I brought my car back to the dealer for an Airbag recall. While it was there I asked if they could do an oil change and get my inspection done [which was set to expire at the end of the month].

I guess they replaced the Airbag first which required disconnecting the battery. Which apparently, then erases any emissions data the on board computer collections.

Therefore, the car failed inspection when they tried to do the emissions test.

So, I was told to drive the car for at least 60 miles at 60mph. Which I did, then I brought the car back for inspection again and it failed. They told me to drive more.

I then did my own research and found there is a specific drive cycle the car has to go through which was documented in the back of the owners manual.

However, I live in NYC and frankly it's impossible to complete this drive cycle. I drove all the way down to cape may nj just to be in a place where there was no traffic so I can maintain the speed for the appropriate amount of time the drive cycle needs.

Still no luck.

Also the prerequisite for the drive cycle are ridiculous. The temperature outside needs to be just right. You have to have just the right about of fuel in the car. The car must be off for 6 hours prior to that, etc.. The moon must be in alignment with mars (ok I made that last one up).

In any event, I have 1 more week before the end of the month before the inspection expires. But I've been driving every weekend for the last three weekends and still nothing is happening.

The check engine light will stay on for 20 seconds and then blink 5 times and turn off. Indicating the readiness codes are still not complete.

Any ideas? I must of drive over 400 miles so far and trying very hard to follow all the rules of the drive cycle as documented.

 

pick up a bluetooth obd2 adapter and buy the torque pro app and check and see which ones are not completing

I hope that the dealer did not charge you for the test because they knew the moment they cleared that battery that the readiness tests would be deleted

try to keep the gas level above 1/4 tank and below 3/4 tank each time you turn the car off for the night

 

Thanks. I do have an ODBII reader but it just tells me "No Codes". So I assume that means there's no specific problems. But that stupid engine light keeps blinking 5 times when the key is on the On position which the manual says means the readiness codes still aren't set.

 

Did you read anything at all that I posted or did you just buy the cliff notes ?

 

I know this is an old thread but for anybody who has a blue tooth OBDii adapter,. I thought you might like to know that the Android app Torque pro has readiness monitors that can be added inder live data.
I don't know if the free version has them but the the pro version does and costs less than $10

Torque Pro was the first OBDII app I ever used and I had stopped using it because for a long time it wasn't updated. I only went back to it recently because the fixd adapter I received as a present didn't show readiness monitors without a subscription.

The Torque app is so easy to use compared to most of the OBD2 apps that's worth giving a try for things like this and development have been revived recently with updates appearing every week.