HELP! Wont Pass State Inspection

[bruning6]

I purchased a 135i from Texas a few months ago. Well I finally got my new plates so I decided to stop running the papers with the new plates and have it inspected. Well here in New Hampshire it has to pass safety and emission tests. An 08 135i with 60k passes safety no problems (once the bald tires were replaced) but it failed emissions!!! Back story on the car is it came with some surprises the dealership I bought it from didnt know about it including catless AR Design DPs and a Procede juice box... lucky me! Except now it will not come into readiness for the Gordon Darby machine. I assume the way the piggy backed box works is it stops the codes from getting to the ECU before the MIL is set off. Although it seem the state computer here grabs the codes before it gets to the procede thus causing the unready computers. Well actually it must clear the codes before it hits the state computer also or else it would come up with trouble codes as well. Either way this is frustrating to have a new car that will not pass emission for such a stupid reason... do I buy used stock DPs and uninstall the parts and run it through the computer or is there a program the Procede can run to get me through NH state inspection or is there a simulator to instal for the oxygen sensors.... I hope this is not a common issue but I can imagine I am the first person ever to not pass their SI machine.

[Red Bread]

If I'm reading this correctly, you're going to need cats to pass the emissions testing. Simple as that. At least if your state has a sniffer test, not just a code reader. Did they stick a tube up the exhaust while doing a dyno run?

[Elsabor67]

You need to find out first what tune you have in there. ProCede(Vishnu Tuning) and Juice Box(Burger Motorsports) are 2 different piggybacks and not from the same company. That way, you can also find out from that tuner how to disable the systems alltogether. You also need to see if you also have a downpipe fix. It emulates signals from your sensors so you don't trigger O2 sensor faults. There are tons of DIY's you can find on dissasembling the upper area where the ECU is located.

Now if you want to just remove the DP's and PB and go stock through the inspection, remove both items and after it passes, re-install and go from there. But definetly find out what piggyback tune you have under your hood. It will save you a ton of hassles.

[Greenkirby21]

thats weird, because texas has state inspections and emissions as well. Definitely with those mods it wouldn't pass the texas ones either

[swaite]

I may be wrong, but the dealership you bought the car from should legally be held accountable for fixing an emmisions problem. You are not the one who installed the downpipes, why should you be accountable for fixing it? It will probably be a pain in the ass and require more research on your part, but well worth it. I bet you can get some stock downpipes installed for free and keep the catless ones.

[Red Bread]

Originally Posted by Greenkirby21

thats weird, because texas has state inspections and emissions as well. Definitely with those mods it wouldn't pass the texas ones either

We do?

[Kamal]

@ procede juice box! If only that were real then we wouldn't have all these tuner battles all the time!

bruning6 - It's too late now, but you should have found these things out before you purchased your car. Either way, no simple solution to your problem. Contact the dealer who sold you the car and let them know that the car won't pass emissions... depending on Texas (or NH) law, they may or may not have to fix the issue. Technically, they sold you an 'off-road' car under the guise that it was legal for the street. If that doesn't work, paypal me $1000 and I'll ship out my catted downpipes to you

[dfv2]

I'd just uninstall the juicebox, and foul or use O2 sims for the O2 sensors... drive around for a day or two, check readiness with a code reader and when they are all good, have her inspected.

[bryce]

to pass emissions with a procede w/ catless downpipes, change settings via laptop to:

-disable canclear
-set o2 modifer to 50%
-put some miles on the car and readiness will be set

[bruning6]

Ok I misspoke (its procede) I was thinking Juice box was a generic term for a tuner box.... my badddddddd in the diesel world they go hand in hand for any box.

Anywho... I am not trying to get into any legal battles, all set with that nonsense. I bought it fair and square and in reality I made out on the deal with 3500 in free upgrades on a car I already bought farrrrr under book value! I got it through cars.com from a Dodge dealer who had no idea how to look under the cover and find a tuner or that the black 3" down pipes wernt stock they probably did not do anything more then an oil change bc if they removed the underpan they would have found the front sway bar mounts held in with only one bolt on each side. I am sure the car had more upgrades then even I got but the owner grabbed all the easy bolt ons back out. So that being said it sucks its "offroad" but eff it I would have done the downpipes anyway so they saved me 800 smackas.

Now I understand that the computer has to have cats to get through inspection but I know there is a way around this and thats what I am looking for. Procede told me to put it in valet mode which will stop the CAN feature from constantly clearing codes. Now I need to know how to simulate that it has cats to the car without actually having them.
Bryce - you say I can fool it through setting the modifier w a lap top? I need to update the procede anywho so I will probably start with that.
and dfv2 - you are saying basically weld in some longer o2s bungs? lIsnt that what a o2 simulator is? Where can you get o2 sims? Thanks for all the feedback guys. I just cant believe no one has had these issues on their own cars... I am surprised like greenkirby said they have emissions tests in TX that the previous owner did catless dp's. Well our emissions can be fooled bc there is no sniffer so now its time to fool the buggers...

[kurtcobain]

HI, I'll be facing this issue soon as well, and with an xi, it's alot more work to simply "re-install factory, inspect then switch back."

From what I"ve been reading, TeXas has a rule that says you can pass with one single "not ready" failure. Isn't that true? That's what it says on the texas web site.Remember Effective October 15, 2008:
For vehicles year model 2001 and newer, we allow one (1) non-continuous monitor to be Not Ready and still pass the test, but two (2) or more Not Ready's will cause the vehicle to fail.
For vehicles year model 1996 – 2000, we allow two (2) non-continuous monitors to be Not Ready and still pass the test, but three (3) or more Not Ready's will cause the vehicle to fail.

Emissions Test Results
MIL CMND Status: OFF Misfire: Ready Heated Cat: N/S 02Sensor Not Ready
Fuel Sys: Ready Evap: Ready 02 Sensor Htr: Ready
MIL Engine On: PASS Comp Cmpnt: Ready 2nd Sys: Ready EGR Sys: Not Ready
MIL Engine Off: PASS Catalyst: Not Ready Air Cond: N/S
Overall Result - FAIL
back to top

[Jsargevt]

Originally Posted by bryce

to pass emissions with a procede w/ catless downpipes, change settings via laptop to:

-disable canclear
-set o2 modifer to 50%
-put some miles on the car and readiness will be set

Bruning6,

This sounds like the simplest way to do it. I suspect that you might not have the ability to do code updates to your car. Give a shout out to Joe at TGS (http://www.topgearsolutions.com/) and he can likely code it up for cheap.

If you need to borrow a cable I'm in the lakes region as well and can pass one off if needed.

good luck!