mikeshoup Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 Took the 84 Turbo Wagon to get Emissions Tested. Colorado does the I/M 240 test, where they throw your car on a dyno, bring it up to speeds, measure the exhaust as your accelerating, decelerating, etc. Really cool test, fun to watch. I pull up. No one in line. I thought, today was going to be a good day. They throw my car on the dyno. I was watching the test screen, and the driver lady had trouble getting it up to speed. The front of the car started shuddering, I thought "She has the e-brake on!". I come running out of the waiting room flailing my arms. I tell the lady, take the e-brake off. She looks at me funny. I tell, the e-brake is on the front brakes. She says "Oh really? Okay." Now that fiasco was over, she retests it. It does fine, but, she forgot to flip on their large giant cooling fan! Near the end of the test, they bring the car up to 65mph. My two cooling fans on the radiator can not mimic 65mph of air running through the radiator. She finishes the test, and the car spews coolant all over the dyno (no reserve tank on the EA81s). I laughed as she drives my car forward, mops up all the coolant on the ground, and tells the people sitting behind my car to go to the next lane so they can dry off the dyno. Gave me a passing certificate at least. In two more years though, the wagon will only have to do a two speed idle test. No more funky dyno for it. I hate emissions testing. I know it does good, but they need to train their testers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSSLGECKO Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 Man you have a good attitude! I think I would be pissed off at them. But then again, I don't do the emissions thing here in MT, so just the idea of getting tested is upsetting to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry DeMoss Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 Ya I agree,they need to hire people with more car knowledge!I have had 2 people at the emissions place ask me why I put my spare tire on top of my engine! Funny stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveT Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 I can't wait until [in a few years] my cars will be old enough to not need testing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeshoup Posted December 11, 2006 Author Share Posted December 11, 2006 Oh yeah, forgot to mention they told me like three times, the car needs to be on the AWD dyno. I told them like three times, its only part time 4WD and is normally FWD. Ya I agree,they need to hire people with more car knowledge!I have had 2 people at the emissions place ask me why I put my spare tire on top of my engine! Funny stuff. I remember getting my silver wagon e-tested, and they asked me the same question, why do you have a spare tire over your engine? At least they believed me when I told them it was FWD normally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffast Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 they keep telling me that this dyno is 4 awd drive cars only evrey time i bring the death wedge in for emissions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 They flat-out refuse to dyno ANY subaru's here. Because the older one's have a front e-brake it's not safe to run them on the dyno cause they could jump off, and the AWD stuff obviously can't do it either. If you pull up in a subaru - regardless of year they do the two speed engine test only - no load. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 In NY subarus of all kinds are granted immunity from the dyno. The gas stations dont have AWD dynos, and the other reason is the parking brake. nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 Should mention - all our testing stations are owned and operated by the state.... I don't go through anymore at all, since there's a neat little clause on the registration called "site of use". You can live and recieve mail inside the city, and if you put your site of use as something outside the testing boudaries, you don't have to test. I just tell them my car(s) are out at the farm, and I have a valid street address in a small town that no DMV clerk has ever heard of. They have never questioned it, and it saves me $35 and waiting in line to test. They stopped the 20 year window here, so that cars NEVER become exempt from testing. I completely disagree with that as there are very few 20 year old vehicle as a percentage of total cars driven in and around the city where testing is required. Thus I exempted them myself GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgd73 Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 If they had that dyno emissons test in maine, taxi companies would be multimillionares and hitchikers would be everywhere... The tractor trailer HICKS especially. I wonder if that dream I had about feds with guns stopping these renegade HICKS with stove pipe straight pipes, jake brakes there just to make noise and the attitude of the truck to match the owner caused one of mans greatest wars against retards in maine was true... Anyway, at 20 years old, I am very curious what my 87 would do the way it sits. I am glad some states give a crap about emissions seriously. Mine doesn't. I don't even have a "treehugger" mentality, but what I see here is repulsive in comparison to the thinking world and where I have traveled to for a few epiphanies of common sense. I am glad they didn't break your car- although repairs would have been paid for by the big state budget Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeshoup Posted December 12, 2006 Author Share Posted December 12, 2006 I am glad they didn't break your car- although repairs would have been paid for by the big state budget Actually, they would've been paid for by ESP, the company running the E-Test stations. But yeah, its a very good thing they didn't break my car. If nothing else though, I could've gotten free front brakes out of the deal (which the turbo wagon needs done... pretty badly). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4x4_Welder Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 If they had that dyno emissons test in maine, taxi companies would be multimillionares and hitchikers would be everywhere...The tractor trailer HICKS especially. I wonder if that dream I had about feds with guns stopping these renegade HICKS with stove pipe straight pipes, jake brakes there just to make noise and the attitude of the truck to match the owner caused one of mans greatest wars against retards in maine was true... Actually, from 94-96, all of Maine had emissions testing. The problem was that people didn't let their cars idle in line, so most cars failed emissions. When the state cancelled the program, the contractor operating the stations sued them for breach of contract. As far as hick truckers, I'll let you take that up with them. Personally, I love the sound of a 3406 with a massive straight pipe bellowing down the highway. Jacobs compression brakes serve a great purpose, namely keeping the service brakes from overheating, and keeping you from being run over by a truck that can't stop. I'm not even going to try the rest of that sentence, do you want to restate that so it makes a little sense? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 Actually, they would've been paid for by ESP, the company running the E-Test stations. But yeah, its a very good thing they didn't break my car. If nothing else though, I could've gotten free front brakes out of the deal (which the turbo wagon needs done... pretty badly). Not all states run the emissions tests through contractors - most do it seems, but here in OR, all the testing is run by the DEQ (department of environmental quality). They own and operate all the stations, and the employees are state employed. Which makes the testing pretty lax really. Out of the numerous times I've done the two-speed test with subaru's I think only once did they do the underhood inspection like they are supposed to do. And the one time they did, they marked the air injection system as "Not Applicable" when it clearly had valves on BOTH heads. They employ people with little mechanical experience. At any rate, it's pretty bogus since anyone that can't pass just resgisters their vehicle out of area. I've been doing it for 10 years, and been pulled over by the police as many times in as many years, and not ONCE has any cop ever noticed or cared that my car is registered to a different county for it's site of use. It's got to be the biggest, glaring loophole of all time - yet no ones seems to be in any hurry to enforce it, or attempt to make it more difficult to register like that. I just memorized a street adress out in the boonies, and they take my word for it. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 If they had that dyno emissons test in maine, taxi companies would be multimillionares and hitchikers would be everywhere...The tractor trailer HICKS especially. I wonder if that dream I had about feds with guns stopping these renegade HICKS with stove pipe straight pipes, jake brakes there just to make noise and the attitude of the truck to match the owner caused one of mans greatest wars against retards in maine was true... Anyway, at 20 years old, I am very curious what my 87 would do the way it sits. I am glad some states give a crap about emissions seriously. Mine doesn't. I don't even have a "treehugger" mentality, but what I see here is repulsive in comparison to the thinking world and where I have traveled to for a few epiphanies of common sense. I am glad they didn't break your car- although repairs would have been paid for by the big state budget Another car that is exempt are rear engined cars, for the same parking break reason. Here in NY my corvair was exmept because it wouldnt fit on the machine. The dynos here are really close to the wall of the garage, and the corvair had too long an overhang. My mechanic at the time didnt even get to worry about the hand brake. Oddly most of the older cars i have owned had always passed for thier years. nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virrdog Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 In Ohio they don't have 4wd dynos so anything AWD gets the idle test. Any Subaru's get a giant question mark on the screen with a check the car warning, I tell them the car cannot go on the rollers. Idle tests for me. Too bad cars without any cats can pass an idle test... But before I knew to do that, my Brat with a glasspack was fun. It was making the glass in the whole place reveberate. 4 speeds for-the-win, rev it high cuz the next gear is too long for that speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skishop69 Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 Not all states run the emissions tests through contractors - most do it seems, but here in OR, all the testing is run by the DEQ (department of environmental quality). They own and operate all the stations, and the employees are state employed. Which makes the testing pretty lax really. Out of the numerous times I've done the two-speed test with subaru's I think only once did they do the underhood inspection like they are supposed to do. And the one time they did, they marked the air injection system as "Not Applicable" when it clearly had valves on BOTH heads. They employ people with little mechanical experience. At any rate, it's pretty bogus since anyone that can't pass just resgisters their vehicle out of area. I've been doing it for 10 years, and been pulled over by the police as many times in as many years, and not ONCE has any cop ever noticed or cared that my car is registered to a different county for it's site of use. It's got to be the biggest, glaring loophole of all time - yet no ones seems to be in any hurry to enforce it, or attempt to make it more difficult to register like that. I just memorized a street adress out in the boonies, and they take my word for it. GD That's strange that Oregon would 'do away with the 20 year exemption'. I say this, because that part of the law is written by the Federal branch of the EPA. As I understand it, the states can't write or change a law that undermines or supercedes Federal law. I agree though to utilize the loophole. The statistics used to be that cars 15-20 years old had a 45% failure rate. Some was general wear and some was lack of maintenance. Some vehicles just won't pass, some will. I've got a '76 SB Chev 400 that's putting out just under 400hp and 500 ft/lbs of torque at 2600 rpm. It passes emissions for '96. Better programs, better training.... Wait for it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeshoup Posted December 12, 2006 Author Share Posted December 12, 2006 That's strange that Oregon would 'do away with the 20 year exemption'. I say this, because that part of the law is written by the Federal branch of the EPA. As I understand it, the states can't write or change a law that undermines or supercedes Federal law. Interesting, though I don't think the EPA's rules are mandate over state laws. If so, Colorado should have a 20 year exemption, and that'd be freaking sweet. Both my cars would be exempt now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skishop69 Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 I was incorrect. That changed a few (several) years ago when the EPA left that decision to the states. Luckily, we still have the exemption. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertsubaru Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 Whats emission testing? We dont have it where i live in PA but 25 miles south they do. When we get our cars inspected once a year they are suppose to look and see if you have a cat and ths pcv hooked up but where I go I use to work for they guy so its give me the $30 and pull it in the bay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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