Hey All,

Well, arghh, if it's not one thing it's another... I just failed our
provincial smog check.

Vehicle is a 1988 Nissan Hardbody pickup, 4x4, 2.5 liter, 4 cylinder, 2
plugs per cylinder, gas engine, manual tranny.

I failed hydrocarbons (HC) at idle and nitrogen oxides (NOx) at driving
under load:

HC at idle:
Average "pass" reading: 31 ppm
Max allowable: 228 ppm
Vehicle reading: 296 ppm

NOx under load:
Average "pass" reading: 295 ppm
Max allowable: 1231 ppm
Vehicle reading: 2998 ppm

Any thoughts out there as to what I should start checking?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver, Canada

EGR. There are a couple
things in the EGR circuit to check.. A cracked hose is the usual suspect
here on a car that is as old as
yours. Check the vacuum lines first. There should also be a "vacuum switch"
or valve in the vacuum
path to the EGR valve. If that isn't allowing vacuum through after warmup
then your EGR won't work.

Failing HC that badly at idle is a different problem. As another poster
suggested, it is time to check basic
tune-up things such as plugs, rotor, timing.

Good luck.
Gary

To pass Air Care, you can do one of two things.

a) actually fix the problem, ie. do a tuneup/repairs, etc.
as recommended by others here.

or, b) if your priority is simply to pass the test,
what I do is temporarilly alter my ignition timing to
0 degrees, and then put it back to 10 deg BTDC
when I get home. By doing this, I have avoided
replacing ~ $350 in emissions parts by removing and
bypassing them. (specifically that damn rusted out
filter housing thing right above the ignition coils).
My '87 truck (same engine) passes with flying colours
every time.

You should check the Air Care website if you decide to
fix it yourself. I can't remember if they require you to
show invoices to prove the repair was done or not.

Did I mention I think Air Care is a scam?



On Sat, 02 Aug 2003 21:32:44 GMT, "Geoff Glave"
<geoff (AT) glaveNOSPAM (DOT) o-r-g> wrote: