Emissions Testing is a Scam

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ZZLPHeels

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There are 100 counties in North Carolina. 18 require vehicles pass an emissions test before passing their annual inspection. My vehicle cannot currently pass this test due to a check engine light being on. Problem is a small EVAP leak somewhere in the system. The leak is inconsequential. It makes zero impact on the vehicle's drivability. It makes no impact on the environment. The only impact it has is causing the check engine light to come on which makes my vehicle fail the inspection. I have already spent over $1,000 trying to fix this problem that doesn't exist. I cannot pay my hundreds of dollars in vehicle taxes until I pay even more money that I don't have to fix this fake problem that is somehow not a problem in 82 other counties. Because I tried to fix the problem before getting my vehicle inspected, I cannot qualify for a waiver because evidently you are supposed to play some sort of game in which you fail your inspection first and then spend at least $200 unsuccessfully getting your vehicle repaired before failing your inspection again.

tl;dr: Fuck the stupid scam that is emissions testing.
 
theel4life said:
Get you a mechanic friend that will give you a sticker.
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Haven't been stickers for over 20 years but he's right - find a good ole boy who will stick the probe up some other tailpipe for the purposes of passing. Everything is electronic and in 30 seconds you can either go to the local DMV or go online and take care of everything. Can't believe you don't have a guy. Were you a jerk to working people in high school?
 
rebeltarheel0408 said:
It's also bonkers that (at least in NC) once your vehicle is more than 20 years old, you're exempt from emissions testing requirements. If anything, it should be the other way around.
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A combination of a few things...

- Classic cars that can't pass
- Vehicles which aren't everyday drivers and rarely get used
- Cars owned by poor folks who can't afford much else

My 23 year old beater pickup certainly appreciates its exception.
 
I definitely appreciate breathing clean air so I'm not necessarily against emissions checking. Kind of stinks that you have to do it every single year when the year before it wasn't even close. It doesn't sound like the check engine light should be an issue if you can stick a probe of a tailpipe and know one way or the other if there's a problem. Sounds like a program that can be improved and revamped with the newer technologies available in cars And issues that aren't real issues but I certainly wouldn't want to do it away with it completely.
 
BlooVooDoo said:
Can you not just clear the code right before the test?
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I bought a code scanner and it reset the code one time but won't do it again. Also, even if the code is cleared right before the test the vehicle will show up as "not ready" and still won't pass. You have to drive it a certain number of miles (no one knows how many) and then it will be ready for inspection. The caveat is that if you drive it the check engine light will likely just come back on, which is what happened to me.
 
Batt Boy said:
Haven't been stickers for over 20 years but he's right - find a good ole boy who will stick the probe up some other tailpipe for the purposes of passing. Everything is electronic and in 30 seconds you can either go to the local DMV or go online and take care of everything. Can't believe you don't have a guy. Were you a jerk to working people in high school?
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No, I don't have a guy. Well, I had a guy. He didn't speak English but he always did something that bought me about a month so that I could pass. He could never tell me what he did. Whenever I would ask him, he would just smile and give me a thumbs up ("Good, yes? Good!"). He doesn't work at the shop I used to go to anymore and when I asked them to "do the thing the one guy used to do" they had no idea what the hell I was talking about. To be fair, I didn't know either.
 
ZZLPHeels said:
There are 100 counties in North Carolina. 18 require vehicles pass an emissions test before passing their annual inspection. My vehicle cannot currently pass this test due to a check engine light being on. Problem is a small EVAP leak somewhere in the system. The leak is inconsequential. It makes zero impact on the vehicle's drivability. It makes no impact on the environment. The only impact it has is causing the check engine light to come on which makes my vehicle fail the inspection. I have already spent over $1,000 trying to fix this problem that doesn't exist. I cannot pay my hundreds of dollars in vehicle taxes until I pay even more money that I don't have to fix this fake problem that is somehow not a problem in 82 other counties. Because I tried to fix the problem before getting my vehicle inspected, I cannot qualify for a waiver because evidently you are supposed to play some sort of game in which you fail your inspection first and then spend at least $200 unsuccessfully getting your vehicle repaired before failing your inspection again.

tl;dr: Fuck the stupid scam that is emissions testing.
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Seems like there's a gap tween emissions testing and what they think the vehicles onboard diagnostics controller (or whatever) should and should not do. They've obviously put that controller on some golden pedestal when it probably shouldn't be in your case.
 
ZZLPHeels said:
There are 100 counties in North Carolina. 18 require vehicles pass an emissions test before passing their annual inspection. My vehicle cannot currently pass this test due to a check engine light being on. Problem is a small EVAP leak somewhere in the system. The leak is inconsequential. It makes zero impact on the vehicle's drivability. It makes no impact on the environment. The only impact it has is causing the check engine light to come on which makes my vehicle fail the inspection. I have already spent over $1,000 trying to fix this problem that doesn't exist. I cannot pay my hundreds of dollars in vehicle taxes until I pay even more money that I don't have to fix this fake problem that is somehow not a problem in 82 other counties. Because I tried to fix the problem before getting my vehicle inspected, I cannot qualify for a waiver because evidently you are supposed to play some sort of game in which you fail your inspection first and then spend at least $200 unsuccessfully getting your vehicle repaired before failing your inspection again.

tl;dr: Fuck the stupid scam that is emissions testing.
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In Georgia if you show that you have spent $600 trying to fix the issue, they will let you get your tags.

The check engine light is a joke. 99% of the issues are emissions related.

I just renewed 5 tags today, with 5 emissions inspections. I believe only about 40% of the counties in Georgia require emissions testing.
 
Batt Boy said:
Haven't been stickers for over 20 years but he's right - find a good ole boy who will stick the probe up some other tailpipe for the purposes of passing. Everything is electronic and in 30 seconds you can either go to the local DMV or go online and take care of everything. Can't believe you don't have a guy. Were you a jerk to working people in high school?
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They stopped using the probes in 2016.

Everything now is OBD1 or OBD2.

There's basically no way to get past it.
 
gtyellowjacket said:
I definitely appreciate breathing clean air so I'm not necessarily against emissions checking. Kind of stinks that you have to do it every single year when the year before it wasn't even close. It doesn't sound like the check engine light should be an issue if you can stick a probe of a tailpipe and know one way or the other if there's a problem. Sounds like a program that can be improved and revamped with the newer technologies available in cars And issues that aren't real issues but I certainly wouldn't want to do it away with it completely.
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If you equate emissions testing to clean air, you had better avoid Volkswagens and counties that don't test.
 
Don't worry, Trump is going to outlaw emissions testing with executive order number 76 on day 3 of his administration.
 
ZZLPHeels said:
There are 100 counties in North Carolina. 18 require vehicles pass an emissions test before passing their annual inspection. My vehicle cannot currently pass this test due to a check engine light being on. Problem is a small EVAP leak somewhere in the system. The leak is inconsequential. It makes zero impact on the vehicle's drivability. It makes no impact on the environment. The only impact it has is causing the check engine light to come on which makes my vehicle fail the inspection. I have already spent over $1,000 trying to fix this problem that doesn't exist. I cannot pay my hundreds of dollars in vehicle taxes until I pay even more money that I don't have to fix this fake problem that is somehow not a problem in 82 other counties. Because I tried to fix the problem before getting my vehicle inspected, I cannot qualify for a waiver because evidently you are supposed to play some sort of game in which you fail your inspection first and then spend at least $200 unsuccessfully getting your vehicle repaired before failing your inspection again.

tl;dr: Fuck the stupid scam that is emissions testing.
Click to expand...
Some counties have a policy of letting you pass once you've hit a certain level of cost on repairs or some offer a one time 1 year exemption.
 
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