OK, I've done repairs and have still failed smog three times, and considering that there are no free retests, I wondering if anybody else has any ideas. I took it the first time and it passed, but they failed me because the timing was at 0* BTDC and its supposed to be at 6* BTDC. So I took it home and adjusted the timing and took it back to get retested three weeks later and all the numbers shot way up. I can't imagine why considering I was told that timing wouldn't change the numbers that much. I pass the 2500RPM test, but continue to fail the idle test. HC went from 91 to 257 and CO went from .28 to 3.42. The EGR valve was replaced about three months ago, I've put a new PCV valve, oil change, fuel injector cleaner, and A.I.R. valves. So the guy tells me its probably the O2 sensor so i take it home and change the O2 sensor and have to take it to a special gross polluter station. Well I took it there and HC were 155, still way high and CO was 3.11, still way high. Now I've spent $110 in tests and it still doesn't pass. It's also idling really rough now, mainly when the car is warm. He said the fuel mixture was too rich. I noticed when they did my first smog check they disconnected the egr valve hose with the car still running and hooked a gauge up to it. I found that strange considering I've never seen them do that during a smog check before. Does it bother the system to do that with the car still running? I thought you had to turn off the car to disconnect the egr system and then restart it. I did a full tuneup like 15,000 miles ago, all msd. I have a full msd ignition system and jet computer chip, I dont know if that has anything to do with anything, but I'm at a lost for things to do. Like I said it passed the first time and now all of sudden is beyond gross polluter numbers? Any suggestions or advise would be appreciated.

 

What part of the bay are you in?

Most places offer a reduced rate "pre test"...you might want to take advantage of this.

Disconnecting the EGR, then pumping it down to see if the engine stalls, is normal for a functional test..no issues there.

When you did the timing, did you disconnect the EST bypass connector?

 

It could be a bunch of things, none easy to diagnose from a distance.

Fuel injector cleaner and new idle miss sound pretty suspecious. How was this cleaner administered? If it was added to the tank, you very well could have dislodged some gunk which made its way to an injector or two. Change the fuel filter, get a gage on the fuel rail, make sure pressure is up to snuff and doesn't drop off immediately when the engine is shut off. You may need to have the injectors cleaned (if one or more is leaking).

The EGR thing is a standard test to make sure the system operates properly. They probably hooked up a vacuum pump, which has a gage on it, to verify the engine would stumble at an idle when the EGR valve was opened. It's possible the valve got a piece of stuff stuck in it so it's now slightly open all the time, which would cause a miss at idle, but that doesn't explain the high readings.

It may be time to take it to a shop that can diagnose the problem, fix it, and verify that the fix brings the emissions levels down within allowables.

 

Yeah, I disconnected the bypass when I did the timing. They rechecked it and it was fine. As far as the cleaner, I added it to the tank. It was Greased Lightning I believe. Almost $9 for the bottle of cleaner. I replaced the fuel filter about 10,000 miles ago. As far as shops, I'm sceptical, haven't found an honest one yet and don't have the money to have major repairs and diagnostic done at a shop right now. DMV will give me an extention, but I still need to get it down. The last shop said it could be a number of things, but probably sensor related. Tommorrow I have to check the sensors with an ohm meter, but the rough idle the last couple weeks puzzles me, the fuel cleaner was added after the rough idle.

 

This might be a long shot but here goes. Check your Harmonic Balancer to see if it has slipped. With age the balancer will seperate and rotate. This will throw off the timing you see with the timing light.

 

Would that throw off the smog though?

 

It seems that when you changed the timing you failed smog. If the balancer has slipped, then maybe when it read zero it was really 6deg. Now that you set it to 6 it could be 12deg. This was the problem with my balancer but we don't have smog checks in NY.

 

I see what you mean, but what are some symptoms of a bad harmonic balancer?

 

Remove #1 spark plug, put your thumb over the plug hole, turn the engine over BY HAND, until the pressure starts to blow your thumb out of the plug hole Keep rotating the engine (slowly) until the plug hole is no longer spitting out air. This should be #1 TDC, now look at the timing mark on the balancer..is it aligned with 0 or VERY close to it? If not, your balancer has slipped.

Oh, and ditch the Jet chip, its spark tables may also be the root of your timing issues.

 

thanks for the advise, i'll try that and get back to you, considering the #1 spark plug is about the only one you can actually get to easily.