Why are engines that burn up to a quart of oil per 1000 miles able to pass an emissions test? It seems to me with the added pollution made by burning so much oil a smog or emissions test would be able to flag those engines as gross the polluters they probably are and in turn the EPA or some other government regulatory agency could force the manufactures to fix their mistakes.
because......... 1 qrt per 1000 miles isnt really that much(well it is, but hear me out). to drive 1000 miles car would consume like... let's say 1500 liters..... (idk how many gallons, im not american, but 1 liter is roughly a quart) and would consume 1 qrt of oil as well... well the ratio oil to gas is 1:1500!! so for a test the car would ber less than 0.01 of a quart! so, how do you expect this to polute?!
I know right?! A simple aftermarket intake immediately fails the visual inspection eventhough it hasn't increased your emissions, whereas burning oil which clearly does increase emissions doesn't fail you. I don't know where you live, but in California the smog tests don't use a tailpipe probe and dyno anymore. They simply plug into the OBDII and check your emissions based off live O2 sensor data and readiness standards. And of course the visual test. Because of this, they can't tell whether your engine is burning a significant amount of oil to cause those excess emissions, but the tailpipe probe would have caught this. Again, you can burn oil and pollute more yet you cannot have a simple aftermarket intake when it proves to not increase emissions. RIDICULOUS SYSTEM. For all I know, they should've kept the tailpipe test, but that's a super strict test too.
Are you serious about the tailpipe probe? I just went for a smog check, and I saw him do the tailpipe probe. BUT, he didn't really run it on a dyne. Maybe that was all for show!!! I saw him plug into the OBDII port. That would be hilarious if he was faking the tailpipe probe.
When did CA stop using the sniffer and dyno off hand? AND I assume its the whole of CA not some counties correct ?
Got it..about 2/2014
https://rennlist.com/forums/993-forum/800410-new-california-smog-test-no-dyno-nor-sniffer.html
What year is your car? 2000 and newer vehicles do not require the tailpipe probing anymore. But what the guy did was B.S. For a proper tailpipe probe test, they need to run the vehicle on the dynamometer. Perhaps he was one of those "hard-arsed" smog techs that wanted to make sure your vehicles emissions were within the specifications. The reason why everything switched to the OBDII is because it does a great job at monitoring all the emissions stuff already. The O2 sensors monitor exhaust gases, the EVAP system monitors fuel system leaks to the atmosphere, etc. Basically, if your check engine light comes on then you're engine is going to pollute more than usual from running abnormally. If your engine light is off, then your engine is running normally and therefore, not polluting abnormally as per manufacturer specifications. But then the oil burning is the problem here...it's not monitored.
It's all under AB-2289 for the smog test change.
Ooh. It's a 1999, so maybe it makes sense that he did the tailpipe probe. Technically, he did put the car on the dyno, but I didn't seem him actually running the car on the dyno. Either way, it passed, so that's cool.
@kaizen
Nice! At least there is another Californian on here that can understand our smog test pains! So strict...meanwhile Florida has no emissions inspections lol.