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Re: Smog Tests

To: british-cars@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Smog Tests
From: acg@hermes.dlogics.com
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1992 10:15:22 CDT
mikej@wv.MENTORG.COM (Mike Johnson) writes:
> Get to the inspection and the sniffer goes up the tail pipe and the inspector
> says "get it up to 2500 rpm".  Not thinking too clearly in my state I say
> "Don't you want to hook up the tach?"  Inspector looks at me with a sort of
> *you-stupid-kid* look and says "Oh I don't think we'll look in there."

The Illinois test equipment also requires 2500 rpm for the high-idle test, but
they use two sensors to detect the coil firing remotely: one is embedded in the
floor, the other is usually in a padded cover (dirty and caked with grit :-(  )
which they plonk on your hood. The car registration file tells the computer how
many cylinders to divide its coil measurement by. Only if neither sensor can
detect the coil do they pop the hood and go for the #1 cylinder.

> I don't even point out that he is mistaken about the factory emission
> alowance as stated on the Lotus number plate.  Oregon gives 2x the stated
> emission rate.

Illinois sets the standards for each car based on its mileage; fortunately the
standards are more relaxed for higher-mileage cars. For cars older than 1981,
the test is based only on low-idle emissions, which makes me wonder why they
bother going through the 2500-rpm runup anyway (low idle is tested before high
idle).

-- Andy


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