NEPAForum Admin wrote:Coincidentally I just saw piece on the news describing that very same thing for Onstar customers who have their car stolen. When the cop gets a visual on the car he can tell the onstar operator to shut it off when its safe to do it.

Not a bad idea because the rest of the car still functions, brakes, steering etc. It just immobilizes the gas pedal. My concern with any technology like that is it inevitably creeps into law enforcment hands. i.e the cop can shut your car off while you're driving it...

JUST WAIT UNTIL THE HACKERS GET INTO THAT SYSTEM....