In the decades of running cars through North Carolina’s inspection regime, I’ll admit that I’ve never had quite the harrowing adventure of passing the inspection so that the registration may be renewed (along with the unfortunate rendering unto Caesar that goes with it thanks to having to pay property tax as well registration) as I have this year.
In fact, in all of the previous inspections, the only time anything ever needed to be done to pass the inspection was mend one light bulb and replace the windscreen wipers.
That’s it.
Das ist alles!
This year just it seemed to be one thing after another in a seeming conspiracy aimed at finally bringing me to my knees at thanks to the OBD-II emissions testing!
The current Traverse has always had a persistent spurious check engine light ever since I bought her over a decade ago. She does not seem to be overly fond of the changeover from the higher ethanol content petrol of winter to the summer blend and it’s during the switchover period that I would tend to see P0430 – “Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 2)” on the code reader.
Yep, that’s the usual one…erase the code and bugger off on life’s day to day adventure.
She doesn’t exhibit any ill effects with P0430 and it’s either at cut-over or if I’ve gotten a sketchy tank of petrol from the known offenders but usually a couple of tanks of BP petrol and perhaps a bottle of fuel system treatment and that’d usually be good for another month or two of no amber light bitching at me from the indicator console.
So I tap the indicator like the gent in “Wargames” during the missile silo scene where the indicator for bird number eight needs a small tap to illuminate properly:
So you can imagine my surprise when that light came back on much earlier than expected and this time the Traverse decided to throw me a bit of a curve ball I wasn’t expecting:
It’s bad enough one of the four catalytic converters bolted onto the Traverse has a spurious indication every now and then but immediately I’m thinking this is far worse and more financially painful than I was hoping it was going to be.
After all, that seems to be the pattern of a fraught year full of automotive unpleasantness so far with two sets of tyres! 🙁
It’s times like this that I’m thankful that Nick is not only a mechanic but he’s also a licenced inspector for the state of North Carolina and he was able to reassure me that no matter how scary that message looks, it’s north of 95% likely that the sealing mechanism of the petrol tank cap that’s failed which would explain the lack of the click I’ve experienced recently and that replacing it with a new cap has sorted out that code in the vast majority of cases he’s experienced.
That’s quite the relief and I’m able to quickly source an OEM AC/Delco GT358 cap for a replacement fairly cheaply!
In the mean time, I cleared the code and thought I’d driven enough so that the OBD-II monitors would reset to allow the emissions test to proceed and hope the Traverse would keep her wits about her long enough to keep that stupid amber light off for ten minutes to buy me another year of driving that removes at least one reason for the pull-over party lights!
And…not so fast.
At least the kind gent didn’t charge me for that visit to his inspection bay and he mentioned that NC DMV apparently does have a waiver process if you rack up $200+ in automotive bills and the emissions test is the only thing blocking a successful inspection and I was already close enough and a couple of bottles of cat cleaner for the catalytic converters would certainly put me over the top if they didn’t do the trick (the Traverse rocks *FOUR* separate cats…ugh!).
He also suggested driving round a bit but there’s no hard and fast rule for knowing when the onboard OBD-II hardware has enough data in it’s various sensors so it doesn’t trigger the “not ready” state in the testing rig used by the inspectors.
That’s when I found out what that big blue button in the middle of the code reader is there for…it queries all of them and gives a green indicator once they’re all judged to be ready for an emissions test.
So after checking last night and getting the thumbs up and the Traverse refraining from popping off her usual spurious P0430, I figured I’d give it another shot this morning first thing as the place opened up and I can assure you that I was praying to any gods that would listen that the Traverse would be able to hold her wits together for ten minutes to get through the inspection so that I could finalise the registration.
I’ll give the inspector mad props…he’d be hell to play against at the poker table as he gave away absolutely no indication one way or another.
Fortunately, this time she’s cleared inspection without me having to go buy some cat cleaner and take a couple of days extra cleaning the converters (I mean, that’ll probably happen anyway but at least the time pressure is off).
You might ask yourself why Nick isn’t performing the inspection as he has a couple of times in the past. There’s nothing in North Carolina law that says he isn’t allowed to but it’s a new policy at his shoppe likely to curb some behaviours the powers-that-be didn’t approve of in the past.
Not that it was ever a possibility with Nicholas and he was told period point-blank that I expected him to treat that Traverse as if it were any other vehicle coming for inspection and that if anything would legitimately fail his arm’s length inspection, then that’s the way of it. If anything, he might well have been inclined to be even more tough on her so as to leave no doubt as to his integrity and fidelity to the oath he swore to act lawfully on behalf of the State of North Carolina similar to the one when I accepted commission as a Notary Public.
He would have never imagined acting otherwise and it’s unfortunate the behaviour of others led to that policy being implemented because there are very few people I’d trust my Traverse besides me with in terms of mechanical doings of any complexity.
Miguel, Kris (who does the oil changes because apparently the Traverse fouled his bay and he was adamant that was the first and only oil change he’d ever do on her!) and Nicholas. And they are way more knowledgeable on that subject that I will ever hope to be.
The irony is that the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality had initiated a request with the EPA last year to discontinue emissions testing in 18 of the 19 counties still doing it in North Carolina (sorry Charlotte, sucks to be Mecklenberg County!) citing that the air quality was sufficient that the testing wouldn’t necessarily improve it appreciably and is far more expensive to administer compliance.
The EPA has had the request for a year now and you’d think that given the stated policies of the current administration and their view toward the environment in general, North Carolina would have had their approval long ago and I’d have not needed to bother jumping through all of these hoops just to make it through an annual inspection!
And don’t get me wrong, I absolutely support the notion of a basic safety inspection. Having lived and driven in Florida which didn’t have any such requirements, cars that looked even worse than Sheriff Buford T Justice’s wandering round the roads of Central Florida were not exactly uncommon and that didn’t exactly instill confidence in the rest of us.
But after this year, I won’t mind terribly if I don’t have to jump through emissions testing hoops ever again… 🙂