[pkobash]

I just purchased a Stingray throught Ebay from a dealer in Colierville, Tn. I had it shipped to California and tried to register it immediately at the DMV. Everything went smoothly till I was told that the vehicle had to have a smog test. So I went to the smog station and it failed due to the fact that some of the sensors were "not ready". I was told that I would have to drive the car so that the computer can get a history of my driving habits. Does anyone know how many miles I would have to put on before I can take it back for another test?
I think this is a ridiculous rule that California has for out of state new cars. It is the same car if I bought it locally and would not be required to pass a smog test.
Comments/answers appreciated.

 

[Dasyatis]

It could take up to 30 cycles. That would be driving around and getting the engine up to operating temp, letting it cool and do it again. The trick is that it needs to start open loop (not sure of the coolant temp the open loop, close loop changeover temp is but probably close to 180 deg) and get up to temp to go to closed loop.

Does this make sense? How many miles on the car? How many individual trips has it been on?

 

[pkobash]

The car has 181 miles and probably 10-15 individual trips. So I guess I will just have to drive it which is absolutely no problem. Thanks for the response.

 

[Dasyatis]

Yep. Short trips should do it. Just need each one to get all the way up to operating temp (220 deg). Camarillo has lots of cool roads for an excuse….

 

[mjw930]

You gotta love the Republic of Kalifornia.......

As fair warning to others, if you are buying out of state do your best to make sure the once you purchase is 50 state certified, not all are. If you are ordering one make sure the CA certification box is checked. It's not that it comes with any additional hardware, it's just pre-certified with CA so you don't need to go through this crap.

 

[rdslon01]

Yes, it is well-known that a car will fail the smog test if it has not been driven in certain ways after an event from a certain list has happened.

The following thread discusses this. In that thread there is a link to another thread. The other thread contains a link to a pdf. The pdf lists driving events which supposedly will get your car ready for smog. Finding a road on which you can safely perform these events in succession is NOT easy. Usually what people do is they drive around in lots of combinations of city/highway, uphill/level, hard/easy conditions for a few weeks. Unfortunately, even just driving "normally" for a few weeks, if you drive the same way every time and that "same way" is a "certain way", may not have all the conditions necessary to trigger all the tests to get all the sensors ready.

What does it take to get system ready for smog test? - Mercedes-Benz Forum

My wife needed to have her car smogged to sell it shortly after having the battery disconnected. By following some driving "rules" similar to those above (but not the same - I can't find the list online I used last year), I successfully got it ready in less than a day.

 

[rdslon01]

It could take up to 30 cycles. That would be driving around and getting the engine up to operating temp, letting it cool and do it again. The trick is that it needs to start open loop (not sure of the coolant temp the open loop, close loop changeover temp is but probably close to 180 deg) and get up to temp to go to closed loop.

Does this make sense? How many miles on the car? How many individual trips has it been on?

I am good friends with the smog guy in our neighborhood. We have used him for years. The guy loves to talk, and is honest to a fault. His personality is such that he could not lie or cheat at anything even if his life depended on it.

He has stories he loves to share. One is about a lady who drove for months commuting in a direction which is "reverse commute traffic" (the direction opposite to what most people do; that is, the direction without the stop-and-go traffic). She lived close to the freeway, and her work was close to the freeway, so essentially all of her driving was at highway speeds. She went in for a smog. He always asks everyone, "Have you had your battery disconnected recently?" If they say yes, he asks more questions, and, if he does not like the answers, he won't even bother hooking up to your car. Anyway, he was satisfied with her answers, hooked up to her, and found her car was not ready. He was not pleased, and pressured her again about how long it had been since her battery had been disconnected. It had been a few months. Yet, her car was not ready, because her driving habits were such that not all the tests had been triggered.

Engine cycles/mileage/days of time/nothing will guarantee you are ready if you do not drive in a way to trigger enough of the tests.

 

[MYKZDRM]

I just purchased a Stingray throught Ebay from a dealer in Colierville, Tn. I had it shipped to California and tried to register it immediately at the DMV. Everything went smoothly till I was told that the vehicle had to have a smog test. So I went to the smog station and it failed due to the fact that some of the sensors were "not ready". I was told that I would have to drive the car so that the computer can get a history of my driving habits. Does anyone know how many miles I would have to put on before I can take it back for another test?
I think this is a ridiculous rule that California has for out of state new cars. It is the same car if I bought it locally and would not be required to pass a smog test.
Comments/answers appreciated.

I heard of this early on. I live in California and am buying from a Colorado dealer. I'm made sure to have the California build selected to avoid the same thing. For future buyers from California buying out of state, make sure you have the dealer select the California emissions build. Could save you allot of problems.

MKZDRM

 

[smajicek]

I don't get this driving around crap here in CA???? how is it that you can buy a new corvette from a dealer in CA with 5 miles on the car and its already smogged?

 

[rdslon01]

I don't get this driving around crap here in CA???? how is it that you can buy a new corvette from a dealer in CA with 5 miles on the car and its already smogged?

If you buy a new car from a dealer in CA, it does not have to be smogged.

 

[mjw930]

If you buy a new car from a dealer in CA, it does not have to be smogged.

Or any new car that is California smog certified.


Sent from my iPad using Corvette Stingray Forum

 

[akpancake]

you can look up what it takes to set all the OBD2 self test monitors. Most of the time they like to see continuous driving between 55-60 for 3 minutes, then a long gradual off throttle coasting without braking till you get back down to 30 mph. those are to set the EGR monitor and O2 sensor monitors, you must have at least 1/3 tank of fuel and the outside ambient air temp. has to be above 35 degrees to set evap. monitors. Usually around 15-20 miles of parameter based test drive.