2000+ 456m Smog

Hello All, PLEASE HELP!!!

I hope I'm posting this in the correct area. I've done an extensive search and turned up nothing. Long story short - Failed smog due to Air Injection System (monitor not ready). I have the drive cycle on a piece of paper and have followed instructions for about 3 months now.

The way the drive cycle is written leans towards a manual transmission car. With mine being a 456m-gta it's hard to mimic what the drive cycle wants.

Any first hand experience with smog failures due to air monitor? Some people say software, some people say new ecu's, some people say drive it. I personally would love to find someone to hack the ECU and change the software to read READY for the air injection system so it's never an issue again.

I am located in the San Francisco Bay Area and if anyone in the area has either had to deal with this issue, or knows who can fix it I'd love to talk to you. THANKS.

 

When I worked at the dealership (San Francisco Ferrari), we had two 2000 456GTMA in at the same time for the same issue. Many hours were spent testing the air injection systems (which worked fine), Testing the inputs of the oxygen sensors (which is how the OBDII system knows that the air injection is functioning, by seeing the extra oxygen in the exhaust when the air injection pump run). There was much communication with Ferrari Technical assistance, who were of no help and did not even know that the 456GTMA has an automatic transmission (as they were not old enough to drive when this car came out).
Finally both cars had to be taken to the referee station with all of the documentation that the air injection monitors would not set in order to get an exemption.
I don't know if the owner will have to do this every two years, but I have a feeling they will.

 

Might want to have a conversation with ECU Doctors in Florida and see if they can or if they know of anyone who can help out with the monitors.As the cars age it is getting to be a real problem. We just did not have these issues in all but a few well known scenarios until the cars got older.

Bosch is not the company it once was.

 

Ferrari and Bosch have a tenuous relationship. If you ask Ferrari what are the parameters or inputs that cause a fault to be set in an ECU or what the ECU needs to see for an emissions monitor to set, they cannot tell you, as they don't know.
Typically the monitor for the air injection system is set when the car is started from cold and then idles for five minutes. Depending on the ambient air temperature, the air injection pump will run for a certain amount of time. With a Ferrari specific diagnostic computer that has a graphing function, you can watch the air injection pump on signal along with the front oxygen sensor signal. After a cold start, the air injection pump should run (you will hear a high pitched fan noise, like a vacuum cleaner motor), and you can watch the oxygen sensor voltage start out at .5v and then drop lower and lower to .2v to .1v as the air injection pump introduces oxygen into the exhaust system, driving the oxygen sensor towards a lean signal. As soon as the engine reaches a certain coolant temperature, the air injection pump will stop running, and the oxygen sensor signal will start to cycle back a forth across the .5v threshold for a stoichiometric fuel mixture (going into closed loop mode). With some cars, this is all that is required to set the air injection monitor.
If the ambient temperature is too high (above 100 Degrees F or so), then the air injection pump may be outside of its parameters for running, so it will not run from a cold start, and the air injection monitor will not set. Apparently some auto manufacturers have the air injection pump run briefly at other times during the drive cycle, so that the ecu will see a lean mixture and know that the air injection system is working and then will set its monitor. Ferrari will not say if they do this on any of their vehicles.

 

There are tuners that can reflash your control units to alter the fuel mixture and timing maps. I am sure that they can alter the ODB II monitors as well. I worked on a 360 Modena that had a turbo kit installed and the motronic ECUs reflashed. They removed many of the things that would have caused the check engine light to come on along with some of the OBD II emissions monitors. The only issue was that when read with a scanner, the OBD II monitors were not displayed as set, they just did not display anything at all.
You are going to have to find someone who is very smart in terms of OBD II tuning in order to just set the air injection monitors. such as Mitchell McKee of COBB Tuning or M-Engineering

 

Exactly the problem.

I do understand that air pump function is done during a steady state cruise. It will go on very briefly and Motronic looks for an O2 reaction.

 

I have this problem with a 2000 550, secondary air monitor incomplete. After much discussion I took the car to Ferrari of SF and paid the mandatory $650.00 so I could take it to the referee station. I got a one time exemption and was told that it was ONLY one time. I will NOT be able to get another exemption. If the situation continues I will NOT be able to register the car in California. No if's or but's about it, that's it. I would have to sell the car out of state.

I suspect the problem is in the software of the ECU, some unusual combination of inputs has rendered the secondary air monitor incomplete. What I don't understand is why a reflash of the ECU will not cure the problem.


I have a test light wired into the air pump relay so I can see when the pump runs. So far neither myself or fat billy bob have seen the pump run other than a cold start.
I would love to have someone who can clear codes/reset battery then reset all the monitors test with my light to see if the pump really does run during the drive cycle or just during a cold start.

The fact that Ferrari cares not a hoot about this comes as no surprise.

I wonder about a class action suit of FNA? There are certainly lots of horror stories of everything working but the monitor incomplete.

 

I think you'll get more satisfaction sooner for far less money by finding someone who can modify the ECU so it shows all monitors ready all the time.


I agree with Brian. Bosch really doesn't care what kind of issues Ferrari has with their stuff. I once had Bosch's guru for engine management on the phone over a CEL that wouldn't go away. His serious response was to remove the light bulb. He didn't give a **** that it wasn't an acceptable fix for the problem.

 

I would love to do just that, if anyone knows of such a wizard please let me know how to contact them

Brian, a question, Do both ECU's store codes or just one and if one which one?
Would switching ECU's side to side have any effect?
Thanks, Dave

 

Give it a try. Only one interacts with the air inj system. As I recall both store the code but only the right tells the system to operate.


I know a guy in So Cal who might be able to help. I'll get in touch with him.

 

I know a guy in So-Cal too if needed.

 

The May 2020 issue of FORZA magazine has an article about this issue,especially the secondary air injection monitor. The tech who wrote the article is in the Bay Area and can deal with it.

 

@Redneck Slim , @Mirek , @Aevan , @Motob , @Rifledriver ,@ferraridriver

Merry Xmas to all of you and my upfront apologies for the shotgun approach (to all of you), but I am almost desperate.
my SAI monitor (and EVAP for that matter) won't set. I have done the following:

- 5 cold starts with air intake T and coolant T within 11F. Idle for ~5min
- 600mls of every single silly drive cycle you can image
- changed all 4 oxygen sensors, new coolant sensor and new T sensor (at different times, but they are all <1yr and <600mls)
- in between a major service, rechecking and replacing all sensors again
- mechanically checked the secondary air system: pump works (you can hear it), decoupled the tubes before the check valves and air is coming out, checked the check valves and they still work (air only in 1 direction).
- swapped ECU's. Did 3 more early morning coldstarts with T <11f between airintake and coolant T
- after cold start the pump turns off after ~ 2.5 min. After about 10 seconds the downstream narrow band O2 sensors read ~900mV (=rich, little O2) and after about 1.5 min with running engine and lowering idle, values have become leaner at sub 400mV).

I believe I have checked everything I could and the system works. Car drives like a dream, from what I can tell looking and smelling the exhaust, it is pretty clean.

But I am slowly becoming desperate after having bought this car 9 months ago and still no plates. Referee would not support me with all the data, not even for 1 time. The advice I am given: sell the car (outside CA). That is the most ridiculous advice I have ever heard. I must be missing something or someone must know a trick I haven't played.

I don't want to sell this car. Please help!

 

You should read that article and contact that shop. Getting a Ferrari of your vintage to pass California smog can be difficult because of how Ferrari programed their ECUs. It can be a problem even though nothing is wrong with your car. ( I am assuming that you live in Aptos,not Apos).

 

@Redneck Slim - yes Aptos indeed, I updated it. Thanks! I have ordered the Forza magazine this afternoon, but it is only by mail so that will take a week at least or so. Could you give me the name of the shop and/or a phonenumber? I still have next week off and would like to get this finally fixed. Thanks in advance!
Menko

 

Jesse Westlake,San Francisco Motorsports,San Rafael,415-259-5488.

 

We have a place up in Aptos, we are in San Jose today in fact.

I live in LA and may have a resource for you.
PM me and when I get back home I will pass his info along.

 

Did you ever get this resolved ? I have mCARB this month on my 2003 GTA and just had my entire system looked at, buttoned up and tested and then O2’s replaced. Doing my drive cycles to get the SAI monitor to flip when they see that “11-13 degree difference” between the coolant and the intake. What a headache.

 

Hi Jeff, did not get it resolved other then almost getting ticketed. My ECu’s are with Rod Drew in LA, hopefully he can set them like he can set the monitors for the 550 and 575. I still have no smog and no plates. Have driven 3000mls illegally but have taken the safe route now to get it fixed once and for all. Hope it works. I should hear something in the next week, I’ll keep you posted.

 

Any update on this mess 456dreamer ?

I just had all HVAC components replaced and/or cleaned then pressure tested, 4 new 02 sensors, hundreds of miles trying to reset the SAI…to no avail. My smog guy could not locate the exact SAI data needed to pass me….

About to have my ECU’s pulled and sent out this week as a last resort.

I wonder if my guy is going to Rod Drew too, is he a known quantity in this community, like say Gobble ?

 

My ECU’s are still there, I had to leave for EU urgently and return to CA over the weekend. Will call Rod on Monday and let you know where I am at. I do know that he had another 456M GTA in a couple weeks ago with the same problem. Not sure if he fixed that one but I will find out. If you want to call Rod his number is
You can refer to the 2 units he still has from me and tell him that it is the same issue. I changed all the parts you changed including all new tubing for the 2ndary air system. I also checked O2 levels on the new O2 downstream sensors with a scope and know the system works with the rapid lean/rich changes that I measure. Technically the system works, the ECU will not close the SAI monitor and nobody knows why at the moment.hope Rod will find out soon.
Keep me posted on where you end up.

 

I reached out. He is taking a break from it as it is sucking up too much of his time.

He cannot yet determine the SAI ECU fix but said to call him back in a week.

Nuts.

 

Yeah, I know it's nuts. I have driven 3000mls now illegally without plates and have spent over $20K to get this fixed without no results. I will call Rod and talk to him on Monday. Will let you know where we end up. If he cannot fix it, I am thinking of pulling all Callfornian 456 owners together, problems or not (yet), to get this solved through a joint request to Ferrari USA with support of Jim Meek, CEO of the Ferrari USA Association. Anyway, one step at a time. Will call Rod on Monday to decide on next steps. Will keep you posted.
Menko

 

Hey count me in and thanks for the update.

If we only had the raw numeric data for both SAI monitors (after they reset) we would be 100% all set. Same year is most preferable as I understand it. When I was looking at the raw data with my guy no Ferrari numerical data was not readily available within his network — like it is for almost every other type of (mass produced) car.

Montana might be a nice place to visit failing that.

 

456+550+575--same basic engine,same issue.