Do they test your emissions in your state inspection? (Page 2/5)
82-T/A [At Work] APR 03, 07:53 AM

quote
Originally posted by TheDigitalAlchemist:

Do they test your Fiero's exhaust during an inspection?




When I first moved to Florida back in 1996, we had both safety and emissions inspections. The safety inspection had to be done by a certified auto-body shop, and generally cost around $35 per vehicle (in 1996), and the emissions were done on a rolling dyno where you were required to drive a certain speed while they sniffed your exhaust emissions.

When Jeb Bush ran (and won) for Governor in 1998, he immediately commissioned a study to identify what the tangible benefits actually were, and if there were any adverse issues with these laws.

SAFETY INSPECTIONS: They determined that safety inspections made an imperceptible difference on vehicle safety, at all... through the entire state. As a matter of fact, they actually discovered the only reason why these safety inspections were still a thing is because the mechanics trade union (which no longer exists in Florida) was lobbying the state house and senate because it was continuing to bring business to repair shops. They'd determined that not only was it totally unnecessary, but many of these shops were intentionally charging customers for repairs that they didn't need. These shops would say that something was broken, or "dangerous" and needed repair... the usual, "We can't let you leave because it's too dangerous..." (ever heard that before). CBS news back in the 90s did an expose on these shops, and it completely destroyed this racket.

Furthermore, they determined that literally... the only people this was affecting, was the abject poor, whom often had older vehicles that they used in the trades or getting back and forth to work.


EMISSIONS TESTING: As for the emissions testing... it was entirely state run, and the state basically managed 1000s of emissions testing facilities that had Mustang dynos in them... haha... all simply being used for emissions testing, and never got over a certain speed, or used to measure torque or horsepower.

They investigation determined that vehicle emissions were already improving every year with every new car, so the need for emissions testing was becoming increasingly irrelevant. To that point, the only people it, yet again, affected were the poor and lower income families that needed cheap transportation to get back and forth to work and school ... it was also costing a substantial amount of money for the state to run.


So... Jeb Bush eliminated all emissions and safety inspections in the State of Florida at some point in 1999 if I remember correctly.


So when you ask... "Do they test your emissions in your state inspection?" I answer with... "What state inspection?"


Hahah...


EDIT: Fun fact... after these emissions stations shut down, most of them were sold off (property and building), and were purchased by entrepreneurs who opened up vehicle performance shops. The one over off 441, between Stirling and Griffin in South Florida (Davie?), is now a famous performance shop... I can't remember the name... but they have a whole race team now that sponsors drag racing and cup racing.

[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 04-03-2023).]

css9450 APR 03, 08:21 AM
Here in Illinois it is emissions-only and OBDII only. No safety inspections.

The emissions test has gone through many iterations over the years. At first, it was just the exhaust sniffer, then at some point they installed dynos in the testing stations. At great expense most likely. It was during that period that I bought my Fiero and found out the old cat had been hollowed out by a previous owner (literally, as in cut open, emptied, and welded back closed). But with a new cat from Rodney my car passed the two or so times I had to take it for testing. Eventually the state changed the requirements to test only 1996+ cars and all the dynos came out, again probably at great expense.
OldsFiero APR 03, 08:39 AM
In upstate NY, anything over 25 years old is exempt from a visual for presence of components and ODBll plug in. I haven't been an inspection station for 2 1/2 years now, so I don't know what the rules are for the NYMA. Used to be that anything over 8501 lbs GVW didn't get plugged in either, but I'm not sure of that now.

If the substrate is broken but the check engine light is off and readyness monitors have run, it will pass. At least up here.

Marc
A_Lonely_Potato APR 03, 12:17 PM

quote
Originally posted by ChuckLS1:


In North Carolina if your car is 20 years old you don't need a emissions inspection.


https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/t...ons-inspections.aspx




so it is! has that changed recently? i have friends down in NC and have considered moving down there, so a couple years ago i looked at the ncdot website and could have sworn it was what i said. i looked at other states at the same time though, so i very well could have confused them.
MarkS APR 03, 12:28 PM

quote
Originally posted by Raydar:


Your car can be shedding parts as it goes down the road, but if it's got "clean breath", it's good to go.





Yep, used to be in NJ, they started sniffing exhaust about the mid 70's, had to retard the timing on my 68 GTO to get through. Along with that, all external lights were verified, stop, left / right blinkers, headlight alignment was checked- low & high beam, jacket up the front of the car to check for steering play, exhaust leaks, finally a brake balance test for the 4 corners. Now, as long as your systems are functioning, good to go- no sniffing.

theogre APR 03, 09:40 PM

quote
Originally posted by TheDigitalAlchemist:
So.... what do you recommend a person do if you car makes that "bonkity-bonk" sound on acceleration due to pieces of the CAT bonkin' around inside of it?
Sawsall it and install the Cat kit from the Fiero Store, or just a straight pipe?

even without Emission Testing for whatever US state, is Illegal to delete the cat in most or all states.
Including for people using "antique tags" and other special tags often limit driving to shows, car events, and related.

NY and some other states stopped Emission Testing because of several reasons, one is very few old cars still on the road...
Example: NY is high road salt state that can rot a vehicle after 5-10 years.
Plus how Inspection is done at local shops that must have a High $ sniffer for very few cars still would need it if they kept to old rules.
IOW "Shop Groups" and Car Dealers Groups wanted this rule to change so not buying this equipment to inspect a few to no vehicles per year.
Not like in some states still have State Run inspection that still require Emission testing for old cars w/ a cat. (not just in CA dealing w/ CARB.)

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave

pmbrunelle APR 03, 11:29 PM

quote
Originally posted by TheDigitalAlchemist:

So.... what do you recommend a person do if you car makes that "bonkity-bonk" sound on acceleration due to pieces of the CAT bonkin' around inside of it?
Sawsall it and install the Cat kit from the Fiero Store, or just a straight pipe?



If you're cheap and don't mind increasing local air pollution, cut open the catalyst in half, empty the contents, and then reweld together. Grind welds smooth. This way, you save on materials versus having to buy new pipes, and the vehicle can pass a visual inspection, if the need ever arises. For better flow, you may wish to weld a straight pipe inside the catalyst shell, so the exhaust doesn't have to expand and then be re-constricted.
armos APR 05, 09:03 AM

quote
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:
When I first moved to Florida back in 1996, we had both safety and emissions inspections.


...

quote
So... Jeb Bush eliminated all emissions and safety inspections in the State of Florida at some point in 1999 if I remember correctly


I guess that must have been a short episode that I missed. I lived in FL as a kid up to 1993. I don't think they had any kind of inspections yet at that point.


I started driving in IL, they had state run stations where you'd drive through like McDonalds and take the tailpipe test without ever leaving your seat. It was purely an emissions test.
They recorded your odometer mileage and opened the hood but I think it was only to hook up their tachometer to the plug wires. They didn't spend half an hour studying everything like CA does. It was quick.
I remember doing the IL tailpipe test a few times in different vehicles. My 84 Fiero failed it, which of course was easily fixed by replacing the factory cat.
At that time, the procedure in IL was simply to measure your emissions at idle. If you were failing then you'd get a second chance by revving up to something like 2500-3000rpm. If the emissions dropped into line while revving then you'd get a pass. I remember reading in the paper about the push to bring in dynos but I was gone before that happened.

California is known for bloated emissions inspections but does not require safety inspections.
When I moved to Northern CA, they were charging a huge "smog impact fee" for importing a car from out of state. As a result, lots of people would renew from their old state instead of getting registered in CA. There were a lot of out of state plates in CA back then (this is back when people were moving in instead of out). One of the most suspiciously common was Wyoming - I think because they were easy. Besides they had the best looking plates in the union for the lowest price.
Eventually the Supreme Court struck down the importation fine. I didn't see nearly as many WY plates after that.
My 84 Fiero had an aftermarket 49-state catalyst on it but that never caused an issue in the early 2000s. I'm not sure if that's because it was a 49-state car, or if it was just different rules back then. I got my 86 a decade later and I did see the shop checking the cat on that, but it's also a CA car. Over time, CA emissions inspections grew more paranoid, expensive and frustrating as gets talked about on the forum a lot.

I'm now back in FL, and as 82-TA mentioned there are no inspections here.
I was anxious to do an ECM upgrade which is problematic in CA due to their rules. Now I have the freedom to do it, but it hasn't reached the top of the project list.
I've never lived anywhere that required a "safety" inspection. I'm grateful I missed the period when FL apparently had them.
I didn't mind an objective and reasonable tailpipe test. What I didn't like in CA was the draconian excess of the "visual inspection" that they add to it.

For some reason I never threw away my emissions test printouts. I still have printouts going back to 1990s IL.

[This message has been edited by armos (edited 04-05-2023).]

ChuckLS1 APR 05, 07:34 PM

quote
Originally posted by A_Lonely_Potato:


so it is! has that changed recently? i have friends down in NC and have considered moving down there, so a couple years ago i looked at the ncdot website and could have sworn it was what i said. i looked at other states at the same time though, so i very well could have confused them.



It changed a few years ago. I did not find out until my mechanic told me when I brought my Grand Prix in for a inspection. I had no idea!
82-T/A [At Work] APR 06, 03:12 PM

quote
Originally posted by armos:

I guess that must have been a short episode that I missed. I lived in FL as a kid up to 1993. I don't think they had any kind of inspections yet at that point.





I guess I should quantify this. The state had no formal mandate for emissions testing, so the counties all did their own thing. They DID have safety inspections though, but the emissions testing was county by county. Broward and Miami-Dade were two of the worst, followed by whichever county Orlando is in (I forget). Eventually, Jeb Bush repealed all emissions requirements... or more specifically, dictated that the counties could no longer force Florida residents to have to undergo testing. And that eliminated it across the board for the entire state. So there were some counties that maybe only had safety inspections, or emissions inspections, or in the case of Broward and Miami-Dade... they had both.

It was real big from about 1996-2000 in those counties because there was some push for everyone all over the country to get dynos, and of course... those counties totally went for it, spending millions and millions of taxpayer dollars on Mustang dynos for emissions testing. I remember waiting in those lines... it was ridiculous. And the people in the testing facility would always tell me to put my front wheels on the dyno, to which I had to explain to them that it was rear wheel drive. And then they'd ask me to pop the hood so they could look, so I popped the trunk, and they'd walk around to the front, and I always had to get out, and then they'd tell me I couldn't get out of the car, so I'd be like... the engine is in the back, and then they'd ask me what it is, and I'd say... "It's a Pontiac..." and they'd apparently never heard of it before... literally at this time, my 87 Fiero was like... what, 9 years old in 1996? I just don't get it.

But yeah... that was great... none of that.

I actually did have to get a safety inspection every year in Texas when I lived in San Antonio. It irked me simply because I know that this literally only hurts poor people, and it was a lobby by the dealerships and repair facilities, even though they said it wasn't. But these places would always bring in money as a result of... "Oh... this needs to be changed." Almost guaranteed work.

I assume San Antonio (or all of Texas?) still has this safety inspection, mandatory?