As the title says, I'm having a lot of trouble passing my washington state emissions test. The only issue has been with my HC count. The cruise is right at the limit (180), but the idle is at 340 with a limit of 220. Please bear with me as this is my first car and having lived in NY most of my life, I've next no experience in dealing with them.

I recently had a new muffler and center pipe put on, and right after that I went to my first test, coming in directly off the highway and my idle HC tested at 360 with a limit of 220. Since then, I replaced the spark plugs and wires, as well as the ignition coil. I poured in some of that CRC guaranteed to pass emissions into the gas tank and drove it a good 200 miles. The idle speed was adjusted too. My retest then failed at the above 340 with a limit of 220. Everything else tested fine.

Speaking to a honest mechanic, it was suggested to me that I have the oil changed and 20w put in instead of 5w along with a quart of Motor Medic. She told me that my make, model and year has the problem of burning a lot of oil, and that's definitely been the case. She said the 20w and the motor medic will have enough viscosity to allow for a better retest through less burning of the oil. If I stay in city, I've been fine, but long highway trips mean a constant monitoring of the oil level. The car also does idle rough. If I'm sitting at a stop light, I'll occasionally hear a rattling and the car will shudder.

Any sage and cost-effective advice before I go for a 3rd retest would be greatly appreciated. I'll be selling the car soon enough and don't want to do anything too extensive.

Thanks so much,
Ryan

 

sounds to me you need a cat, but there are alot of tricks... the best and easiest one i can expain is the ISO-heat trick... and any auto parts store you can get 2 bottles of iso-heet.. (red bottle like 2 bucks a peice) you should have just a "little" over a 1/4 tank of fuel, throw the stuff in then hope on the freeway for like 30 to 45 min.. the hotter the car the better then go straight to smog, make sure there is no wait. you want the to test the car HOT.

 

Thanks for the reply, and I have been looking into a new cat. My question is should I replace the o2 sensor while I'm at it?

 

ah hc problem well the thing is hc are any unburned fuel atoms. it is wither you are not burning the fuel correctly and the fact that you are burning oil (oil when it passes the rings due to bad compression will add to the hc count). 20w is a bit thick especially in the winter not only that but you have a overhead cam and the oil gallery is oh so small. Your problem could be due to a number of other things to. This problem requires further diagnosing but without the proper tools you cant do it.

 

If no one has tried this don't talk **** lol but if your mpfi in a Ef there's almost no way to pass but I know of one unplug a fuel injector less fuel=less un burnt equals lower idle equals passing with flying colors, not possible on dpfi though If you unplug one out of 2 it won't run lol

 

wat? ive never heard that, and it makes no sense. ima licensed ca smog tech. and i have a mpfi swap in my crx and it passes just fine. and if the smog place you go to does not notice the unplugged injector they need to be turned into BAR. on a side note it seems you are running rich, try a new air filter, oil change, higher octane fuel, then super heat the cat and go straight to smog

 

Change the oil, immediately go for emission insp. You'd be surprised at the impurities / gasoline in old motor oil.