E85 will destroy your seals. I play tennis at Monterey tennis center every weekend near Jack's Park if you can wait to the weekend. Most likely your O2 rear sensor is not working correctly. This SW can plot real time how O2 sensor behaves. Pm me your cell.

 

hmm ill have to check that out. how easy is it to fix? unfortunately im going to be out of town this weekend.

 

I agree that you need to drive at least 30 min in order for the cat to get hot enough to function correctly. Especially lately cold weather your car probably running OPEN LOOP with rich fuel caused your cat not to work properly, dumping a ton of HC to the pipe. The catalyst needs to be extremely hot to burn the excess HC, otherwise your car will fail.

Try this first, if failed I'll hook it up for you Wed/ Thurs

 

hmm i may try to get some e85 and just get the car very warm like you all suggest and then try it again.

 

Drive high speed on highway 1 for 30 min, ECU will switch to close loop mode and uses O2 sensors to control emission. You will pass smog tomorrow is my bet even without E85.

 

you think its worth trying without the e85? if it saves me driving up to san jose i am definitely keen on trying it

 

Don't need E85. You drove in city for 5-10 minutes is not enough to reach operating temp for emission purposes. That's why O2 sensor also have 4 wires where 2 of them is the heater to assist quicker warm up so your ECU reaches close loop more quickly, not dumping a ton of fuel to the pipe. When you get to smog station, keep it running to keep it hot.

The tech should not charge you, tell him your car was not fully warm up last time tested.

 

most definitely thanks so much for the help man. I will try this tomorrow, and I will get back to this thread. wish me luck haha

 

What seals are you talking about? My car's been running on 91 + E85 for the last I dunno 5 years?

 

I passed without e85! Just drov nice and hard for about 30 min and here I am thanks guys!

 

nice!

 

Great news, you should come by Monterey tennis center say hi sometimes. Did they retest for you free?

 

the shop i tried yesterday was closed... so i had to pay another 40 but it is smogged! thanks so much! I will definitely come say hey! shoot me a text 8313200006 and ill come by maybe next weekend when im in town!

 

In the op I noticed you said you uninstalled your ap map. You may be running Ritch? Maybe put your map back on a try that