360 Passing Smog Test - California

There are a few threads on this, but since I went through this recently and pulled a bit of info from here and there, thought I'd put the conclusions into a single post for the benefit of 360 owners who live in California.

For 2000 and newer cars in general, California's present rules generally do not require putting your car on dyno rollers or putting a sniffer up the tail pipe. This was tricky in the past, because you'd have to disable the ASR to get the car to work properly on the rollers.

Instead, there is a visual inspection to be sure you still have all of the OEM smog equipment, and the tech then plugs in an OBD II monitor. You need all of the internal monitors to show "ready" in order to pass. There may be an exception for the evaporative I/M, but otherwise, you have to have all of them show "ready."

But if you've disconnected the battery recently (perhaps to work on the car), or maybe only drive the car intermittently, one or more I/Ms may not be ready. The only way to know this is you can go to a smog inspection station and try and fail the test, in which case the tech will probably tell you to drive the car and then come back for a re-test; or you can get an OBD II handheld monitor to check readiness before you go to the inspection station. I highly recommend the latter. The monitor is useful also for resetting the random CELs you get, like when you don't tighten your gas cap enough.

The problem with 360s is that just driving the car a 100 miles or more won't necessarily reset all the I/Ms to "ready." In addition, 1999 and 2000 cars had a software issue that won't let all of the I/Ms show "ready" with California's test equipment. I don't know if that's been fixed, because my car is a 2003.

Even for cars later than 2000, the I/Ms may not reset by just driving the car. The most common I/M that is hard to reset to "ready" is the "secondary air pump" I/M. The Ferrari tech bulletin on this details a very difficult-to-accomplish drive cycle to get a ready signal, where you have to start with a completely cold car (best if let sit overnight), idle the car for 4 min., drive the car in 4th gear at 2500-3000 RPM for 3.5 miles, and just before stopping, rev to 4000 RPM and let the car slow down by itself back to 2000 RPM before pulling over and, without turning off the car, idling for 5 min. You then shut off the engine, wait at least 20 sec., then restart and drive moderately for another few miles. Try and find a place and time where you can do this. If you think about these steps, it's not easy!

Anyway, I recently had to replace my car's thermostat, and SOP is to turn off the electricity as a safety measure. Of course, this reset all my I/Ms to "not ready," and I had forgotten about this when I visited the smog inspection station. Still, I was there, so had it tested anyway. Since I had put a couple hundred miles on the car since the t'stat swap, I was hopeful. As it turned out, all of the I/Ms showed "ready," except for one.

Sure enough, my "secondary air pump" I/M showed "not ready." But I knew from the tech bulletin that just driving the car wouldn't necessarily set it to "ready." Besides reading the tech bulletin instructions, I found advice from Rifledriver, who explained that the secondary air pump I/M looks to be sure there is a rush of air when the pump is supposed to run, and no rush of air when the air pump is not supposed to be on. Or something like that.

BTW, my DMV notice specifically required my car to be tested at a "Star Certified" station, not just any licensed smog station. So, that meant among other things finding one that had the Star Certification and open on a weekend. If your DMV notice says "Star Certified station required," be sure to take your car to one of those stations. But I digress.

Anyway, I knew I had to have at least another cold start cycle to get the I/M to show "ready." But after reading a number of posts by those who were unable to follow the tech bulletin instructions due to local highway conditions, I was worried. Among other things, I live in a quiet neighborhood, but the only time to have a shot at the Ferrari drive cycle was early in the morning. Well, idling a loud Ferrari at 6:30 a.m. on a weekend in my garage or driveway is not going to make my neighbors happy. But trying to do it later in the day when there is traffic would be next to impossible.

Thinking about what Rifledriver said about what the system looks for, however, I decided to try to at least approximate the tech bulletin instructions, yet minimize the noise annoyance to my neighbors. I figured that so long as I could ensure the pump shut down when it was supposed to, and I could avoid giving the car a "whoosh" of air by opening the throttle too much afterwards, I could maybe get my monitor to set to "ready."

So, I started the car from a cold start (early in the morning), but instead of idling for 4 minutes, I let it idle only enough to hear the air pump shut down (maybe 15 seconds?). I then very gently backed out of my driveway applying minimal throttle, and proceeded down a level street in first gear at barely off idle, but steady without coming near a stall. I did this for about a mile or mile and a half. Fortunately, this can be done with a 3 pedal manual on a relatively deserted street. I'm not so sure it could be done with an F1 transmission or in traffic.

I then drove for about 3.5 miles at a steady 2500-3000 RPM, but not necessarily in 4th. Rather, I went as close to the speed limit as I could at that RPM (with cars zipping past me; where are all those people going so early on a weekend?). The parking lot where I intended to stop for the 5 min. idle portion of the cycle was closed, however, so I proceeded another few miles until I found a gas station where I could pull in and hopefully not annoy too many people by idling the car for an extended period in the early morning hours. Instead of the recommended 3.5 miles, I did closer to 5-7 miles. I then idled for only about 2 min., shut down the car, waited 20 seconds, then restarted and drove moderately for another few miles.

I came back to my garage, plugged in my OBD II monitor, and hurrah! The secondary air pump I/M showed "ready"! I then took the car back to the smog station and of course passed. So, even though some say that you must strictly follow the Ferrari tech bulletin instructions, I found that there is at least some leeway, as I was able to get my I/M to show "ready" by only approximating the cycle. Others have reported that by using their car as a daily driver for a couple of weeks (the important part, I think, is to have at least some cold starts, followed by normal operation) also worked for them.

I hope others find this helpful. I've attached the tech bulletin that originally was found and posted by others.

 

You’re welcome! I forgot to add that before doing the second idling period after the 5-7 miles, I did bring the revs up to 4000 rpm for at least 10 seconds and let the car coast down to 2000 rpm in gear before pulling into the gas station. I have no way to be sure but think it’s an important step.


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Excellent outcome! Glad it worked out!