Hi guys, After 3 years looking I finally found a 355 I was happy with and pulled the trigger. It's a beautiful 95 Blu Swaters/Tan with 19k miles. The car arrived from San Diego to my home in CT Memorial day. The car is everything it was supposed to be. Look almost new. Was well maintained over the years. One problem though. In CT when registering the car you need to go through emissions. It doesn't matter if it passes of fails (weird), but you have to go through the test before they will issue plates, and being a 95 it requires a sniff test. So, the car came with a CA emission report from February 2013 which showed it passed, no problem. As part of the sale the car had a full major. Long story short, a couple of months, a major, and 400 miles later and the car fails CT emissions with HC over the limit and CO just missing. Other than that it seems to run flawlessly. No codes in the ECU, no slow down lights. I plan to have someone analyze the exhaust gas at the header ports, before the cats, but honestly, I don't know where to start. The workshop manual say something that leads me to believe that if the left and right bank injectors aren't correctly balance at idle it could result in excessive CO and HC. Any idea or assistance on what to look for would be appreciated.
Nothing? No one has had any emissions problems with a 95 355 (OBD I)? Guess I'll have to have a SD 1 scan done.
A long 3000k tow lots of vibration. I would try disconnecting and reconnecting all sensors and connectors. Then a nice long drive to get it good and hot. Then do a smog pretest. Sometimes it is just connections. Sometimes you got a real problem and it is not a ghost. If it is a ghost consider the SRI gold kit. Works like magic. Also check the major work order. Almost never is there an in out injector service but the car has few miles but is very old. Junk builds even if sitting and poor injector patterns don't help. Also, doing a ECU relearn can make a difference because some smog tests are done at idle. If the battery was off during the long tow and then reconnected without proper relearn the system will not be running at peak efficiency. Stone cold motor, everything off, let it idle 15mins
Pretty much the usual suspects. Both the tech and the selling dealer suggested to drive it and get it hot before testing. I did that, but the car sat for over an hour before the tech could get the testing equipment up. I guess I run through the short list and try a retest. Thanks for the suggestions.
"fails CT emissions with HC over the limit and CO just missing" What comes to my mind is, are the cats OK. Secondly did they advance the exhaust a few degrees for a bit more gogo? This alone will increase HC and CO. Mines is right on the limit cant remember off the top of my head the numbers
Yes if it was shut off the cats are cold. I read it wrong I thought you were idling an hour waiting for the test. I need new glasses
Cold cats could be the problem but let me ask this, if the left and right side throttles are not correctly balanced could that cause some cylinders to run rich resulting in high HC emissions? I ask because the heads were off for guides and when put back together the balance could be off compared to before the engine was torn down. The CT test was run at 2260 RPM, I think in 3rd gear (25 mph equivalent) which seems the same as the CA test. CA test results were: HC = 44 ppm, CO = 0.15%, NO = 58 ppm CT results were HC = 140 ppm, CO = 0.50%, NO = 219 ppm Anyway, had it out today. Still seems to run great otherwise. Oh well, in 7 years it won't need to go through emissions. I should add that the PPI was done after the major service/head work and it was reported to have checked out fine. But I wish I had asked the selling dealer to take it through a CA smog test again so I would have numbers I was sure of. The consensus seems to be to get it hot and test again.
Do you have the high flow cats? They have worse readings than the stock cats. Do what FBB said and unplug the battery, reconnect and let it idle for 15 minutes, observe that it does hit 190 degrees F (what Plugzit said) and observe that the secondary fan(s) come on at 190F and the coolant temp goes down after that. That will tell you that your coolant system works and the car is not running too hot or too cold (open Thermostat). All of which will have an effect on emission. Ernie had a problem passing smog when his thermostat failed and eventually ruined his cats. Then, do what you said earlier and get the car nice and really hot before the test again.
Yep, I'll try it all. It has stock cats, but they are not the original. Cooling system works correctly. Fans come on as required at correct temp (about 190) and temp drops, fans go off and temp rises. Fans cycle. Fundamentally everything should be good. So I will try the ECU relearn, get it hot and have it tested again next week. I also wondering if disconnected the vacuum line (and plugging it) from the bypass valve so that all the exhaust passes through the main cats would help. I'm think that the main cats should be more efficient than the bypass cat. Thanks to all for the suggestions. If I can't get it passed I think I will apply for what they call a Functional Diagnostic waiver.
