Emission issues with my 1985 Turbo: Help!
Discussion
Which aspect of emissions testing is the car failing? Is it carbon monoxide (CO)? Is it failing at idle or at cruise (~2500 rpm) or both?
My '84 Turbo Esprit just passed emissions for the first time in 5 years. I realized that the only failure it had was CO emissions at idle - at higher rpm all emissions were well below the maximum permitted. The solution for me was just to increase the idle rpm and that was enough to bring the CO values within spec.
Does your testing involve running the car on rollers and, if so, is it run at a constant rate or are you required to vary the speed and follow a displayed sine wave? They used to do the latter method here, but now they switched back to a constant speed. I know one club member with a '98 Esprit who had his wastegate wired open so that he could modulate the throttle and rpm better in order to follow the sine wave on the test center's display. He resorted to doing that after the car failed about 13 times. Another trick on the rollers is to start out in second and keep it there, to avoid any erratic readings during a 1->2 shift.
Generally, I think turbo cars have more of a problem with these roller tests than normally aspirated cars.
-Dave
My '84 Turbo Esprit just passed emissions for the first time in 5 years. I realized that the only failure it had was CO emissions at idle - at higher rpm all emissions were well below the maximum permitted. The solution for me was just to increase the idle rpm and that was enough to bring the CO values within spec.
Does your testing involve running the car on rollers and, if so, is it run at a constant rate or are you required to vary the speed and follow a displayed sine wave? They used to do the latter method here, but now they switched back to a constant speed. I know one club member with a '98 Esprit who had his wastegate wired open so that he could modulate the throttle and rpm better in order to follow the sine wave on the test center's display. He resorted to doing that after the car failed about 13 times. Another trick on the rollers is to start out in second and keep it there, to avoid any erratic readings during a 1->2 shift.
Generally, I think turbo cars have more of a problem with these roller tests than normally aspirated cars.
-Dave
sorry you're having problems. i agree with dave that the best strategy is to pass the test without truly fixing the emissions. a year ago, i was able to pass california emissions by detuning the car so much it had to be pushed to the testing station, because it stalled at every intersection. do whatever you need to for test purposes, and return everything to pollute mode later. i was never labeled a gross polluter because i had the car pre-tested by an open-minded smog shop. once you're labeled a gross polluter, you have to have the car reinspected twice as often as the rest of us.
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