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ODB Emissions Not Ready??

S

Snipey

Veteran CEG'er
Joined
Dec 12, 2004
Messages
819
Location
Springfield, Ma
My SvT Continues to not pass inspection because of this. Originally it failed because the CEL was on(very old light, had it reset and hasnt come on again)

So I return and try to pass the inspection now that my light is off and im told that the ODB isnt ready and i need to drive more before I can be tested. (the machine physically cant get past that step when plugged into the ODB)
..im told about 300 miles since the reset is enough to solve this, and ive already driven over 400+ and it again gives the same error.

Is this problem more than just the ODB not being ready? The CEL hasnt come on since it was reset months ago (~600 miles ago) I'd hate to bring it to ford and have them try every trick in the book wasting my money.

Should i put more miles on and try again? is there something else i should be checking? I am about to be overdue on the rejection 60 days and I really need to get this fixed

Thanks
-Snipey
 
There are a series of tests the system goes through before becoming ready. If the system hasn't met those requirements, then I don't see it readying. I know the Ford CD has the stipulations for it..I may have it in PDF format on my dirve somewhere as well. I'll take a look.

Do you know what that CEL was for?

HTH.
 

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I thought it just has to go through a few drive cycles (on/off)
I didn't think it was that many. I reset mine, drive the car locally, 4 or 5 stops and then go get tested and have no issues.
 
welp thanks a lot, ill give those a try and hopefully get past the inspection.

i remember seeing catalyst on the screen when it gave me the 'ODB not ready' crap. so ill go ahead and do what it says for catalyst ish.
thanks again
-Snipey
 
Hi,
Normally it takes only approx. 30 mins. of 'normal granny driving' around your local town for all the readiness monitors to set.
I've verified this by clearing my own CELs and then going for a 'short-drive' (or two) which included at least 1 or 2 full-stops-engine-shutoff.
Total mileage was around 10 or less.
Your car should NOT take 300 miles to set all the readiness monitors!
Before you go for your 'test' - and assuming your CEL is NOT on - just nip by your local AutoZone and they'll check (for free) the obd-ii status. They should be able to tell u, there and then, whether all the readiness monitors are 'set'. If they all are - and you still have no CEL - then get thee to the state emissions station asap!
Gerry

Gerry
 
BS. The drive cycles for the catalyst monitors requires seperate drives, which are determined by ECT, not "ignition off and on". You'd have to cool the engine down completely, then restart to count as the start of a second cycle. If you are telling me that you KNOW the catalyst flag was set in ONE drive, then I say, "prove it".

If, however, you are saying that you were in a "passable" OBD readiness state after one drive, then I can see that happening. OBD inspections can pass you if you have 2 or less monitors that haven't run. you are not required to run EVERY monitor. The two that take the longest? EGR/evap, and Cats. you can technically pass an inspection with a BAD cat and a bad evap/egr, if you can figure out the exact drive cycle parameters to perform in order to pass every other monitor but those two.
 
Gerry_M said:
Hi,
Normally it takes only approx. 30 mins. of 'normal granny driving' around your local town for all the readiness monitors to set.
I've verified this by clearing my own CELs and then going for a 'short-drive' (or two) which included at least 1 or 2 full-stops-engine-shutoff.
Total mileage was around 10 or less.
Your car should NOT take 300 miles to set all the readiness monitors!
Before you go for your 'test' - and assuming your CEL is NOT on - just nip by your local AutoZone and they'll check (for free) the obd-ii status. They should be able to tell u, there and then, whether all the readiness monitors are 'set'. If they all are - and you still have no CEL - then get thee to the state emissions station asap!
Gerry

Gerry
Click to expand...

In this respect, Ford's are not like other cars. It can take weeks sometimes for the drive cycle to complete.
 
What can I tell ya fellas, it worked for me. I DID stop twice - as I said -- full engine off etc. -- (I think I also went to home depot after going to the diner that morning) -- which would make sense for the "two" individual cycles to occur. An hour and a half at the diner -- and ditto an amount of time at home despot -- appears to have been 'enuf' for the engine to cool down for the ECM to 'reinitialize' and get ready for yet another cycle. All I remember is I was mucho happy that all the monitors showed 'ready' in (what was to me) a short period of time / ordinary driving.

Some other cars, yep, I totally agree, it can take hundreds of miles of 'various types of driving' for the readiness monitors to set. Case in point: my other car is a 1996 Porsche 911 -yep she's OBD2 using 'code2000' not J1850 (Ford) protocol. It took 700 miles - and several weeks <groan>- for all 8 readiness monitors to go to 'set' - after the battery went dead one winter. Now THAT was a total PITA! Now I keep her on a 'trickle-charger' during the weeks that I'm not using her.

If Snipey's readiness monitors are not setting 'relatively quickly' then maybe there's something else going on. Are there possibly 'mods' to the engine that are interfering with the PID values not reaching values that the ECM is expecting? Or are certain sensors only working marginally and not constantly/reliably. If so, this is unfortunate.

Snipey, if I were u, I would drive like a granny several times during any day you have time. (Yes, you heard me, drive like a granny - coz often drive cycles will STOP if certain RPMs and/or speeds are exceeded!)

During these short trips - turn the engine off completely and take a walk or go to the library ...whatever. (Just enuf to let the engine cool down a lot.)

After a day, or so, of this, go and check the monitors. As said, I would be VERY surprised if all of them are not 'set' after going thru' this.

If/when you eventually get all the monitors to 'set' (and, fingers crossed, no CEL either) then get the car passed and be careful about battery condition and/or alternator output -- and then go and drive the car, for another year, like it should be driven! :)

Gerry
 
well i barely drove and my car was fine to test...

heres the deal:
i bought my car and everything seemed fine and dandy. the CEL came on before i went to go get it inspected so it failed. "Bank 1 too lean." brought it back to dealer i bought it from cuz he would fix it for free by law, changed the o2 sensor that he thought was probably causing the problem, and off i went. STRAIGHT HOME. (i couldnt get it reinspected that day, i had to wait until the next day.) the next morning i went STRAIGHT TO THE GARAGE to get it inspected. car passed! a week later the CEL came on for the same thing, "Bank 1 too lean." HAHAHAH. as it turns out it was actually the MAF sensor. so u can hook these things up pretty damn quickly :)
 
zorrex said:
..... the CEL came on before i went to go get it inspected so it failed. "Bank 1 too lean." brought it back to dealer i bought it from cuz he would fix it for free by law, changed the o2 sensor that he thought was probably causing the problem, and off i went. STRAIGHT HOME. (i couldnt get it reinspected that day, i had to wait until the next day.) the next morning i went STRAIGHT TO THE GARAGE to get it inspected. car passed! ...
Click to expand...
Before you got the car back from the dealer (after they changed the O2 sensor), they went through the OBDII cycle as they thought you would want to get the car tested almost immediately.
 
just for reference...

I had a cel (P0401) for way too long which i finally had fixed when i needed to get it smogged. my mechanic had the car and drove it around (he gave me his personal vehicle as a loaner and used mine himself) for approximately 100 miles after changing the faulty egr and faulty dpfe. at that point it still wasn't ready to be smogged as i still had more than two tests that had not yet cleared. i took it and drove another 70ish miles with two long stops and 1 short stop between picking it up and giving mom a ride back from dropping her car off at his shop the next evening. he through the the csvt on the computer again and all but 2 had finally cleared but it took over 100 miles and three days to do so. 1 week later i had the smog check done at aaa and the tech cleared it (with pretty good numbers btw) and told me that i had two tests that were not yet ready but that it was ok because i just needed most of them, not all. another 200 miles had been logged.
 
For awhile my car wasn't checking all of emssions stuff. Everytime I would check it they weren't all ready. I think when I finally cleared the codes and changed the 02s it finallly did all the tests. This was probably over a year. you might want to change out your upper o2s if they are old and see if it helps. It will probably fix any cat codes also. Atleast it did on both of my cars.
 
well i tried out most of those methods listed in that helpful guide but the emissions machine is still giving me the same crap. its a friend of the family so he let me in and read it and they gave me a printout (They cant actually give me a pass or fail sticker, it makes them give me a Turn-away document instead)
i went to autozone and they said it was 'fine'. although i didnt ask about the 'state' of the ODB. The person there did tell me to try unplugging the battery and leaving it unplugged for 5-10 minutes.

I DO have a trubenz magnaflow exhaust so i dont know if that makes this any more dificult or not. im going to do a little granny driving and maybe some o2 replacement and probably return to autozone and ask them to check some details on the ODB.
Luckily since they cant continue with the inspection it hasnt been costing me anymore $$ to get failed each time. Although my rejection sticker is now past-due and i dont know if this turn-away document is enough to keep me from an extra ticket.
thanks for all the input hopefully ill be back with good news :-/
 
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