Ford GT's Getting Flagged by CARB!
- Thread starter nota4re
- Start date
MGinLA
Member
When the CAT reset came up green and ready, that was the best feeling of relief! I went to the Smog Station immediately. Now I have to replace the small gauges so the battery will get disconnected and the Monitors will need to be reset again in two years.
FlagstaffGT
GT Owner
Is there testing for antique cars required? Would be five more years. None here in Northern Arizona.
MGinLA
Member
California Air Resources Board (CARB or ARB) requires all cars 1975 or newer to be tested every two years. Depending on the year they just test for the Monitors to be ready. Some of the older cars must go on the Dyno and be tested.
Absolutely no need to disconnect the battery to replace the gauges. Leave it connected - but obviously leave the ignition off.
After you replace a battery (or clear engine codes with an OBD2 device), the monitors will reset. Over the course of NORMAL driving, the monitors will all set - most likely within 100 miles or so.
MGinLA
Member
analogdesigner
GT Owner
So over a year later I finally got my car to a Referee Station to get it inspected. I live in (Southern) California so the Referee Stations are located at community colleges throughout the state. I did some research and I was allowed to pick a location of my choice. There was one location closest to my house that I didn’t want to use as I heard from multiple sources that the supervisor there is a real PITA. Anyway the car’s engine was visually inspected by the students. They did start the engine and revved it a couple times. I had my fingers crossed as I have no muffler so it’s fairly loud at high RPMs. They didn’t measure the exhaust emissions nor did they plug into the car’s OBDII port. I was in and out in 15 minutes at a total cost of $8.50!
So I learned that in 2015 the State of California started this routine during smog testing in which the contents of the car’s ECU is downloaded (of course no one knew this was going on at the time). So in 2019 they decided to start cracking down on cars with modified ECU firmware. It seems that they started to go after models of cars that had the highest percentage of modified ECUs.
Knowing what I know now I would have reprogrammed the ECU with the factory firmware a couple of months before I took it in for my smog check as it's never had a problem for over the past ten years.
I really need to give special thanks to Kendall (nota4re) for spending the time assisting me in getting my car ready for passing the visual inspection. He sent me several emails with recommendations so I am grateful for his help.
Jay
So I learned that in 2015 the State of California started this routine during smog testing in which the contents of the car’s ECU is downloaded (of course no one knew this was going on at the time). So in 2019 they decided to start cracking down on cars with modified ECU firmware. It seems that they started to go after models of cars that had the highest percentage of modified ECUs.
Knowing what I know now I would have reprogrammed the ECU with the factory firmware a couple of months before I took it in for my smog check as it's never had a problem for over the past ten years.
I really need to give special thanks to Kendall (nota4re) for spending the time assisting me in getting my car ready for passing the visual inspection. He sent me several emails with recommendations so I am grateful for his help.
Jay